World At War
World War II, which had begun in Europe on September 1, 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, ended six years later to the day, September 1, 1945. The final concluding ceremony came the following day, September 2, 1945, with the signing of surrender papers by representatives of Japan, Nazi Germany's Axis partner in the Far East.
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"Sadly, many of our young Americans don't know the first thing about World War II or our proud veterans. But out veterans would tell them - if only someone would give them the chance. That someone is the World War II Veterans Committee." Lt. Colonel Oliver North, USMC [Ret.]
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In 1941, six private social service organizations (including the YMCA, YWCA, and Salvation Army) form the United Service Organization (USO). The USO will go on to help serve the social, educational and welfare needs of US Armed Forces members.
In 1944, Burma: Japanese attack Indian Seventh Army.
Pacific: U.S. Marines occupy two Kwajalein Islands.
In 1945, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and decide on the post-war world.
Germans complete evacuation of Belgium.
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In 1946, Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday" starts 1,642 performance run in N.Y.
In 1948, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) gains independence.
In 1949, the Civil Aeronautics Administration sanctions the use of the ground-controlled approach (GCA) as a "primary aid" for commercial airline crews.
In 1952, first meeting of U.N. disarmament commission.
In 1957, first electric portable typewriter placed on sale, Syracuse NY.
In 1958, the keel of the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS
Enterprise, is laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. yards in Virginia.
In 1966, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet aircraft crashed in Tokyo Bay killing 133 passengers and crew.
In 1971, British carmaker Rolls-Royce declared itself bankrupt.
Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walked on the moon for four hours.
In 1974, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, Calif., by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In 1975, vocalist/saxophonist Louis Jordan dies of a heart attack. He is the record holder of most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's rhythm and blues charts with 113. Of those 18 chart-topping hits, four stayed at No. 1 for more than 10 weeks. His biggest pop hit is the 1944 No. 1 song "G.I. Jive."
In 1976, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale and resulting mudslides killed 23,000 people near Guatemala city; 1.5 million people were made homeless.
In 1977, the 25th anniversary show of TV's "American Bandstand."
In 1978, Junius Jayawardene was sworn in as Sri Lanka's first president.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan, in a nationwide address, said the United States was in the worst economic mess since the Great Depression and called for sweeping spending and tax cuts.
In 1982, the first flight of Tacit Blue "Whale," which demonstrates that curvilinear surfaces are valuable in foiling radar. It leads to advances that live on in the B-2 and the F/A-22.
In 1983, singer Karen Carpenter died in Downey, California, at age 32. Karen Carpenter died of cardiac arrest, caused by anorexia nervosa.
In 1985, the Reagan administration's defense budget called for a tripling of the expenditure on the "Star Wars" research program.
In 1986, World oil prices plunged toward $15 per barrel from $30 three months earlier after OPEC failed to curb production. Prices dropped to $9 by the summer of 1986.
In 1987, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,200 for the first time.
Pianist Liberace died at his Palm Springs, Calif., home at age 67. [To no one's surprise, he died of AIDS.]
In 1988, two federal grand juries in Florida announced indictments of Panama military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.
In 1990, cheering protesters thronged Moscow streets to demand that the Communists surrender their stranglehold on power. Nine people were killed as guerrillas attacked a bus carrying Israeli tourists near Cairo, Egypt.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush sent his top military advisers to Saudi Arabia to decide whether a ground assault was needed to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.
In 1992, euthanasia advocate Jack [Dr. Death] Kevorkian was freed on bond following his arrest in the assisted suicides of two women.
In 1993, Oscar-winning writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz died at age 83.
In 1994, mortar fire killed nine people in a food queue in Serb-besieged Sarajevo.
White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
In 1995, a standoff between the U.S. and China escalated into a trade war, with each country ordering stiff tariffs against the other.
In 1996, a judge ordered President Bill Clinton to testify in the Whitewater trial. He later did so via videotape.
In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, Calif., found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Goldman's parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
Seventy-three Israeli soldiers were killed when two military helicopters collided in a storm in northern Israel.
Morgan Stanley Group, Inc. announced it would merge with Dean Witter, Discover&Co. to become the biggest U.S. securities company.
Thousands of Albanians, many of whom had lost their life savings, protested to demand government reimbursement following the collapse of a pyramid fund.
In 1998, at least 4,500 people died when an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale struck the Rustaq district of Takhar province in northern Afghanistan.
In 1999, gravely ill with lymphatic cancer, Jordan's King Hussein left the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was flown home.
Senators at President Clinton's impeachment trial voted to permit the showing of portions of Monica Lewinsky's videotaped deposition.
In a case which has drawn much controversy, Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers during a nighttime search for a rape suspect.
Gary Coleman was sentenced to a $400 fine, a suspended 90-day jail sentence, and ordered to attend 52 anger-management classes. The sentence stemmed from Coleman assaulting an autograph seeker on July 30, 1998.
In 2000, Austria's new coalition of conservatives and Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party took office, amid violent protests at home and uproar abroad. Vodafone AirTouch Plc agreed to a 180 billion euro ($178.7 billion) merger with Germany's Mannesmann AG to create Europe's biggest telecommunications company.
In 2002, for the first time since September 4, U.S. warplanes bombed Iraq's integrated air defense system in a northern part of the country.
In 2003, making a case for U.N.-endorsed military action in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Saddam regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network.
In 2005, German boxing legend Max Schmeling, one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time, died at age 99. Schmeling's extraordinary career will be remembered for his two legendary fights with American great Joe Louis, which produced a lasting bond between the two boxers despite the politically charged atmosphere surrounding the bouts. Schmeling knocked out the previously unbeaten Louis in the 12th round on June 19, 1936, which the Nazi regime trumpeted as a sign of "Aryan supremacy." In a rematch at Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938, Louis knocked Schmeling out in the first round to retain the world title.
Joe Louis floors Max in first round.
June 22, 1938. With a fury that welled from deep within him, Joe Louis flattened Max Schmeling in the first round and avenged the only knockout defeat of his illustrious career.
The "Brown Bomber" from Detroit rendered the German challenger helpless with an opening barrage keyed to his right hook. Schmeling went down three times before his trainer threw in the towel at two minutes, four seconds....
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Actor Ossie Davis, who championed racial justice on stage, on screen and in real life, died. He was 87.
A Moroccan family of four was charged in Spain in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.
The United States said it had disbursed more than $118 million for relief works in tsunami-affected areas of the Indian Ocean.
In 2006, thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam's revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags.
In 2007, the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears, 29-17 to win the National Football League's Super Bowl XLI in Miami, Florida. [The Colts captured the title for the first time since 1971, when the franchise was in Baltimore.
In 2009, Thomas Walter Allen died after a long illness. He was 89.
Thomas W. Allen Memorial
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