Today in History

Today is Thursday, Sept. 1, the 244th day of 2022. There are 121 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 1, 1983, 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

On this date:

In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday.

In 1897, the first section of Boston's new subway system was opened.

In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

In 1942, U.S. District Court Judge Martin I. Welsh, ruling from Sacramento, California, on a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Fred Korematsu, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

In 1945, Americans received word of Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II. (Because of the time difference, it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony took place.)

In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of Game 21. An arson fire at the Blue Bird Cafe in Montreal, Canada, claimed 37 lives.

In 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off Newfoundland.

In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued a "desperate SOS" as his city descended into anarchy amid the flooding left by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2009, Vermont's law allowing same-sex marriage went into effect.

In 2015, invoking "God's authority," Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to gay couples again in direct defiance of the federal courts, and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail. (Davis would spend five days in jail; she was released only after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form.)

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama ridiculed the just-completed Republican National Convention as better-suited to an era of black-and-white TV and "trickle-down, you're on your own" economics, and declared that Mitt Romney "did not offer a single new idea" for fixing the economy. Lyricist Hal David, 91, who teamed with Burt Bacharach on dozens of timeless songs for movies, television and a variety of recording artists in the 1960s and beyond, died in Los Angeles.

Five years ago: A line of cars stretched more than a mile at a water distribution center set up on a high school football field in Beaumont, Texas, which had been left without drinking water by flooding from Hurricane Harvey. The mayor of Houston announced that ongoing releases of water from two swollen reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days. Comedian Shelley Berman died at his California home at the age of 92.

One year ago: Relentless rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ida sent the New York City area into a state of emergency, as water poured into homes and subway stations and left vehicles nearly submerged on major roadways, the storm would leave nearly 50 people dead in six Eastern states. Three days after Ida battered Louisiana and parts of Mississippi as the fifth-most-powerful hurricane to strike the U.S., about a million homes and businesses still had no electricity, and hundreds of thousands of people lacked running water. Three suburban Denver police officers and two paramedics were indicted on manslaughter and other charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was put into a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative in a fatal encounter that provoked national outcry. President Joe Biden played host to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, and sought to reassure him that the U.S. remained squarely behind the Eastern European nation.

Today's Birthdays: Actor George Maharis is 94. Conductor Seiji Ozawa is 87. Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 84. Comedian-actor Lily Tomlin is 83. Actor Don Stroud is 79. Conductor Leonard Slatkin is 78. Singer Archie Bell is 78. Singer Barry Gibb is 76. Rock musician Greg Errico is 74. Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 72. Singer Gloria Estefan is 65. Jazz musician Boney James is 61. Singer-musician Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) is 59. Country singer-songwriter Charlie Robison is 58. Retired NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway is 56. Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira is 51. Actor Maury Sterling is 51. Rock singer JD Fortune is 49. Actor Scott Speedman is 47. Country singer Angaleena Presley (Pistol Annies) is 46. Actor Boyd Holbrook is 41. Actor Zoe Lister-Jones is 40. Rock musician Joe Trohman is 38. Actor Aisling Loftus is 32.