On This Day:
Thursday September 1, 2011
This is the 244th day of the year, with 121 days
remaining in 2011.
Fact of the Day: menopause
More than 1,500 American women reach menopause every day -
the period during which ovulation and menstruation ceases.
It usually occurs in women between 45 and 55 years.
Menopause is associated with changes in the balance of sex
hormones which can lead to emotional and physical changes.
It is during menopause that bone density often falls
significantly and may go below the fracture threshold (the
density at which fractures occur easily). Regular
weight-bearing exercises and a calcium-rich diet, especially
during the teens and early twenties, can increase peak bone
density and decrease the risk of bone fractures in later
life.
Holidays
Cameroon:
Union Nationale Camerounaise Day.
Japan:
Disaster Prevention Day.
Libya:
Revolution Day.
Slovakia:
Constitution Day.
Tanzania:
Heroes' Day.
Uzbekistan:
Independence Day (from USSR, 1991).
Vietnam:
Independence Day.
Beginning of Orthodox ecclesiastical year.
Events
1661
- First yacht race took place; participants were England's
King
Charles versus his brother, James.
1676
- Nathaniel
Bacon led an uprising at Jamestown,
Virginia,
in which the settlement was burned down.
1773
- Phillis
Wheatley's "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and
Moral," was published, making her the first African-American
poet to be published.
1807
- Former Vice President Aaron
Burr was acquitted on charges of plotting to annex
territory in Louisiana
and Missouri
to establish an independent republic.
1821
- William
Becknell took a group of traders from Independence,
Missouri,
toward Santa
Fe, blazing the Santa
Fe Trail.
1836
- Marcus
Whitman and wife Narcissa established the first
American settlement in northern Oregon
Territory. Narcissa was one of the first white women
to travel the Oregon
Trail.
1859
- First Pullman sleeping car was put into service.
1864
- Confederate forces, led by General John
Bell Hood, evacuated Atlanta,
anticipating the arrival of Union General William
T. Sherman's troops.
1865
- Joseph
Lister performed first surgery using antiseptics.
1870
- The Prussians defeated the French at Sedan in the last
battle of the Franco-Prussian
War.
1878
- Emma
Nutt of Boston
became the first female telephone operator.
1882
- The first Labor
Day was observed in New
York City by the Carpenters and Joiners Union.
1890
- First baseball tripleheader was played: Boston
vs Pittsburgh.
1894
- Labor
Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress.
1904
- Helen
Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe
College.
1905
- Alberta
and Saskatchewan
became provinces of Canada.
1914
- St.
Petersburg, Russia
changed its name to Petrograd.
1916
- Bulgaria
declared war on Rumania,
expanding the World
War I.
1923
- The Kanto earthquake leveled Tokyo
and Yokohama,
Japan,
killing 300,000.
1939
- Germany
invaded Poland,
beginning World
War II in Europe.
1939
- "Physical Review" published first article describing black
holes.
1941
- Yellow star became obligatory wear for Jews under the Third
Reich.
1945
- Japan
surrendered to the United
States, ending World
War II. (Japan's
date is 9/2.)
1969
- Moammar
Gadhafi deposed King
Idris in the Libyan revolution.
1970
- Dr. Hugh
Scott of Washington,
D.C. became the first African-American superintendent
of schools of a major American city.
1971
- Qatar
declared independence from Great
Britain.
1972
- Bobby
Fischer of the United
States defeated Boris
Spassky of Russia
for the world chess title.
1976
- Representative Wayne
L. Hayes (D-Ohio)
resigned because of scandal with Elizabeth
Ray.
1983
- Korean Airlines Flight 007, flying from New
York to Seoul,
was shot down by the Soviets after it strayed into
restricted airspace over Sakhalin
Island in the Sea
of Japan. All 269 people aboard were killed, including
61 Americans, among them U.S. Representative Larry
McDonald.
1985
- Seventy-three years after it sunk in the North Atlantic,
the wreck of the R.M.S.
Titanic was found by a US-French expedition; it was
four hundred miles off the coast of Newfoundland,
Canada.
1991
- Uzbekistan
declares independence from the Soviet
Union.
2004
- Prosecutors in Colorado
dropped a sexual assault charge against basketball star Kobe
Bryant.
2005
- Seven members and former members of the AFL-CIO
form a new trade union organization, the Change
to Win Federation.
Births
1875
- Edgar
Rice Burroughs, American novelist who wrote "Tarzan,
the Ape Man."
1907
- Walter
Reuther, American labor leader who merged the American
Federation of Labor with the Congress
of International Organizations.
1923
- Rocky
Marciano, American world heavyweight boxer who retired
undefeated.
1933
- Conway
Twitty, American country and western music star.
1939
- Lily
Tomlin, American comedienne and actress.
1946
- Barry
Gibb, English singer.
1950
- Dr.
Phil McGraw, American talk show host.
1957
- Gloria
Estefan, Cuban singer.
1968
- Mohammed
Atta, Egyptian
terrorist
who participated in the hijacking of American
Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the
World
Trade Center during the September
11, 2001 attacks.
1976
- Erik
Morales, Mexican boxer.
Deaths
1557
- Jacques
Cartier, French explorer.
1715
- Louis
XIV, king of France.
1838
- William
Clark, American explorer who with Meriwether
Lewis led the first overland expedition to the Pacific
Northwest.
1914
- Martha, last known passenger pigeon, at Cincinnati
Zoo.
1977
- Ethel
Waters, American actress and singer.
1983
- Henry
"Scoop" Jackson, Democratic United
States Senator from Washington.
1989
- A.
Bartlett Giamatti, former president of Yale
University and Commissioner of Baseball.
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