In 1666, the Great Fire of London began. It destroyed 13,000 houses in four days.
In 1935, a hurricane hit the Florida Keys, killing more than 350 people.
In 1945, Japan signed an unconditional surrender aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, formally ending World War II.
In 1983, Moscow admitted to the Sept. 1 shooting down of a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747, killing all 269 people aboard, but said the jumbo jet intentionally
intruded into Soviet air space.
In 1991, the European Community-approved plan to end the civil war in Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav federal presidency. But federal forces renewed
their offensive against Croatia.
In 1992, more than 100 people were killed when earthquake-spawned tidal waves swept Pacific coast villages in Nicaragua.
In 1997, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 257.36 points for its largest one-day point gain, closing at 7,879.
In 1998, a Swissair jetliner en route from New York to Geneva, Switzerland, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. All 229 people aboard were killed.
In 1999, the Clintons bought a house in the New York suburb of Chappaqua for $1.7 million, establishing residency for first lady Hillary Clinton, who was
planning a run for the U.S. Senate.
In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush accepted the GOP nomination for re-election, promising to build a “safer world and a more hopeful America.”
In 2005, the European Commission called for uniform rules for deporting illegal immigrants and refugees who are denied asylum in member countries.
In 2006, Canadian troops under NATO control and Afghan forces launched an offensive in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province amid evidence of renewed
Taliban influence.
In 2007, the death toll from flooding in Bihar, India, rose to 556 but all major rivers were reported to be receding.
Also in 2007, the Lebanese army defeated Palestinian Islamic militants based at a refugee camp in northern Lebanon, climaxing a 3-month siege that killed
more than 400 people.
In 2008, Thai leaders in Bangkok declared a state of emergency when government protests grew violent. For more than a week, thousands of protesters have
clashed over efforts to force the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.
In 2009, an estimated 60 people were killed and about that many were reported missing when an earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale, rattled the
heavily populated Indonesian island of Java.
