Updated August 31, 2012, 2:28 pm
On Sept. 1, 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
On Sept. 1, 1907, Walter Reuther, the powerful president of the United Automobile Workers Union from 1946 to 1970, was born. Following his death on May 9, 1970, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan became the eighth and ninth provinces of Canada. 1942 A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals. 1951 The United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual defense pact, the ANZUS treaty. 1969 A coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power. 1972 American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, defeating Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. 1981 Albert Speer, a close associate of Adolf Hitler who ran the Nazi war machine, died at a London hospital at age 76. 1983 A Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace; 269 people were killed. 2004 More than 1,100 people were taken hostage by heavily armed Chechen militants at a school in Beslan in southern Russia; more than 330 people, most of them children, were killed during the three-day ordeal. 2009 A law allowing gay marriage took effect in Vermont. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Comedian-actress Lily Tomlin turns 73 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Talk show host Phil McGraw (“Dr. Phil”) turns 62 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1946 Barry Gibb, Singer (The Bee Gees), turns 66 1957 Gloria Estefan, Singer, turns 55 1961 Dee Dee Myers, Former White House Press Secretary, turns 51 1975 Scott Speedman, Actor (“Felicity”), turns 37 1984 Joe Trohman, Rock musician (Fall Out Boy), turns 28
Historic Birthdays
Walter Reuther 9/1/1907 – 5/9/1970 American labor leader; president of United Automobile Workers Union (1946-70).Go to obituary »
69 Giacomo Torelli 9/1/1608 – 6/17/1678
Italian stage designer and engineer67 Engelbert Humperdinck 9/1/1854 – 9/27/1921
German composer66 James Corbett 9/1/1866 – 2/18/1933
American world heavyweight boxing champion (1892-7)74 Edgar Rice Burroughs 9/1/1875 – 3/19/1950
American novelist; wrote the Tarzan stories68 Francis Aston 9/1/1877 – 11/20/1945
English Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1922)37 Marilyn Miller 9/1/1898 – 4/7/1936
American musical comedy actress74 Carlo Gambino 9/1/1902 – 10/15/1976
Italian-born American organized crime leader79 Dame Peggy van Praagh 9/1/1910 – 1/15/1990
English-born ballet dancer; founder of the Australian Ballet45 Rocky Marciano 9/1/1923 – 8/31/1969
American world heavyweight boxing champion (1952-6)
