September 1
Today's:

1799 - The Bank of Manhattan Company opened in New York City, NY. It was the forerunner of Chase Manhattan.

1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was found innocent of treason.

1810 - The first plow with interchangeable parts was patented by John J. Wood.

1859 - The Pullman sleeping car was placed into service.

1878 - Emma M. Nutt became the first female telephone operator in the U.S. The company was the Telephone Dispatch Company of Boston.

1884 - The Thomas A. Edison Construction Department and the Edison Company for Isolated Lighting merged.

1887 - Emile Berliner filed for a patent for his invention of the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone. It is a device that is better known as a record player. Thomas Edison made the idea work.

1894 - A forest fire in Hinckley, MN, killed more than 400 people.

1897 - The first section of Boston's subway system was opened.

1905 - Saskatchewan and Alberta became the ninth and tenth provinces of Canada.

1906 - Jack Coombs of the American League’s Philadelphia Athletics pitched 24 innings against the Boston Red Sox. (MLB)

1922 - The first daily news program on radio was "The Radio Digest," on WBAY radio in New York City, NY.

1923 - About 100,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan.

1939 - World War II began when Germany invaded Poland.

1942 - A federal judge in Sacramento, CA, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1945 - The U.S. received official word of Japan's formal surrender that ended World War II. In Japan, it was actually September 2nd.

1949 - "Martin Kane, Private Eye" debuted on NBC-TV.

1951 - The ANZUS Treaty, a mutual defense pact, was signed by the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

1969 - Col. Moammar Gadhafi came into power in Libya after the government was overthrown.

1970 - The last episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" aired on NBC-TV. The show premiered was on September 18, 1965.

1971 - Danny Murtaugh of the Pittsburgh Pirates gave his lineup card to the umpire with the names of nine black baseball players on it. This was a first for Major League Baseball.

1972 - America’s Bobby Fischer beat Russia’s Boris Spassky to become world chess champion. The chess match took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1979 - The U.S. Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn.

1982 - J.R. Richard returned to major league baseball after a two-year absence following a near-fatal stroke.

1982 - Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo closed all the country's private banks.

1983 - A Soviet jet fighter shot down a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 when it entered Soviet airspace. 269 people were killed.

1985 - The Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel in a joint U.S. and French expedition. The wreck site is located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coast.

1986 - The Soviet Union announced the accident involving the Admiral Nakhimov the night before. 448 people died in the ship collision.

1986 - Jerry Lewis raised a record $34 million for Muscular Dystrophy during his annual telethon for Jerry’s kids over the Labor Day weekend.

1993 - Louis Freeh was sworn in as the director of the FBI.

1995 - Illinois Congressman Mel Reynolds announced his resignation. He had been convicted of having sex with an underage campaign volunteer.

1997 - In France, the prosecutor's office announced that the driver of the car, in which Britain's Princess Diana was killed, was over the legal alcohol limit.

1998 - The movie "Titanic" went on sale across North America.

1998 - Mark McGwire, of the St. Louis Cardinals, hit his 56th and 57th homeruns to set a new National League record. He would eventually reach a total of 70 for the season on September 27.

1998 - Vietnam released 5,000 prisoners, including political dissidents, on National Day.

1999 - Twenty-two of major league baseball's 68 permanent umpires were replaced. The problem arose from their union's failed attempt to force an early start to negotiations for a new labor contract. Today's: