HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Monday, September 4, the 247th day of 2017. There are 118 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1941 – World War II: A German submarine makes the first
attack against a United States ship, the USS Greer. 1944 – World War II: The British 11th Armoured Division
liberates the Belgian city of Antwerp. 1944 – World War II: Finland exits from the war with Soviet
Union. 1948 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for
health reasons. 1951 – The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference. 1957 – American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: Orval Faubus, governor of Arkansas, calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Central High School. 1963 – Swissair Flight 306 crashes near Dürrenäsch,
Switzerland, killing all 80 people on board. 1967 – Vietnam War: Operation Swift begins when U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley. 1970 – Salvador Allende is elected President of Chile. 1972 – Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven
medals at a single Olympic Games. 1975 – The Sinai Interim Agreement relating to the Arab–
Israeli conflict is signed. 1985 – The discovery of Buckminsterfullerene, the first
fullerene molecule of carbon. 1989 – In Leipzig, East Germany, the first of weekly demonstration for the legalisation of opposition groups and democratic reforms takes place. 1996 – War on Drugs: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attack a military base in Guaviare, starting three weeks of guerrilla warfare in which at least 130 Colombians are killed. 1998 – Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two
students at Stanford University. 2001 – Tokyo DisneySea opens to the public as part of the
Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. 2007 – Three terrorists suspected to be a part of Al-Qaeda are arrested in Germany after allegedly planning attacks on both the Frankfurt International airport and US military installations. 2010 – Canterbury earthquake: A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes the South Island of New Zealand at 4:35 am causing widespread damage and several power outages.