Sept 9 in History

1828 — Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (“War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”), is born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate near Tula, Russian Empire.

1839 — Sir John Herschel, English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, takes the first glass-plate photograph. His contributions to photography include inventing the cyanotype process (blueprints) and chrysotype (using colloidal gold to record images on paper).

1886 — The Berne (Switzerland) Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, an international agreement governing copyright initiated by French writer Victor Hugo (“The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”), is signed by Belgium, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Liberia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia and the UK.

1890 — Colonel Harland David Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), is born in Henryville, Indiana. He dies on December 16 1980, but remains the company’s image.

1900 — James Hilton, British novelist who authors “Lost Horizon” (in which he creates the imaginary world of “Shangri-La”) and “Goodbye Mr. Chips”, is born in Leigh, Lancaster.

1945 — The “first computer bug” is recorded in the Harvard Mark II computer’s logbook . . . a moth found stuck between relay contacts, removed and taped into the logbook.

1968 — Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the US Open singles title, beating Tom Okker of the Netherlands 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the final. 1976 — Mao Zedong (Tse-tung), 82, Chinese Communist party chairman (since 1949) dies in Beijing. In 1965 he launched the controversial Cultural Revolution, an often-brutal campaign to reform Chinese society. He is later held responsible for more than 70-million deaths.

1998 — The Tripartite Gold Commission is dissolved. Originating at the 1945 Paris Conference of Reparation, attended by 18 countries (SA included), the UK, the US and France were chosen to oversee the return of some $4bn in gold plundered by the Nazis from European treasuries. A total of 10,817,021.139 ounces of gold bars, coins and pieces are returned to the rightful owners.

1998 — Four tourists who had paid $32,500 each are taken in a tiny submarine on the first “sightseeing trip” to the wreckage of the Titanic, at a depth of 3.8km on the Atlantic seabed off Newfoundland. A close-up view now costs $105,129 per person. It is estimated that fewer than 200 people have visited the site. 2003 — France’s leading undertaker, General Funeral Services, estimates the country’s death toll from a summer heat wave at 15,000.