TODAY IN HISTORY

1715

Following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday.

1897

The first section of Boston’s new subway system was opened.

1923

The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

1939

World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

1942

U.S. District Court Judge Martin I. Welsh, ruling from Sacramento, Calif., on a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Fred Korematsu, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1945

Americans received word of Japan’s formal surrender that ended World War II.

1983

269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.