TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY

Today is Saturday, Sept. 2, the 245th day of 2017. There are 120 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History On September 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II.

On this date • In 1666, the Great Fire of London broke out.

• In 1789, the United States Treasury Department was established.

• In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta.

• In 1901, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, “Speak softly and carry a big stick” in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.

• In 1935, a Labor Day hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys, claiming more than 400 lives.

• In 1963, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers. “The CBS Evening News” with Walter Cronkite was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes, becoming network television’s first half-hour nightly newscast.

• In 1969, in what some regard as the birth of the Internet, two connected computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, passed test data through a 15-foot cable.

• In 1998, a Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.

On Sept. 3 • In 1189, England’s King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

• In 1658, Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England, died in London; he was succeeded by his son, Richard.

• In 1783, representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War.

• In 1868, the Japanese city of Edo was renamed Tokyo.

In 1914, Cardinal Giacomo Della Chiesa became pope; he took the name Benedict XV.

• In 1923, the United States and Mexico resumed diplomatic relations.

• In 1976, America’s Viking 2 lander touched down on Mars to take the first close-up, color photographs of the red planet’s surface.

• In 1989, a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner crashed after takeoff in Havana, killing all 126 aboard and 45 people on the ground.

• In 1995, the online auction site eBay was founded in San Jose by Pierre Omidyar under the name “Auction-Web.”

On Sept. 4 • In 1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers under the leadership of Governor Felipe de Neve.

• In 1886, a group of Apache Indians led by Geronimo (also known as Goyathlay, “One Who Yawns”) surrendered to Gen. Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon in Arizona.

• In 1888, George Eastman received a patent for his roll-film box camera, and registered his trademark: “Kodak.”

• In 1951, President Harry S. Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast.

• In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus used Arkansas National Guardsmen to prevent nine black students from entering all-white Central High School in Little Rock. Ford Motor Co. began selling its illfated Edsel.

• In 1967, Detroit TV station WKBD aired an interview with Michigan Gov. George Romney in which the Republican presidential hopeful attributed his previous support for the war in Vietnam to a “brainwashing” he’d received from U.S. officials during a 1965 visit.

• In 1971, an Alaska Airlines jet crashed near Juneau, killing all 111 people on board.

• In 1972, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won a seventh gold medal at the Munich Olympics in the 400-meter medley relay.

• In 1998, Internet services company Google filed for incorporation in California.

• In 2014, comedian Joan Rivers died at a New York hospital at age 81, a week after going into cardiac arrest in a doctor’s office during a routine medical procedure.