Today in history

PeterOn Sept.the Great5, 1698, imposed Russia’s a tax on beards.

In 1774 the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.

In 1793 the Reign of Terror began during the French Revolution as the National Convention instituted harsh measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities.

In 1836 Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas.

In 1882 the nation’s first Labor Day parade was held in New York.

In 1905 the Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the RussoJapanese War, was signed in New Hampshire.

In 1914 the First Battle of the Marne began during World War I.

In 1945 Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a JapaneseAmerican suspected of being wartime broadcaster Tokyo Rose, was arrested in Yokohama. (D’Aquino served six years in prison; she was pardoned in 1977 by President Gerald Ford.) In 1957 the novel “On the

Road,” by Beat writer Jack Kerouac was first published.

In 1958 the novel “Doctor Zhivago” by Russian author Boris Pasternak was first published in the United States.

In 1972 Arab guerrillas attacked the Israeli delegation at the Munich Olympic games; 11 Israelis, five guerrillas and a police officer were killed in the siege.

In 1975 President Gerald Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, Calif.

In 1977 the U.S. launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft two weeks after launching its twin, Voyager 2. Also in

1977 West German industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer was kidnapped in Cologne by members of the Baader-Meinhof gang. (Schleyer was later killed by his captors.)

In 1990 Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged Arabs to rise up in a holy war against the West and former allies who had turned against him. In 1992 a strike that had

idled Motors nearly Corp. 43,000 workersGeneral ended United Autoas members Workers localof a in Lordstown, Ohio, approved a new agreement.

In 1993 seven Nigerian soldiers were killed in a militia ambush in Somalia as they went to the aid of other UN peacekeepers surrounded by a stone-throwing mob.

In 1994 a U.N.-sponsored population conference opened in Egypt, with Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland lashing out at the Vatican and Muslim fundamentalists by defending abortion rights and sex education.

In 1995 France ended its three-year moratorium on nuclear tests, setting off an underground blast on a South Pacific atoll. In 1997 Mother Teresa died in Kolkata; she was 87. Also in 1997 conductor Sir Georg Solti died in France; he was 84.

In 2000, on the eve of congressional hearings into the recall of 6.5 million Firestone tires, Ford Motor Co. released new documents to bolster its contention that it had no reason to doubt the safety of the tires being investigated in 88 deaths.