Today in history

On Sept. 7, 1822,

Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

In 1825

the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, bade farewell to President John Quincy Adams.

In 1892

James Corbett knocked out John Sullivan to win the world heavyweight crown in New Orleans in the first major prize fight conducted under the Marquis of Queensberry rules.

In 1901

the Peace of Beijing ended the Boxer Rebellion in China.

In 1927

American television pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth, 21, succeeded in transmitting the image of a line through purely electronic means with a device called an “image dissector.”

In 1940

Nazi Germany began its initial blitz on London during World War II.

In 1963

the National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.

In 1977

the Panama Canal treaties, calling for the U.S. to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington. Also in 1977 convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy was released from prison after more than four years.

In 1979

the ESPN made its cable television debut. In 1986 Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

In 1990

Kimberly Bergalis, of Fort Pierce, came forward to identify herself as the young woman who had been infected with AIDS, apparently by her late dentist. (Bergalis died the following year.)

In 1996

rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.