An entire town in Alaska voted to ban all snowball throwing within city limits
The city council of Barrow, Alaska passed the ordinance after complaints that snowball fights were getting too aggressive and causing property damage....
September 1 in History
Significant events that happened on this day.
Historical Events
1998
1985
A joint U.S.-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS Titanic 73 years after it sank
MajorDr. Robert Ballard and his team found the famous shipwreck resting 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic surface, about 370 miles off the coast of Newf...
1979
The U.S. spacecraft Pioneer 11 discovered that Saturn's rings are made of ice, not rock
Scientists had debated the composition of Saturn's rings for centuries, but Pioneer 11's instruments definitively proved they consisted primarily of w...
1979
Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, flying within 13,000 miles of the planet
The probe discovered two new moons and a new ring (the F ring) during its encounter, sending back the first close-up images of the ringed planet. It a...
1972
Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the first American-born World Chess Champion
The victory in Reykjavik, Iceland ended 24 years of Soviet domination of the world chess title and became a symbolic Cold War battle. Fischer's eccent...
1952
Ernest Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea' was published, earning him the Pulitzer Prize
The novella was published in its entirety in a single edition of Life magazine, selling over 5 million copies in just two days. The story of an aging...
1939
Germany invaded Poland, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe
MajorAt 4:45 AM, German forces crossed the Polish border without a declaration of war, with the Luftwaffe bombing Polish cities and the battleship Schleswi...
1923
A massive earthquake destroyed much of Tokyo and Yokohama, killing over 140,000 people
MajorThe Great Kanto Earthquake struck at 11:58 AM, just as many people were cooking lunch over open flames, which sparked devastating firestorms that caus...
1906
A man patented edible coffee cups in Germany, predicting they would eliminate waste
The inventor, a Berlin café owner, created cups made from a mixture of biscuit dough that customers could eat after finishing their coffee. While the...
1897
The Boston subway opened, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in the United States
The Tremont Street Subway ran just 1.5 miles but revolutionized urban transportation in America, moving riders under the city's congested streets. On...
1878
Emma Nutt became the first female telephone operator in the United States
She was hired by the Boston Telephone Dispatch Company to replace teenage boys who were considered too rude and abusive to customers. Nutt worked the...
1870
The Battle of Sedan ended with Napoleon III surrendering his entire army to Prussia
The crushing defeat resulted in the capture of 104,000 French soldiers, including Emperor Napoleon III himself, effectively ending the Second French E...
1804
German astronomer Karl Harding discovered Juno, one of the largest asteroids in the solar system
Juno became the third asteroid ever discovered and was initially classified as a planet, bringing the solar system's planet count to 11. It took anoth...