This day in history

[September 01, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Sept. 1, the 244th day of 2011. There are 121 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Sept. 1, 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

On this date:

In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday.

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was found not guilty of treason. (Burr was then tried on a misdemeanor charge, but was again acquitted.)

In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1941, the first municipally owned parking building in the United States opened in Welch, W. Va.

In 1951, the United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual defense pact, the ANZUS treaty.

In 1961, the Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia. A TWA Lockheed Constellation crashed shortly after takeoff from Chicago's Midway Airport, killing all 78 people on board.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik (RAY'-kyuh-vik), Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of game 21.

In 1981, Albert Speer, a close associate of Adolf Hitler who ran the Nazi war machine, died at a London hospital at age 76.

In 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.

In 1995, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. (The hall opened to the public the next day.)

Ten years ago: An explosion and fire at a gambling parlor in Tokyo killed 44 people. The Los Angeles Sparks won the WNBA championship, defeating the Charlotte Sting 82-54.

Five years ago: Mexican President Vicente (vih-SEN'-tay) Fox was forced to forego his final state-of-the-nation address after leftist lawmakers stormed the stage of Congress to protest disputed July elections; Fox instead gave his speech on television. An Iranian passenger plane caught fire on landing in Mashhad, killing 28 of the 148 people on board. Nellie Connally, the former Texas first lady who was riding in President John F. Kennedy's limousine when he was assassinated, died in Austin, Texas, at age 87.

One year ago: President Barack Obama convened a new round of ambitious Mideast peace talks at the White House as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the first face-to-face negotiations in nearly two years. A man upset with the Discovery Channel's programming took two employees and a security officer hostage at the network's headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.; police shot and killed the gunman, James Jae Lee, and all three hostages escaped safely. Cammie King Conlon, 76, the former child actress who played the doomed Bonnie Blue Butler in "Gone with the Wind," died in Fort Bragg, Calif.

Today's birthdays: Former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird is 89. Actor George Maharis is 83. Conductor Seiji Ozawa (SAY'-jee oh-ZAH'-wah) is 76. Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 73. Comedian-actress Lily Tomlin is 72. Actor Don Stroud is 68. Conductor Leonard Slatkin is 67. Singer Archie Bell is 67. Singer Barry Gibb is 65. Rock musician Greg Errico is 63. Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 61. Singer Gloria Estefan is 54. Former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers is 50. Jazz musician Boney James is 50. Singer-musician Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) is 48. Country singer-songwriter Charlie Robison is 47. Retired NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway is 45. Rap DJ Spigg Nice (Lost Boyz) is 41. Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira ("Desperate Housewives") is 40. Rock singer JD Fortune is 38. Actor Scott Speedman is 36. Rock musician Joe Trohman is 27.

Thought for today: "There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself." -- King Louis XIV (1638-1715)

[Associated Press]

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