Today in History: Sept. 5

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917 – Liu Yan declares himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu. 1590 – Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to lift the siege of Paris. 1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers. 1666 – Great Fire of London ends: Ten thousand buildings including St Paul's Cathedral are destroyed, but only six people are known to have died. 1697 – War of the Grand Alliance : A French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron at the Battle of Hudson's Bay. 1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry. 1725 – Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska. 1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia. 1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown. 1793 – French Revolution: The French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror. 1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law. 1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses. 1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber"). 1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas. 1839 – The United Kingdom declares war on the Qing dynasty of China. 1840 – Premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's Un giorno di regno at La Scala of Milan. 1862 – American Civil War: The Potomac River is crossed at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign. 1862 – James Glaisher, pioneering meteorologist and Henry Tracey Coxwell break world record for altitude whilst collecting data in their balloon. 1864 – François Achille Bazaine becomes Marshal of France. 1877 – American Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. 1882 – The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City. 1882 – Tottenham Hotspur, a Premier League football club from North London, is founded (as Hotspur F.C.). 1887 – A fire at Theatre Royal in Exeter, England kills 186. 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: In New Hampshire, United States, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war. 1906 – The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown by Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22–0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin). 1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital. 1915 – The pacifist Zimmerwald Conference begins. 1918 – The original publication of the Cheka decree, "On Red Terror". 1921 – Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle party in San Francisco ends with the death of the young actress Virginia Rappe: One of the first scandals of the Hollywood community. 1927 – The first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Trolley Troubles, produced by Walt Disney, is released by Universal Pictures. 1932 – The French Upper Volta is broken apart between Ivory Coast, French Sudan, and Niger. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Llanes falls to the Nationalists following a one-day siege. 1938 – Chile: A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are assassinated in the Seguro Obrero massacre. 1941 – Whole territory of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany. 1942 – World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, the first major Japanese defeat in land warfare during the Pacific War. 1943 – World War II: The 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Lae Nadzab Airport, near Lae in the Salamaua–Lae campaign. 1944 – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux. 1945 – Cold War: Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War. 1945 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama. 1948 – In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II. 1957 – Cuban Revolution: Fulgencio Batista bombs the revolt in Cienfuegos. 1957 – On the Road, a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, is published. 1960 – The poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected as the first President of Senegal. 1960 – Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome. 1969 – My Lai Massacre: U.S. Army Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai. 1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province. 1970 – Jochen Rindt becomes the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship (in 1970), after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix. 1972 – Munich massacre: A Palestinian terrorist group called "Black September" attacks and takes hostage 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Two die in the attack and nine die the following day. 1975 – Sacramento, California: Lynette Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford. 1977 – Hanns Martin Schleyer is kidnapped in Cologne, West Germany by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered. 1977 – Voyager program: Voyager 1 is launched after a brief delay. 1978 – Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin peace discussions at Camp David, Maryland. 1980 – The Gotthard Road Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel at 10.14 miles (16.32 km) stretching from Göschenen to Airolo. 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage. 1984 – Western Australia becomes the last Australian state to abolish capital punishment. 1986 – Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport. 1990 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers slaughter 158 civilians. 1991 – The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, comes into force. 1996 – Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people. 2012 – A firecracker factory explodes near Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, killing 40 and injuring 50 others. 2012 – An accidental explosion at a Turkish Army ammunition store in Afyon, western Turkey kills 25 soldiers and wounds four others.