Major Events
- 1715 King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years—the longest of any major European monarch.
- 1878 1st female telephone operator starts work, Emma Nutt for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Despatch Company in Boston
- 1905 Wilfrid Laurier oversees Alberta and Saskatchewan joining the Confederation of Canada as its 8th and 9th Canadian provinces; both were separated from the Northwest Territories
- 1939 World War II starts when Germany invades Poland by attacking the Free City of Danzig
- 1941 Jews living in Germany are required to wear a yellow star of David
- 1951 US, Australia and New Zealand sign the ANZUS mutual defense treaty
- 1969 Colonel Muammar Gaddafi deposes King Idris in the Libyan revolution
- More September 1 Events
Sep 1 in Film & TV
- 1954 Paramount Pictures releases "Rear Window", directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly
Sep 1 in Music
Sep 1 in Sport
- 1972 American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer beats Russian champion Boris Spassky 12.5-8.5 in Reykjavik, Iceland; most publicised world title match ever played; Fischer 1st American to win title
- 2016 NFL San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneels in protest during the US national anthem before pre-season game against the Chargers at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, objecting to racial injustice and police brutality in the US
Did You Know?
James Gordon Bennett
Mark Hopkins Jr.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarsila do Amaral
Phil McGraw
Zendaya
Johann Pachelbel
Conway Twitty
Barry Gibb
Gloria Estefan
Jungkook
James J. Corbett
Rocky Marciano
Fun Fact About September 1
The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, dies in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Famous Weddings
- 1730 US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin establishes a common-law marriage with Deborah Read
- 1843 Prime Minister of Canada John A. Macdonald (28) weds his cousin Isabella Clark
- 1910 Actor John Barrymore (28) marries first wife actress Katherine Corri Harris (19) (divorced 1917)
Famous Divorces
- 1961 American "Gilda" actress Rita Hayworth (42) divorces American film producer James Hill (45) after 3-1/2 years of marriage
More September 1 Weddings
Jacques Cartier
Louis XIV
William Clark
Albert Speer
Tommy Morrison
Jimmy BuffettArticles, Photos and Quiz
Start of World War II
Front page of the NY Times for September 1, 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland
September 1, 1939
Bobby Fischer, The World Chess Champ
The Soviet Union saw its domination of the chess world as proof of intellectual superiority. Then, on this day, American Bobby Fischer faced the Russian champion
September 1, 1972
Spring Temple Buddha Completed
The Spring Temple Buddha statue depicting Vairocana Buddha in Henan, China
September 1, 2008
