Today is Thursday, Sept. 1, the 245th day of 2016. There are 121 days left in the year.
On this date: 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 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Confederation as the eighth and ninth provinces of Canada. In 1914, the last passenger pigeon in captivity, “Martha,” died at the Cincinnati Zoo. In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives. In 1951, the United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual defense pact, the ANZUS treaty. In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power. 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.)
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