1812: During the Napoleonic Wars, the French army enters Moscow. As the Russian troops are evacuating, they set fires that will burn the city to the ground and leave the French without fuel or food during the Russian winter which starts about 20 minutes later.
1829: The Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, thus ending the Russo-Turkish War.
1849: Ivan Pavlov is born.
1847: During the Mexican-American War, Winfield Scott captures Mexico City.1879: Margaret Sanger, birth control and eugenics advocate is born.
1867: Charles Dana Gibson is born. He created the iconic Gibson Girl.
1901: President William McKinley dies after an assassination attempt on September 6, and is succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt.1910: Jack Hawkins is born. He played Major Warden, head of "a rum group called Force 316" who was charged with leading the expedition to blow up the Kwai Bridge in Bridge on the River Kwai.
1914: Clayton Moore is born. He is best known for playing the Lone Ranger.
1915: Robert McCloskey is born. He wrote the childrens books Make Way for Ducklings, One Morning in Maine and Blueberries for Sal.
1927: Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan dies in Nice, France, when her scarf becomes entangled in a wheel of a sports car.
1936: Walter Koenig is born. He played Lt. Pavel Chekov on Star Trek.1940: Congress passes the Selective Training and Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in US history.
1944: Joey Heatherton is born.
1947: Sam Neill is born.
1960: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded.1964: The opening of the third period of the Second Vatican Council.
1964: Faith Ford is born. She played Corky Sherwood on Murphy Brown.
1965: The opening of the fourth and final period of Second Vatican Council.1975: The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI.
1982: Grace Kelly dies in a car wreck in Monaco.
1984: Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.1987: The Toronto Blue Jays set a major league record for most home runs in a single game - 10 - versus the Baltimore Orioles at Exhibition Stadium, and the teams combined to tie the record for most homers by two teams - 11. The game also marked the end of Cal Ripken's streak of 8,243 consecutive innings played, which is believed to be the longest, although this is not a record officially kept by MLB.
1990: Ken Griffey and his son Ken Jr. become the first father-son duo to hit back-to-back home runs.
1994: The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
