September 5 is the 248th day of the year (249th in leap years). There are 117 days remaining until the end of the year. (Illustration: The Great Fire of London 1666, Robert Hooke.)

Today in History

• The Great Fire of London ends, having destroyed more than 13,200 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral (1666)
• Пётр I Вели́кий (Peter I the Great) of Russia implements a tax on beards as part of his effort to westernize the nobility (1698)
• American Revolutionary War: The First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia (1774)
• French Revolution: The Reign of Terror begins; over the next eleven months, nearly 17,000 people would be executed by guillotine and another 25,000 by other methods (1793)
• The first legal forward pass in American football is thrown during a game between St. Louis University and Wisconsin’s Carroll College (1906)
• World War I: The First Battle of the Marne begins (1914)
• Young actress Virginia Rappe dies during a party hosted by Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in one of Hollywood’s first major scandals (1921)
• Walt Disney’s first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon is released (1927)
• Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley is charged with six counts of premeditated murder for his role in the My Lai Massacre; he is convicted and serves three and a half years under house arrest before receiving a limited Presidential pardon from Richard Nixon (1969)
• The Palestinian terrorist group Black September take 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the Munich Olympic Games, killing two in the attack and nine the following day during a failed rescue attempt (1972)
• Manson family member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempts to assassinate US President Gerald Ford (1975)
• NASA launches the deep space probe Voyager 1 (1977)

Birthdays

• Louis VIII of France, monarch (1187)
• Louis XIV of France, monarch (1638)
• Jack Daniel, whiskey distiller (1850)
• Jesse James, American outlaw (1847)
• Arthur Nielsen, television rater (1897)
• Darryl F. Zanuck, producer (1902)
• Arthur Koestler, author (1905)
• John Cage, composer (1912)
• Frank Yerby, author (1916)
• Jack Valenti, creator of the MPAA film rating system (1921)
• Paul Volker, chairman of the Federal Reserve (1927)
• Bob Newhart, comedian (1929)
• Werner Erhard, founder of EST (1935)
• William Devane, actor (1937)
• George Lazenby, played James Bond in one film (1939)
• Raquel Welch, actress and sex symbol (1940)
• Werner Herzog, director (1942)
• Freddy Mercury, singer-songwriter, lead vocalist of Queen (1946)
• Loudon Wainwright III, singer-songwriter (1946)
• Cathy Guisewite, newspaper cartoonist, creator of Cathy (1950)
• Michael Keaton, actor (1951)
• Dweezil Zappa, musician (1969)
• Rose McGowan, actress (1973)
• Randy Choate, baseball player (1975)

Deaths

• Catherine Parr, last of the six wives of Henry VIII of England (1548)
• Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse), Oglala Lakota Sioux war leader (1877)
• Ludwig Boltzmann, physicist and philosopher (1906)
• Arthur MacArthur, Jr., US general, father of Douglas MacArthur (1912)
• Gert Fröbe, actor who played the villain in Goldfinger (1988)
• Fritz Leiber, author and actor (1992)
• Georg Solti, conductor (1997)
• Mother Teresa, missionary and saint (1997)
• Leo Penn, director (1998)
• Allen Funt, creator and host of Candid Camera (1999)

Holidays and Celebrations

• International Day of Charity (worldwide)
• Jupiter Stator (ancient Rome)
• Jury Rights Day (Great Britain and US, Fully Informed Jury Association)
• Teacher’s Day (India)

Informal and made-up holidays include Be Late for Something Day, Bring Your Manners to Work Day, National Cheese Pizza Day, and National Lazy Moms Day.

(*O.S., or Old Style, when used, refers to the fact that Russia did not convert from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1918.)