Today in History, September 1st
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II in Europe. Plus the Great Kanto earthquake and the Titanic's discovery.
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September 1 is best known for 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and set off World War II in Europe. The date also marks the Great Kanto earthquake that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama in 1923 and the discovery of the Titanic’s wreck in 1985.
The big story: Germany invades Poland (1939)
Hitler had first secured his eastern flank. In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact, which meant Poland could not count on help from the east. On September 1, German forces struck Poland by land and air. Bombers went after airfields, railroads, communication lines and munitions dumps, and then tanks, artillery and infantry poured across the border. Poland’s army had about a million men, but it was poorly equipped and tried to meet the Germans head-on rather than falling back to stronger lines. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. Polish forces in Warsaw surrendered on September 28, and the next day Germany and the Soviet Union split the country between them. The last Polish resistance ended on October 6. A local war had become a world war.
More events on September 1
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1807 | A jury in Virginia acquitted former Vice President Aaron Burr of treason. Chief Justice John Marshall had ruled the evidence did not meet the Constitution’s strict test. |
| 1864 | With Union General William T. Sherman closing in, Confederate General John Bell Hood ordered his army out of Atlanta. The city surrendered the next day. |
| 1914 | Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Her body went to the Smithsonian, labeled as the last of her kind. |
| 1923 | A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the Tokyo-Yokohama area at lunchtime. Fires burned for days, and more than 140,000 people died. |
| 1969 | Captain Muammar al-Qaddafi, 27, led a bloodless coup that overthrew King Idris I of Libya while the king was abroad. |
| 1972 | Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship in Reykjavik, Iceland, when Boris Spassky resigned the final game by telephone. Fischer was the first American to hold the title. |
| 1983 | Soviet fighters shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it strayed into Soviet airspace, killing all 269 people aboard. |
| 1985 | A U.S.-French team led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel spotted a boiler from the Titanic, about 13,000 feet down. They found the main wreck the next day. |
| 2004 | Chechen separatists seized a school in Beslan, Russia, taking more than 1,000 hostages. The siege ended two days later with nearly 340 dead, about half of them children. |
Born on September 1
- 1875: Edgar Rice Burroughs, novelist who created Tarzan, born in Chicago.
- 1923: Rocky Marciano, heavyweight boxing champion who retired unbeaten in 49 pro fights, born in Brockton, Massachusetts.
- 1939: Lily Tomlin, comedian and actress who won Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards, born in Detroit.
Sources
- Germany invades Poland, History.com
- Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Aaron Burr acquitted, History.com
- The Passenger Pigeon, Smithsonian Institution
- Great Kanto earthquake, History.com
- This Day in History: September 1, History.com
- Korean Airlines flight shot down by Soviet Union, History.com
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Rocky Marciano, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Lily Tomlin, Encyclopaedia Britannica
