September 5 in History

1666 – Great Fire of London ended; 10,000 buildings, including St Paul’s Cathedral, were destroyed, but only six people are known to have died.

1698 – Peter the Great decreed a tax on beards. When a citizen had more than 2 weeks’ worth of growth, a tax had to be paid, and the citizens were granted a two sided token stating: “the beard tax has been taken” and “the beard is a superfluous burden.”

1774 – Peyton Randolph was elected as the first president of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

1836 – Sam Houston was elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

1881 – Thumb Fire, Michigan

1882 – 10,000 workers marched in the first Labor Day parade in New York City.

1906 – Bradbury Robinson of St. Louis University threw the first legal forward pass in American football to teammate Jack Schneider in a 22-0 victory over Carroll College (Wisconsin).

1921 – Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s party in San Francisco ended with the accidental death of actress Virginia Rappe in what became the first sex scandal in the Hollywood community.

1939 – President FDR declared US neutrality at the start of WW II in Europe.

1949 – Willard Frank Libby announced his discovery of Radiocarbon dating.

1960 – Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) won the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Rome Olympics.

#1 Hit September 5, 1964 – September 25, 1964: The Animals – The House of the Rising Sun

1967 – ABC’s The Fugitive finale (part 2) was one of the most-watched episodes of the decade. “Tuesday, September 5th: The day the running stopped.”

1972 – Palestinian terrorists killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

1975 – Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempted assassinating US President Gerald Ford.

1977 – Voyager 1 was launched.

1987 – Dick Clark’s American Bandstand was broadcast for the 2,751st and last time by ABC, after 30 years on the network. It continued, in syndication, until October 7, 1989.

1989 – Deborah Norville became the news anchor of Today Show. Ratings slowly declined, and by June of 1990, she was replaced by Katie Couric.

1997 – Mother Teresa died in Calcutta, India, at age 87.

1997 – Ally McBeal premiered on FOX

#1 Hit September 5, 1998 – October 2, 1998: Aerosmith – I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing

2001 – The Amazing Race premiered on CBS

2007 – Torchwood premiered on BBC America

#1 Hit September 5 – September 18: Dynamite – BTS