12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for September 8, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1504 – Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria.
- 1565 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental U.S.
- 1664 – New Amsterdam is surrendered to the English and soon renamed New York.
- 1900 – The Galveston hurricane devastates Texas, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
- 1941 – Land routes to Leningrad are cut, beginning the 872-day siege.
- 1943 – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower announces Italy’s surrender (Armistice of Cassibile).
- 1944 – First V-2 rockets strike London, opening a new phase of bombardment.
- 1951 – Japan signs the Treaty of San Francisco, formally ending the state of war with many Allies.
- 1954 – The Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty (SEATO) is signed in Manila.
- 1966 – Star Trek premieres on NBC with “The Man Trap.”
- 1974 – President Gerald Ford grants a full pardon to Richard Nixon.
- 2016 – NASA launches OSIRIS-REx to asteroid Bennu.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1941 – Bernie Sanders, U.S. senator and 2016/2020 presidential candidate (84).
- 1954 – Ruby Bridges, civil-rights icon who integrated New Orleans’ William Frantz Elementary (71).
- 1960 – Aimee Mann, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter (65).
- 1970 – Neko Case, singer-songwriter (The New Pornographers; solo) (55).
- 1971 – David Arquette, actor and producer (Scream; Never Been Kissed) (54).
- 1979 – Pink (P!NK), pop star known for powerhouse vocals and aerial shows (46).
- 1987 – Wiz Khalifa, rapper (“Black and Yellow”) (38).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1965 – Dorothy Dandridge, trailblazing actress and singer (Carmen Jones) (42).
- 1970 – Percy Spencer, engineer and inventor of the microwave oven (76).
- 1977 – Zero Mostel, stage and screen star (Fiddler on the Roof, The Producers) (62).
- 1981 – Hideki Yukawa, Japanese theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate (74).
- 2003 – Leni Riefenstahl, German filmmaker (Triumph of the Will) (101).
- 2016 – Prince Buster, pioneering Jamaican ska and rocksteady musician (78).
- 2022 – Queen Elizabeth II, longest-reigning British monarch (96).
Our revenue comes from a combination of direct subscriptions from users and commissions earned by affiliate commissions from sponsors’ links and banners. Some of the links you click may be affiliate links that generate that revenue.