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UPI Almanac for Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015

World War II officially ends, Swissair jetliner crashes ... on this date in history.

By United Press International
U.S. Adm. Chester Nimitz signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay Sept. 2, 1945, officially ending World War II. U.S. Navy/UPI file
1 of 10 | U.S. Adm. Chester Nimitz signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay Sept. 2, 1945, officially ending World War II. U.S. Navy/UPI file | License Photo

Today is Wednesday,Sept. 2, the 245th day of 2015 with 120 to follow.

The moon is waning. Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Neptune and Saturn

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include poet Eugene Field in 1850; sporting goods entrepreneur Albert Spalding in 1850; Hiram Maxim, who invented the first portable automatic machine gun, in 1869; basketball Hall of Fame Coach Adolph Rupp in 1901; author Cleveland Amory in 1917; author Allen Drury in 1918; dancer Marge Champion in 1919 (age 96); Snapple co-founder Arnold Greenberg in 1932; horse racing Hall of Fame member D. Wayne Lukas in 1935 (age 80); basketball Hall of Fame member John Thompson Jr. in 1941 (age 74); Christa McAuliffe, schoolteacher/astronaut who died in the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, in 1948; basketball Hall of Fame member Nate Archibald (in 1968 age 67); football Hall of Fame member/broadcaster Terry Bradshaw in 1948 (age 67);actor Mark Harmon in 1951 (age 64); tennis Hall of Fame member Jimmy Connors in 1952 (age 63); Cirque de Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 1959 (age 56); football Hall of Fame member Eric Dickerson in 1960 (age 55); actor Keanu Reeves in 1964 (age 51); actor Salma Hayek in 1966 (age 49).

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On this date in history:

In 1666, the Great Fire of London began. (It destroyed 13,000 houses in four days).

In 1935, a hurricane hit the Florida Keys, killing more than 350 people.

In 1945, Japan signed an unconditional surrender aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, formally ending World War II.

In 1992, earthquake-spawned tidal waves killed more than 100 people in Pacific coast villages in Nicaragua.

In 1998, a Swissair jetliner en route from New York to Geneva, Switzerland, crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. All 229 people aboard were killed.

In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush accepted the GOP nomination for re-election, promising to build a "safer world and a more hopeful America."

In 2010, BP warned the U.S. Congress the company might be unable to pay compensation for its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill if barred from new offshore drilling permits.

In 2011, the U.S. State Department warned American travelers the security threat in Yemen was "extremely high" and urged those already there to leave.

In 2012, several hundred people upset with corporate America marched in Charlotte, N.C., two days before the Democratic National Convention, chanting: "Banks got bailed out. We got sold out."

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In 2013, American Diana Nyad, 64, completed a 53-hour swim from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Fla., becoming the first swimmer to make the crossing without a shark cage.

In 2014,a judge in North Carolina ordered the release of Henry Lee McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, half-brothers who were declared innocent after spending decades in prison for their convictions in the murder of an 11-year-old girl. DNA evidence implicated another suspect, a man who was imprisoned in a different case.


A thought for the day: "The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." -- Ernest Hemingway.

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