Advertisement

On This Day: FDR declares U.S. neutrality in WWII

On Sept. 5, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in World War II. The United States joined the war in 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

By UPI Staff
On September 5, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in World War II. The United States joined the war in 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. File Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
1 of 4 | On September 5, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in World War II. The United States joined the war in 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. File Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1774, the first Continental Congress convened in secret in Philadelphia.

Advertisement

In 1836, Sam Houston was elected president of Texas.

In 1877, Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse was fatally bayoneted by a U.S. soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson, Neb. A year earlier, Crazy Horse was among the Sioux leaders who defeated George Armstrong Custer's Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana Territory.

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

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in World War II. The United States joined the war in 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In 1972, Palestinian militants invaded the Olympic Village outside Munich, West Germany, and killed 11 Israeli athletes and six other people.

In 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of mass murderer Charles Manson, failed in an attempt to shoot U.S. President Gerald Ford. Fromme was paroled in 2009 after 34 years in prison.

Secret Service agents rush President Gerald R. Ford towards the California State Capitol following an attempt on the president's life by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme -- a disciple of Charles Manson -- on September 5, 1975, in Sacramento, Calif. File Photo courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library
Advertisement

In 1978, President Jimmy Carter hosted Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David, Md., for Middle East peace talks that laid the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities. The summit resulted in the Camp David Accords, which earned Sadat and Begin the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1995, France conducted an underground nuclear test at the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. It was the first of several -- all of which were met by protests worldwide.

In 1997, Mother Teresa died at age 87.

In 2006, Katie Couric, longtime co-host of the NBC Today show, became the first solo female anchor on a major U.S. television network when she took over the CBS Evening News.

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

In 2007, wealthy, record-setting U.S. adventurer-aviator Steve Fossett, 63, vanished on a short flight in western Nevada. He was declared dead five months later. Among his many records, he was the first person to fly around the world solo in a balloon and first to fly around the globe solo without refueling.

Advertisement

In 2014, U.S. officials said Ahmed Abdi Godane, leader of the Somalia-based Islamic militant organization al-Shabab, was killed in a U.S. airstrike. In 2012, the United States had posted a $7 million reward for his arrest.

In 2018, an anonymous, senior Trump administration official wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times, saying they are part of the "resistance" to President Donald Trump, who they called "a threat to the health of our republic."

File Photo Ken Cedeno/UPI

Latest Headlines