Following are some of the major events to have occurred on September 8:
1900 – A hurricane and tidal wave killed at least 8,000 people in Galveston, Texas.
1942 – In a rare raid on the U.S. mainland, a Japanese plane dropped incendiaries on the state of Oregon.
1943 – U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower announced the unconditional surrender of Italy in World War Two.
1949 – Richard Strauss, German composer, died. He was known for his songs and operas, especially “Der Rosenkavalier”.
2000 – The largest gathering of world leaders in history ended at the United Nations with more than 150 kings, presidents and prime ministers assembled. The conference adopted aims for the U.N. to strengthen peacekeeping and reduce poverty.
2001 – India’s Mira Nair became the first woman and the first Indian to win the coveted Golden Lion at the Venice film festival with her film “Monsoon Wedding”.
2003 – Leni Riefenstahl, Adolf Hitler’s filmmaker and one the last of Germany’s famous Nazi-era figures, died. She was 101. Her films of a Nazi party rally and the 1936 Berlin Olympics brought her prewar fame and postwar notoriety.
2004 – The Genesis space capsule crashed when its parachute failed to open while returning to Earth. The craft had been on a three-year mission to collect solar ions, which were recovered by scientists though the spacecraft was destroyed.
2005 – Thirty-three-year-old South African Hein Wagner became the world’s fastest blind driver after driving a car across a remote airstrip at 269 kph (167 mph).
2010 – World’s first Papal Visit plaid unveiled ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Scotland.
2016 – NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft lifts off in the first U.S. Mission to sample an asteroid.
2017 – Country singer Troy Gentry dies in helicopter crash.
(Reuters)