| August 31, 1985 | August 31, 1986 |
| • Richard Ramirez, the notorious "Night Stalker" serial killer, is captured and nearly killed by a mob in East Los Angeles, California, after being recognized. At his trial after the judge imposed a death sentence, Ramirez said, "Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland." |
• An Aeromexico jetliner and a small private plane
collided over Cerritos, California, killing 82 people. A Soviet passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in the Black Sea, causing both vessels to sink; up to 448 people reportedly died. |
| September 1, 1807 | September 1, 1923 |
| • Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr is aquitted of plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Spanish territory in Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic. Nevertheless, public opinion condemned him as a traitor, and he fled to Europe. | • The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 150,000 lives. |
| September 2, 1864 | September 2, 1945 |
| • During the Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta, one day after the Confederates retreated. | • On Sept. 2, Tokyo time, Japan formally surrendered to the United States in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri. World War II was over, six years and a day after it began. |
| September 3, 1783 | September 3, 1939 |
| • The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War. | • Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi invasion of Poland. |
| September 4, 1886 | September 4, 1972 |
| • Geronimo becomes the last American Indian warrior to formally surrender to the United Sates. After several years of imprisonment, Geronimo was given his freedom, and he moved to Oklahoma where he became a successful farmer and occcasionally worked as a scout for the U.S. Army. | • U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz wins his seventh gold medal at the summer Olympics in Munich. When terrorists struck the Olympic village the next day, Spitz, who is Jewish, was put under armed guard and flown to London out of fear he might become a target. |
| September 5, 1666 | September 5, 1882 |
| • Firefighters in London begin blowing up homes in an attempt to halt the spread of a great fire, which left 100,000 people homeless. The following week, a royal proclamation mandated that rebuilding of homes be done with brick and stone. | • The first Labor Day holiday is celebrated as a tribute to the toil and achievements of the nation's workers. Labor Day became an official holiday in 1894. |
| September 6, 1901 | September 6, 1972 |
| • President William McKinley is shot at point blank range by an anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY. McKinley lived for another week before succumbing to a gangrene infection on Sept. 14. | • During the the Summer Olympics in Munich, an attempt by West German police to rescue nine Isreali Olympic team members held hostage by Palesinian terrorists ends when all nine Isreali hostages are killed, along with five terrorists and one German policeman, in an extended fire fight. |