Today is Friday, Sept. 2, the 246th day of 2016. There are 120 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Sept. 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II.
On this date:
In 1666, the Great Fire of London broke out.
In 1789, the United States Treasury Department was established.
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman's forces occupied Atlanta.
In 1901, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair.
In 1924, the Rudolf Friml operetta "Rose Marie" opened on Broadway.
In 1935, a Labor Day hurricane slammed into the Florida Keys, claiming more than 400 lives.
In 1945, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent republic. (Ho died on this date in 1969.)
In 1963, Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace prevented the integration of Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers. "The CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes, becoming network television's first half-hour nightly newscast.
In 1969, in what some regard as the birth of the Internet, two connected computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, passed test data through a 15-foot cable.
In 1972, Dave Wottle of the United States won the men's 800-meter race at the Munich Summer Olympics.
In 1986, a judge in Los Angeles sentenced Cathy Evelyn Smith to three years in prison for involuntary manslaughter for her role in the 1982 drug overdose death of comedian John Belushi. (Smith served 18 months.)
In 1998, a Swissair MD-11 jetliner crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.
Ten years ago: Afghan and NATO forces launched Operation Medusa, aimed at flushing out Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan; 14 British servicemen were killed when their patrol plane crashed. Two-time Olympic decathlon champion and four-term California congressman Bob Mathias died in Fresno, California, at age 75.
Five years ago: In a dramatic reversal, President Barack Obama scrubbed a proposed clean-air regulation aimed at reducing smog, yielding to bitterly protesting businesses and congressional Republicans who complained the rule would kill jobs in America's ailing economy. Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador and cut military ties over Israel's refusal to apologize for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
One year ago: Overcoming ferocious opposition, President Barack Obama secured a legacy-defining foreign policy victory as Senate Democrats clinched the necessary votes to ensure the Iran nuclear agreement survived in Congress. President Obama crossed the Arctic Circle in a first by a sitting U.S. president, telling residents in the far-flung Alaska village of Kotzebue (KAHT'-zih-byoo) that their plight resulting from climate change should be the world's wake-up call on global warming. In one of the most haunting images from the Syrian migrant crisis, the lifeless body of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi was photographed lying on a Turkish beach after he, his 5-year-old brother and their mother died when their rubber boat capsized as it headed for Greece.
