Shimla, Sept. 8 Keekli Bureau
2003
German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl—who was perhaps the finest and most-influential female director of the 20th century, but her association with Adolf Hitler made her almost as much reviled as admired—died in Germany.
1998
Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals broke Roger Maris’s 1961 record for most home runs in a regular professional baseball season by hitting his 62nd of the season (he finished the season with 70 home runs).
1974
Richard Nixon, who had resigned the U.S. presidency on August 8, 1974, was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
1966
The first episode of the sci-fi series Star Trek aired on American television.
1945
At the end of World War II, the first U.S. troops entered the Korean peninsula south of the 38th parallel to receive the Japanese surrender; north of the parallel, Japanese troops surrendered to Soviet forces.
1941
German and Finnish armies began a siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, which lasted for 872 days.
1925
British actor Peter Sellers, who portrayed an astonishing range of characters but was perhaps best known as inept Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the Pink Panther films, was born.
1781
American troops commanded by General Nathanael Greene defeated British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart in the Battle of Eutaw Springs during the American Revolution.
1664
As part of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the duke of York (later James II) took the city of New Amsterdam, whose name was changed to New York.
1504
Michelangelo’s the David was unveiled in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence; considered a masterpiece, the sculpture is one of the defining works of the Renaissance.
