The way it was: Today in history

Throwback Thursday: A look back at events in history on September 1, including Hitler invading Poland and locating the Titanic.

A London woman buys a newspaper announcing Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

WWII US Civil Defense 1942

Students at the OCD’s Gas Officers Institute don their noncombatant gas masks and line up in readiness for a drill in Detroit, Sept. 1, 1942. These students, as part of their three-day course, sniffed war’s four deadliest vapors.

Formal surrender of Japan

U.S. President Harry Truman sits before a microphone at the White House in Washington, where he broadcast a message on the formal surrender of Japan on September 1, 1945.

Rapist Shot 1943

Detective Joseph Vigurie of New Orleans views the crumpled body of Willie Stevens confessed rapist of little girls, who was shot and killed in the rear seat of a police car, Sept. 1, 1943 in New Orleans, while fighting with Vigurie and screaming “I want to die.” Stevens was killed by Vigurie, who was exonerated by his superiors.

Waldorf Astoria

Twin Towers atop the Waldorf Astoria Hotel make an interesting addition to the New York Skyline.

This is view of the top of this Manhattan hotel at Park Avenue and 50th Street The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is shown in this photo dated September 1, 1931. The hotel officially opened October 1st.

National Beauty Trades Show

Four hairdressers attending the National Beauty Trades Show in New York “cool off” under hairdryers in an air-conditioned room at the Hotel Statler on Sept. 1, 1953 while Erma Van Wort, in a sable cape, shows them a new mobile coiffure.

The hairdryers’ temperature is a mere 90 degrees, while the official thermometer outdoors measured 97. The new hairdo, achieved with free-flowing waves, is designed to direct eyes to the head - whatever the length of the controversial hemline. The hairdressers are members of the National Hairdressers and Cosmetologists Association.

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple looks over her childhood collection of 1,500 dolls given her by film fans, Sept. 1, 1955, Palo Alto, Calif.

Temple has given the dolls to the Allied Arts Guild as a permanent exhibit. Now 27, she lives in Atherton, Calif., near San Francisco, with her husband and their three children, aged one to seven. Temple still gets about 150 fan letters a week and requests for appearance at all sorts of affairs. But she tries to avoid personal publicity, and also to keep her children out of the spotlight.

Cesar Chavez celebrates victory

Farm workers hoist AFL-CIO leader Cesar Chavez to their shoulders as they celebrate victory over the Teamsters, in the nation’s first agricultural union representation election, on September 1, 1966, in Delano, California.

Rocky Marciano's plane crash

A mutilated Cessna 172 aircraft lies in a dry creek bed after crashing near Newton, Iowa on Sept. 1, 1969.

Jasper County sheriff’s officers found former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano in the wreckage, passenger Frank Farrell, 23, and the pilot Glenn Belz, both of Des Moines, Iowa, where the plane was headed before it crashed Aug. 31.

Marciano, considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, was en route to a surprise 46th birthday party.

Moammar Kadhafi

Libyan Colonel Moammar Kadhafi, seen here in Tripoli on September 27, 1969, seized power in the desert state on September 1, 1969 and ruled the country for decades.

Chess champion Bobby Fischer

American Bobby Fischer leaves Laugardal Hall in Reykjavik after Boris Spassky of the U.S.S.R. resigned from the World Chess Championships, Sept. 1, 1972.

Fischer became the first American born chess champion.

Anita Bryant

Singer Anita Bryant speaks at a news conference in Boston, Friday, Sept. 1, 1978. Bryant said the forced cancellation of her scheduled concert is another example of gay rights supporters denying her constitutional rights. Bryant, an outspoken critic of gay rights, is in Boston to endorse a conservative U.S. Senate candidate.

Korean Airlines Flight 007 shot down

Russian sailors at right watch as crewmen of the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency cutter Tsugaru haul a crate of wreckage to their vessel at Nevelsk, a fishing port on Sakhalin Island, Russia, Monday, Sept. 26, 1983.

The crate is one of five which contain debris and documents of Korean Airlines Flight 007 shot down by a Soviet SU-15 fighter near Sakhalin, Sept. 1. The Soviet Union turned the materials over to Japanese and American diplomats.

Titanic

Professor Robert Ballard, professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and his team discovered the wreck of the Titanic on September 1, 1985. Ballard is seen here pointing to footage of the wreck found in tact, 560 miles west of Newfoundland in water two and a half miles deep.

The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage April 14, 1912, after an iceberg cut a 300 foot gash in its side, killing 1513 people. Seven hundred survived.

“Human Rights Now” tour

From left to right: rock stars Youssou N’dour, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman and Sting are seen at London’s Wembley Stadium, Sept. 1, 1988, to promote the start of their six-week tour “Human Rights Now” which starts on September 3. The concert is organized by Amnesty International and marks the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Papua New Guinea volcano erupts

Aircraft and helicopters encrusted in ash at Rabaul’s Rakunai Airport as Tavurvur (background) volcano erupts, September 23, 1994.

Memorial for Princess Diana

Floral tributes mount outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, Monday, September 1, 1997. Diana, Princess of Wales, died with her companion Dodi Fayed as a result of a car crash in Paris during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Beslan

A volunteer carries an injured boy after special forces stormed a school seized by Chechen separatists on September 3, 2004 in the town of Beslan, Russia.

On September 1, the Beslan school siege began and lasted three days. More than 1,100 hostages were taken and at least 385 people died, half of whom were children.

Ship runs aground

A sightseeing ship lies in the Yangtze River after running aground September 1, 2005 in southwest China. The ship struck ran aground in the wee hours with poor visibility in thick fog on the river.

All 163 passengers including 85 foreigners were evacuated from the ship safely.