On Sept. 1, 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

In 1941, the first municipally owned parking building in the U.S. opened in Welch, West Virginia.

In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned.

In 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off Newfoundland.

In 2009, a law allowing same-sex marriage went into effect in Vermont.