August 31, 1997 : Princess Diana dies

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in Paris' Pitie-Salpetiere Hospital
after suffering massive chest injuries in an early morning car
accident. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, was killed instantly in the 12:25
a.m. crash, as was driver Henri Paul, who was drunk and lost control
of the Mercedes in a highway underpass. He was driving at excessive
speeds in a reckless attempt to escape paparazzi photographers.
Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees Jones, escaped with serious but
nonfatal injuries. He was the only one wearing his seat belt. The
death of Diana, beloved by millions for her beauty and good nature,
plunged the world into mourning.

On July 1, 1961, Diana Frances Spencer was born at Park House, the
home that her parents rented on Queen Elizabeth II's estate at
Sandringham, England. In her childhood, her playmates were Prince
Andrew and Prince Edward, the younger sons of Queen Elizabeth. When
her father inherited the title Earl of Spencer in 1975, she became
known as Lady Diana Spencer. After completing her education, Lady
Diana became a kindergarten teacher at a fashionable school in a
suburb of London.

In 1980, she began a romance with Prince Charles, the eldest son of
Queen Elizabeth. In February 1981, the 33-year-old Prince of Wales
announced his engagement to the 19-year-old schoolteacher. Diana's
beauty and shy demeanor made her an instant media sensation, and on
July 29, 1981, nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries
tuned in to witness her marriage to the heir to the British throne.
Married in a grand ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral, the couple's
romance was, for the moment, the envy of the world. Their first child,
Prince William, was born in 1982, and their second, Prince Harry, in
1984.

Before long, however, the fairy tale couple grew apart, an experience
that was particularly painful under the ubiquitous eyes of the world's
tabloid media. The paparazzi--freelance photographers--made Diana one
of the most photographed women in the world, and privately she
suffered from eating disorders and depression. In 1992, Diana and
Charles formally separated. In August 1996, the prince and princess
reached a final divorce agreement after prolonged negotiations. In
exchange for a generous settlement and the right to retain her
apartments at Kensington Palace and her title Princess of Wales, Diana
agreed to relinquish the title Her Royal Highness and any future
claims to the British throne.

In the year after her divorce, the popular princess seemed well on her
way to achieving her dream of becoming "a queen in people's hearts."
She maintained a high public profile and continued to promote many
humanitarian causes, including support for AIDS victims and a campaign
against land mines. In late 1996, she became involved with millionaire
Dodi Al Fayed, the son of the Egyptian-born owner of the Harrods
department stores. Their romance grew in 1997, and in August Diana
took a holiday with Dodi in the Mediterranean. As always, the
paparazzi followed closely behind, and one photographer was paid $3
million by the tabloids for a photo of Diana and Dodi kissing on
Fayed's yacht.

On August 30, Diana and Dodi flew from Sardinia to Paris. Diana
planned to return to Kensington Palace the next morning after spending
a night in Dodi's Paris villa. That evening, Diana and Dodi dined at a
restaurant in Paris' Ritz Hotel, owned by Dodi's father since 1979.
The paparazzi came out in force. Toward the end of the meal, Dodi told
his chauffeur to drive his car back to his mansion in an attempt to
draw off photographers. Henri Paul, the deputy chief of security at
the Ritz, was enlisted to be the new driver. He agreed, even though he
had been drinking heavily and was taking anti-depressant drugs that
were not supposed to be mixed with alcohol.

Around midnight, Dodi and Diana emerged from the rear entrance of the
Ritz. The paparazzi had not been fooled by the earlier ruse, and the
couple were photographed getting into a bullet-proof Mercedes along
with Diana's bodyguard. As they made their way across town, they were
followed closely by paparazzi on motorcycles. On the Place de la
Concorde, Henri Paul hit the accelerator in an attempt to escape the
press. By the time they reached the underpass below the Pont de
l'Alma, the driver was traveling an estimated 120 mph in a 30-mph
speed zone. Paul lost control as they flew into the underpass, and the
Mercedes ricocheted off a wall and slammed into pillars supporting the
tunnel roof. The paparazzi, 100 yards behind at the time of the
accident, were able to stop in time. Several of them then ran down the
tunnel and began taking photos, which were later confiscated by
police.

The Mercedes, lying crushed against the 13th pillar, was a tangle of
smoking metal. Diana, barely alive with serious chest injuries, was
trapped inside. Emergency crews arrived within minutes, but because
the car was made of reinforced steel meant to withstand bullets it
took nearly an hour and a half to extricate her from the crumbled
vehicle. She was taken to the Pitie-Salpetiere Hospital, where she
suffered cardiac arrest minutes after her arrival. Surgeons failed to
revive her, and at 3 a.m. she was pronounced dead. She was 36.

Diana's bodyguard was the only survivor of the crash. He suffered a
concussion and other injuries and has no memory of the crash nor the
events immediately preceding or following it. French authorities
arrested 10 paparazzi photographers who were tailing the Mercedes and
charged them with involuntary manslaughter. The charges were dropped
when a formal investigation concluded that Henri Paul was solely at
fault for the fatal accident.

The tragic death of Diana caused an outpouring of British national
feeling not seen since the celebrations surrounding the end of World
War II. Mourners brought more than a million bouquets of flowers to
the royal palaces and waited in line more than 12 hours to sign books
of condolences. More than 3,500 phone lines were set up to take
donations for a memorial fund, and within a year the charity fund
raised $133 million, of which $48 million came from sales of Elton
John's memorial recording "Candle in the Wind 1997" and $20 million
from official Diana souvenirs.

After being criticized for failing to satisfactorily match the grief
of the British people, the royal family arranged for a state funeral
to be held for Diana at Westminster Abbey on September 6. Diana's
coffin was taken from Kensington Palace to the Abbey on a horse-drawn
gun carriage, and an estimated one million mourners lined the route.
Diana's sons, William, 15, and Harry, 12, joined their father, Prince
Charles; grandfather Prince Philip; and uncle Charles, the Earl of
Spencer, to walk the final stretch of the procession with the casket.
The only sound was the clatter of the horses' hooves and the peal of a
church bell.

The service, watched by an estimated two billion people worldwide,
sacrificed royal pomp for a more human touch. Workers associated with
Diana's various charities represented 500 of the 2,000 people invited
to attend the funeral. Elton John, a friend of Diana, lent a popular
touch to the ceremony when he sang "Candle in the Wind," accompanying
himself on piano. After the service, Diana's body was taken by hearse
to her family's ancestral estate near Althorp, north of London. In a
private ceremony, she was laid to rest on a tree-shaded island in a
small lake, securely beyond the reach of the camera lens.

Since the death of Princess Diana, Althorp, which has been in the
Spencer family for over 500 years, is now a popular tourist attraction
that offers tours to the general public.

September 1, 1864 : Atlanta falls to Union forces

On this day in 1864, Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman lays
siege to Atlanta, Georgia, a critical Confederate hub, shelling
civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates retreated,
destroying the city's munitions as they went. On November 15 of that
year, Sherman's troops burned much of the city before continuing their
march through the South. Sherman's Atlanta campaign was one of the
most decisive victories of the Civil War.

William Sherman, born May 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio, attended West
Point and served in the army before becoming a banker and then
president of a military school in Louisiana. When the Civil War broke
out in 1861 after 11 Southern slave states seceded from the Union,
Sherman joined the Union Army and eventually commanded large numbers of troops, under General Ulysses S. Grant, at the battles of Shiloh (1862), Vicksburg (1863) and Chattanooga (1863). In the spring of 1864, Sherman became supreme commander of the armies in the West and was ordered by Grant to take the city of Atlanta, then a key military supply center and railroad hub for the Confederates.

Sherman's Atlanta campaign began on May 4, 1864, and in the first few
months his troops engaged in several fierce battles with Confederate
soldiers on the outskirts of the city, including the Battle of
Kennesaw Mountain, which the Union forces lost. However, on September 1, Sherman's men successfully captured Atlanta and continued to defend it through mid-November against Confederate forces led by John Hood.

Before he set off on his famous March to the Sea on November 15,
Sherman ordered that Atlanta's military resources, including munitions
factories, clothing mills and railway yards, be burned. The fire got
out of control and left Atlanta in ruins.

Sherman and 60,000 of his soldiers then headed toward Savannah,
Georgia, destroying everything in their path that could help the
Confederates. They captured Savannah and completed their March to the Sea on December 23, 1864. The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, when the Confederate commander in chief, Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.

After the war, Sherman succeeded Grant as commander in chief of the
U.S. Army, serving from 1869 to 1883. Sherman, who is credited with
the phrase "war is hell," died February 14, 1891, in New York City.
The city of Atlanta swiftly recovered from the war and became the
capital of Georgia in 1868, first on a temporary basis and then
permanently by popular vote in 1877.

September 2, 490 BC
After the Battle of Marathon, where the Greeks defeated the invading Persians, Pheidippides, who had already run 140 miles in 2 days and nights, ran 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to carry the news of the victory. His last words before he collapsed and died, "Rejoice, we are victorious."

1-2 September 1939. Hitler sows the seeds of WW II

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0901.html

September 3, 1783 : Treaty of Paris signed

The American Revolution officially comes to an end when
representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France
sign the Treaty of Paris on this day in 1763. The signing signified
America's status as a free nation, as Britain formally recognized the
independence of its 13 former American colonies, and the boundaries of
the new republic were agreed upon: Florida north to the Great Lakes
and the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River.

The events leading up to the treaty stretched back to April 1775, on a
common green in Lexington, Massachusetts, when American colonists
answered King George III's refusal to grant them political and
economic reform with armed revolution. On July 4, 1776, more than a
year after the first volleys of the war were fired, the Second
Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of
Independence. Five difficult years later, in October 1781, British
General Charles Lord Cornwallis surrendered to American and French
forces at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing to an end the last major battle
of the Revolution.

In September 1782, Benjamin Franklin, along with John Adams and John
Jay, began official peace negotiations with the British. The
Continental Congress had originally named a five-person
committee--including Franklin, Adams and Jay, along with Thomas
Jefferson and Henry Laurens--to handle the talks. However, both
Jefferson and Laurens missed the sessions--Jefferson had travel delays
and Laurens had been captured by the British and was being held in the
Tower of London. The U.S. delegation, which was distrustful of the
French, opted to negotiate separately with the British.

During the talks Franklin demanded that Britain hand over Canada to
the United States. This did not come to pass, but America did gain
enough new territory south of the Canadian border to double its size.
The United States also successfully negotiated for important fishing
rights in Canadian waters and agreed, among other things, not to
prevent British creditors from attempting to recover debts owed to
them. Two months later, the key details had been hammered out and on
November 30, 1882, the United States and Britain signed the
preliminary articles of the treaty. France signed its own preliminary
peace agreement with Britain on January 20, 1783, and then in
September of that year, the final treaty was signed by all three
nations and Spain. The Treaty of Paris was ratified by the Continental
Congress on January 14, 1884.