On This Day: President Ford Pardons Richard Nixon

On Sept. 7, 1876, the James-Younger Gang are surrounded by an angry mob and nearly killed in Northfield, Minn. The incident signaled the beginning of the end for the gang.

On Sept. 6, 1901, Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley at the World's Fair in Buffalo. McKinley would die eight days later.

On Sept. 5, 1972, a Palestinian terrorist group called Black September raided the Israeli team barracks at the Munich Olympic Games, killing two team members and taking nine hostage. The hostages were later killed during a bungled rescue attempt by German authorities.

On Sept. 4, 1957, the Arkansas National Guard, under the order of Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, blocked nine black students from entering Little Rock Central High School.

On Sept. 3, 1783, American and British representatives signed the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Revolutionary War and establishing American independence from Britain.

On Sept. 2, 1969, a Chemical Bank branch in Rockville Centre, N.Y., opened its first automatic teller machine (ATM) to the public. The machine, possibly the first ATM ever developed, inspired the proliferation of ATMs over the next four decades.

On Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany launched an invasion of Poland. Two days later, Polish allies Britain and France declared war on Germany, marking the start of World War II.

On Sept. 1, 1980, amputee Terry Fox was forced to stop his 5,000-mile run across Canada for cancer research after it was discovered that his bone cancer had spread to his lungs. He died 10 months later, but not before realizing his dream of raising one dollar for every person in Canada.

On Sept. 1, 1983, the commercial airplane was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter, killing all 269 passengers, including U.S. Congressman Lawrence McDonald.

On Aug. 31, 1888, Mary Ann Nichols was murdered by the notorious serial killer in London. Jack the Ripper was never caught or identified.

On Aug. 30, 1967, the Senate confirmed the nomination of civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court.

On Aug. 29, 1957, the South Carolina senator wrapped up a 24-hour, 18-minute-long tirade meant to stall voting on the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

On Aug. 28, 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech at a civil rights rally in Washington, D.C.

On Aug. 27, 1859, the Drake Well in Titusville, Pa., became the first well in the United States to strike oil, sparking the rise of America’s multibillion-dollar oil industry.

On Aug. 26, 1839, the Cuban slave ship Amistad was apprehended by the U.S. Navy after African slaves aboard the ship had revolted against their captors.

On Aug. 25, 1944, Allied forces joined the French Resistance to liberate Paris from Nazi occupation.

On Aug. 24, 1814, British forces set the White House, Capitol, and much of Washington, D.C., ablaze during the War of 1812, aiming to demoralize America and then take Baltimore.

On Aug. 23, 1784, factions in western North Carolina declared themselves a separate state called Franklin. Never accepted into the United States, Franklin lasted only four years.