1983—Mississippi’s execution of Jimmy Lee Gray goes badly, possibly because executioner T. Berry Bruce is drunk. Eight minutes after the poison gas is released, officials clear the witness room because Gray is still gasping, moaning, and banging his head on a steel pole.
1945—VJ Day—Japan surrenders to General “Dugout Doug” MacArthur aboard a battleship named after Harry S Truman’s home state.
1945—Cribbing freely from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam to be sovereign and independent.
1939—G-Man J. Edgar Hoover creates a “Custodial Detention Index,” a list of left wingers to detain without trial in case of “national emergency.”
1935—Recently rousted from Washington, D.C. by General Douglas MacArthur, 259 veterans working on the Overseas Highway are among those killed by the Labor Day Hurricane when it hits the Florida Keys.
1921—Two battalions of U.S. troops finally convince miners on Blair Mtn., W.Va. to begin disarming.
1885—White railroad workers rioting in Rock Springs, Wyo. massacre 28 Chinese railroad workers.
1864—One day after Confederate troops bug out, Union forces enter and occupy Atlanta, Georgia.
1841—Whites attacking Blacks in Cincinnati, Ohio escalate, firing scrap iron from a cannon.