On this day in history - September 1

What Happened On This Day – September 1

• 2004 350 people and children are killed in a massacre in Beslan, North Ossetia

  Armed Chechen rebels took over 1000 people including school children at a school. The rebels demanded international recognition of an independent Chechnya. The hostage crisis lasted for 3 days and ended after Russian troops stormed the school.

• 1985 The Wreck of the sunk ship Titanic is found in the North Atlantic Ocean

  A French-American expedition group found the wreck, which sunk on 14 April 1912 on her first voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City, U.S.

• 1979 Pioneer 11 makes its closest approach to Saturn

  The NASA built space probe was the first probe to encounter Saturn - it flew by the planet at a distance of 13,000 miles (21,000 km). After its flyby, the probe went on a trajectory to go outside the Solar System. All contacts with it were lost a few weeks later.

• 1952 Life magazine publishes parts of the Old Man And The Sea

  One of American author Ernest Hemingway’s best-known works, the novel tells the story of an old man and his fishing misadventures. Within a few days of the publication of the excerpt, 5 million copies of the magazine had been sold.

• 1914 Passenger Pigeons become extinct

  Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon known to man, died at the Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati, Ohio effectively making Passenger Pigeons extinct.