September 1
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1985
1985: The secret story of the Titanic’s discovery
On this day in 1985, the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered some 73 years after the ocean liner sank. The news made headlines—but part of the story remained a secret for decades. The Titanic search was actually a cover for the U.S. Navy’s exploration of two sunken nuclear submarines: the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion. The navy also helped fund the Titanic expedition and the technology used to locate the ship.
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© Courtesy of the Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island/NOAA; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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© Photo12—Universal Images Group/Getty Images
The lethal combination of German blitzkrieg tactics, French and British inactivity, and Soviet perfidy doomed Poland to swift defeat after Adolf Hitler invaded the country this day in 1939 and sparked World War II. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
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Born in Italy this day in 1902, Carlo Gambino later moved to the U.S., where he headed (1957–76) one of the Five Families of organized crime in New York City and reputedly was the “boss of bosses” of the Mafia.
Famous Birthdays
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AndreyA
2004
Chechen rebels seized a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia; the siege, which ended two days later, resulted in the deaths of more than 330 people, the majority of them children. [Test your knowledge of Russian history.]
All Canada Photos/Alamy
1980
Due to poor health, Canadian activist Terry Fox, who had part of his leg amputated because of cancer, was forced to end his Marathon of Hope, a run across Canada to raise money for cancer research; it was later discovered that the cancer had spread to his lungs, and he died in 1981. [Take our quiz about diseases and human health.]
AP
1972
Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the first native-born American to hold the title of world chess champion. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about chess.]
© 1954 Paramount Pictures Corporation
1954
The thriller Rear Window, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, opened in American theaters, and it became a film classic. [Take our movie quiz.]
Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
1952
Life magazine published Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, his last major work of fiction; it was also released as a book, and in 1953 it won a Pulitzer Prize. [Test your knowledge of famous novels.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1875
American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, best known as the creator of Tarzan, was born. [Take our quiz about famous authors.]
Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia
1838
American frontiersman William Clark, who shared with Meriwether Lewis the leadership of the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition, died. [Take our exploration and discovery quiz.]