September 7
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1921
The first Miss America pageant
On September 7, 1921, the first day of the two-day Inter-City Beauty pageant was held in Atlantic City as part of the city’s Fall Frolic. Miss Washington, D.C., Margaret Gorman won the first day’s competition as well as the Bathers’ Revue on the next day. She was crowned “the most beautiful bathing girl in America.” In 1922, with a new Miss Washington, D.C., already named, Gorman returned to the competition as the first Miss America, a title awarded nearly every year since.
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© Hulton Archive—Archive Photos/Getty Images; Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Fine Art Images/Heritage Images Partnership Ltd./Alamy
Battle of Arsūf
On this day in 1191 the Muslim army of Saladin attacked the Crusaders of Richard I at the Battle of Arsūf, and, though Richard successfully counterattacked in the evening, his march to Jerusalem was delayed.
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Though I be a woman yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had. I am your anointed queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am indeed endued with such qualities that if I were turned out of the realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place of Christendom.
Elizabeth I, born this day in 1533, was queen of England (1558–1603) during a period, often called the Elizabethan Age, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts.
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More on September 7
Office of the Presidents of the Italian Republic
2005
Amid low voter turnout and allegations of irregularities, Hosni Mubarak won Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential election to remain in office. [Test your knowledge of Egyptian history.]
Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock.com
1996
American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, one of the leading names in 1990s gangsta rap, was shot in Las Vegas. He died six days later. [Who killed Tupac Shakur?]
Cavan/Alamy
1979
ESPN, a cable network dedicated to sports, debuted on American television.
Jimmy Carter Library/The National Archives, Washington, D.C. (ARC Identifier: 179908)
1977
U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal Treaty, an agreement that provided for the gradual transfer of the operations of the Panama Canal to Panama, the phaseout of U.S. military bases in the Canal Zone, and reversion to Panama of lands and waters used in the management of the canal.
Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-hec-13257)
1963
The Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton, Ohio, and its first inductees included Jim Thorpe and George Halas. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about American football.]
© Juliet Butler/Alamy
1939
Stanislav Petrov, an officer in the Soviet air force who saved the world from nuclear annihilation in 1983, was born near Vladivostok, Russia. [Find out why the Soviet Union collapsed.]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. LC-DIG-jpd-02541)
1901
With the signing of the Boxer Protocol, the Boxer Rebellion officially ended; it was an uprising against foreigners in China that was begun by peasants and eventually supported by the government. [Watch a video overview of the Boxer Rebellion.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1876
The Younger Brothers, a group of American outlaws who were often allied with Jesse James, were captured following an unsuccessful bank robbery. [Test your knowledge of famous outlaws.]
AP/Shutterstock.com
1860
Folk painter Grandma Moses, who was internationally popular for her naïve documentation of rural life in the United States, was born in Greenwich, New York. [Match the painting to the artist in our quiz.]
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
1860
Giuseppe Garibaldi entered Naples, Italy, and proclaimed himself “Dictator of the Two Sicilies.”
New York Public Library Digital Collection (b10086131)
1822
Dom Pedro I declared the independence of Brazil. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about South America.]
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.15
1812
Napoleon’s French forces narrowly defeated the Russians under Mikhail Kutuzov at the Battle of Borodino. [Was Napoleon actually short?]