Newly inaugurated Gerald Ford pardons his predecessor Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal, on Sept. 8, 1974. For Ford's entire speech, see here.

Shigeru Yoshida, Prime Minister and chief treaty delegate of Japan, expresses his pleasure and gratitude after signing the Treaty of San Francisco, formally ending World War II. He says the signing of the peace treaty and security pact "opens the door for Japan to enter the community of nations."

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 together formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed t

Nazi Germany unleashed 100 divisions in its invasion of Soviet Union in June 1941. By late August, Wehrmacht forces had Leningrad surrounded as Stalin's army neared collapse. The siege began on Sept. 8 and would last 900 days.