German invasion of Poland
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. 1939.
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. 2004.
In a search led by American oceanographer Robert Ballard, the wreck of the Titanic was found on the ocean floor at a depth of about 13,000 feet (4,000 metres). 1985
A group of young army officers led by Muammar al-Qaddafi deposed the king and made Libya a republic. 1969.
American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, best known as the creator of Tarzan, was born. 1875.
