TODAY IN HISTORY - SEPTEMBER 8TH

1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited.

1900 – Galveston Hurricane of 1900: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.

1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.

1935 – US Senator from Louisiana Huey Long is fatally shot in the Louisiana State Capitol building.

1941 – Bernie Sanders, American politician is born.

1943 – World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.

1951 – Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.

1952 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation makes its first televised broadcast on the second escape of the Boyd Gang.

1960 – In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).

1962 – Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.

1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, The Man Trap.

1970 – Percy Spencer, American engineer, invented the microwave oven (b. 1894) dies.

1971 – David Arquette, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter is born.

1971 – In Washington, D.C., the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.

1974 – Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

1975 – Gays in the military: US Air Force Tech Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, appears in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine with the headline "I Am A Homosexual". He is given a general discharge, which was later upgraded to honorable.

1987 – Wiz Khalifa, Haitian rapper and actor is born.

2012 – Jimmy Carter passes Herbert Hoover for longest retirement after leaving office. Hoover was retired for 11,553 days, and had held the record for over 54 years.