Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Bad weather caused a Chilean Air Force aircraft to crash into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 21 people on board.

A fire in the cockpit on Swissair Flight 111, en route from New York City to Geneva, caused the aircraft to crash into the Atlantic Ocean near Canada, killing all 229 people on board.

An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw off the coast of Nicaragua became the first tsunami earthquake to be captured on modern broadband seismic networks.

Hurricane Elena, an unpredictable and damaging tropical cyclone that affected eastern and central portions of the United States Gulf Coast, made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, as a Category 3 major hurricane.

Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed HM Fort Roughs, a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk, England, as an independent sovereign state: the Principality of Sealand (pictured).

South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm began an official visit to Australia, the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to the country.

The interim government of India, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, was formed to assist the transition of India from British rule to independence.

On the deck of the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, representatives from the Empire of Japan and the Allied powers signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender , formally ending World War II.

Arthur Rose Eldred became the first person to attain the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

U.S. vice president Theodore Roosevelt first publicly used the phrase "speak softly and carry a big stick" (cartoon pictured) at the Minnesota State Fair, describing his philosophy of negotiating peacefully while simultaneously t...