NASA launches Voyager 1 space probe from Cape Canaveral (1977), and Western Australia abolishes capital punishment, the last Australian state to do so (1984). Born on this day: Freddie Mercury, Louis XIV and Caspar David Friedrich. Died: Mother Teresa, Auguste Comte and Pieter Bruegel, the Elder.
30 events, 59 births and 51 deaths on this date.
Voyager 1 is now the most distant human-made object from Earth, though it began as a mission to study Jupiter and Saturn. It later became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space, crossing the heliopause in 2012.
NASA/JPL · Public domainWestern Australia became the final Australian state to abolish the death penalty, ending capital punishment across the country's states. The move left the death penalty only for certain federal offences.
Trade unionists paraded in New York to press for a shorter working day, the eight-hour cause that inspired the holiday. The tradition spread across the United States and Canada, where it now falls on the first Monday of September.
Bobby Buckle led a group of London schoolboys who set up Hotspur Football Club so they could keep playing through the winter. The side that grew from it became Tottenham Hotspur, now one of England's best-known clubs.
The three countries signed a customs agreement that became the start of a shared economic union. Its name blends the first syllable of each country, and the arrangement now covers trade, politics and cultural ties.
Tsar Peter I introduces a beard tax for most Russian men, sparing the clergy and peasants. It was part of his drive to bring the nobility closer to Western European fashions.
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Born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, he became the flamboyant lead singer and pianist of Queen, known for his four-octave range and theatrical stage presence. He wrote hits including Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions.
Carl Lender · CC BY-SA 3.0
Louis XIV became King of France as a child and ruled for 72 years, the longest reign of any monarch in history. Remembered as the Sun King, he centralised power at Versailles and drew the French nobility into his court.
Hyacinthe Rigaud · Public domain
Born in Greifswald, on the Baltic coast, Friedrich became the German Romantic painter famous for lone figures gazing at misty dawns, night skies and ruined Gothic arches. His quiet landscapes still define how many people picture Romantic art.
Johann Karl Bähr · Public domain
Albanian-born Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, serving the destitute and dying. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and died in Calcutta on this day in 1997.
Túrelio · CC BY-SA 2.0 de
Comte formulated positivism, a doctrine that a new social order should be built on science. He also coined the word sociology and is remembered as one of the founders of that field.
Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0
Flemish painter who turned landscapes and peasant scenes into large paintings, a shift that shaped Dutch Golden Age art. Most of his famous works date from only the last few years of his life, which ended in his early forties.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder · Public domain
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