41st year - Nr 248 Saturday, 5 September 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 248 Saturday, 5 September 2026

5 September / Today's 34 Events:

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(-) 478 years ago Sunday 5th of September 1548 Sixth wife of Henry VIII Catherine Parr dies of puerperal fever at the age of 36 in Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. Catherine gave birth to her only child Mary Seymour on 30 August 1548 and died only six days later.

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(+) 388 years ago Sunday 5th of September 1638 King of France and Navarre Louis XIV, originally Louis Dieudonné aka Le Roi du Soleil is born in Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Île-de-France, France.

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(+) 252 years ago Monday 5th of September 1774 Romantic landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich is born in Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

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(+) 195 years ago Monday 5th of September 1831 Playwright Victorien Sardou is born in 16 Rue Beautreillis, IVe, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

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(+) 179 years ago Sunday 5th of September 1847 Outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber and murderer Jesse Woodson James is born in Kearney, Missouri, United States.

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(x) 139 years ago Monday 5th of September 1887 186 die in theatre fire in Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom || Exeter Prison, Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom. Spectators were watching a dramatisation of The Romany Rye when fire broke out backstage where gas lighting ignited some gauze. There were 700 to 800 people in the Theatre Royal at the time of the fire, around half of its full capacity.

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(+) 121 years ago Tuesday 5th of September 1905 Journalist and writer Arthur Koestler, originally Kösztler Artúr is born in Budapest, Közép-Magyarország, Hungary.

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(+) 114 years ago He Wasn't Silent for 4′33″ Thursday 5th of September 1912 Composer, music theorist and artist John Milton Cage is born in Good Samaritan Hospital, 1125 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, United States.

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(x) 110 years ago Tuesday 5th of September 1916 21-year-old Actor and sex symbol Rudolph Valentino, originally Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla aka Latin Lover is arrested by the New York Vice squad for conducting a 'badger game' in a whorehouse in New York City, New York, United States.

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(+) 107 years ago Friday 5th of September 1919 Oberaufseherin im KZ Auschwitz Elisabeth Volkenrath is born in Schönau, Województwo Dolnośląskie, Poland.

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(-) 96 years ago Friday 5th of September 1930 Serial killer, rapist, arsonist and burglar Carl Panzram aka A Journal of Murder is executed by hanging at the age of 39 in United States Penitentiary, Metropolitan Avenue, Leavenworth, Kansas, United States. While the noose was being put around his neck, Panzram allegedly spat in his executioner's face and declared "I wish the entire human race had one neck, and I had my hands around it!" When asked by the executioner if he had any last words, Panzram barked "Yes, hurry it up, you Hoosier bastard! I could hang a dozen men while you're screwing around!"

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(x) 95 years ago Saturday 5th of September 1931 28-year-old Electrician George P. Metesky aka The Mad Bomber is injured in a boiler blowback and inhales poisonous gases in Consolidated Edison Hell Gate power plant, New York City, New York, United States. According to claims disputed by Consolidated Edison, Metesky's accident led to pneumonia that in turn developed into tuberculosis. A claim for workers' compensation was denied because he waited too long to file it. Three appeals of the denial were also rejected, the last in 1936. Metesky developed a hatred for the company's attorneys and for the three co-workers whose testimony in his compensation case he believed was perjured in favor of the company. Between 1940 and 1956 Metesky planted at least 33 b ombs, of which 22 exploded.

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(-) 94 years ago it Was the Only Way to Make Good the Frightful Wrong Monday 5th of September 1932 Film director and Jean Harlow’s husband Paul Bern, originally Paul Levy commits suicide a shot through the head at the age of 43 in 9820 Easton Drive, Beverly Hills, California, United States. Bern shot himself in Jean Harlow's bedroom, drenched in her perfume. Leaving a note "Dearest Dear, Unfortuately this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation, I Love you. Paul - You understand that last night was only a comedy."

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(-) 93 years ago Tuesday 5th of September 1933 Axel Kjellberg is shot dead by serial killer and leader of the so called 'Salaligan' Sigvard Thurneman aka The Doctor in Enåker Parish, Kölfors, Uppland, Sweden. Kjellberg's maid Karin Holmberg was also shot dead and the house was set on fire.

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(-) 92 years ago Wednesday 5th of September 1934 The Lady of the Lake is killed and mutilated by unidentified serial killer Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run aka the Cleveland Torso Murderer in Euclid Beach, Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Lady of the Lake was the Mad Butcher's probable first victim.

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(+) 86 years ago Thursday 5th of September 1940 Actress Raquel Welch, originally Jo Raquel Tejada is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

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(+) 84 years ago Saturday 5th of September 1942 Film director Werner Herzog, originally Werner Stipetić is born in München, Bayern, Germany.

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(x) 80 years ago Thursday 5th of September 1946 18-year-old Serial killer William George Heirens aka Catch Me Before I Kill More is sentenced to 3 consecutive life-sentences in Cook County’s Criminal Court, 2650 South California Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, United States. The day before, with Heirens's parents and the victims' families attending and Chief Justice Harold G. Ward presiding, Heirens admitted his guilt on the burglary and murder charges.

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(+) 80 years ago He Was a Crazy Little Thing Called Farrokh Thursday 5th of September 1946 Singer-songwriter and musician Freddie Mercury, originally Pharōkh Balsārā‌ known from Queen is born in Stone Town, Tanzania.

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(+) 63 years ago Thursday 5th of September 1963 Murderer Shaka Sankofa, originally Gary Lee Graham is born in Harris County, Texas, United States.

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(x) 57 years ago Friday 5th of September 1969 26-year-old American hero and mass murderer William Laws Calley known for the My Lay Massacre is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder for the deaths of 109 South Vietnamese civilians on 16 March 1968 near the village of My Lai in Vietnam in Fort Benning, Georgia, United States.

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(x) 56 years ago He Ate Her Undigested Cereals Saturday 5th of September 1970 31-year-old Mass murderer Dale Merle Nelson kills Shirley Wasyk, her children 7-year-old Tracey, 8-year-old Sharlene, Ray Phibbs, Isabelle St. Amand and their children 10-year-old Paul, 8-year-old Cathy, 7-year-old Brian and 18-month-old Roy with a fire extinguisher, a knife, a hammer and a 7mm Mauser 98k Bolt-action rifle following a drinking binge and possible use of LSD in Creston, British Columbia, Canada. Nelson was located late in the afternoon the next day in a shack in the woods near his home and surrendered to police without incident. Nelson had taken the bodies of Cathy to sodomise her and Tracey to tear out her organs and partly eat them with undigested cereals from her stomach in the woods.

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(-) 56 years ago He Did Not Wear the Crotch Straps Saturday 5th of September 1970 Formula One racer Jochen Karl Rindt dies in a crash while practicing for the Italian Grand Prix at the age of 28 in Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Lombardia, Italy. Rindt was in the habit of using only four points on the five-point harness then available and did not wear the crotch straps as he wanted to be able to exit the car quickly in the event of fire. As a result, upon impact he slid under the belts and suffered fatal throat injuries.

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(-) 54 years ago Tuesday 5th of September 1972 Alexandra Joan Gery is presumably beaten to death by unidentified serial killer the Zodiac Killer in 3344 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, California, United States.

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(x) 54 years ago Tuesday 5th of September 1972 Eleven Israelian athletes and coaches and one German police officer are taken hostage and/or shot dead by eight members of Palestinian militant organization Black September Organization in Olympisches Dorf Gebäude 31, Connollystraße 31, München, Bayern, Germany. The eleven athletes and five terrorists were killed in a failed rescue attempt on Fürstenfeldbruck airfield the next day. The dead athletes were wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg, weightlifter Yossef Romano, weightlifter Ze'ev Friedman, weightlifter David Berger, weightlifting judge Yakov Springer, wrestler Eliezer Halfin, wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund, shooting coach < strong>Kehat Shorr, wrestler Mark Slavin, fencing coach Andre Spitzer, track coach Amitzur Shapira, and West German police officer Anton Fliegerbauer. The dead terrorists were Luttif Afif aka Issa, Yusuf Nazzal aka Tony, Afif Ahmed Hamid aka Paolo, Khalid Jawad aka Salah and Ahmed Chic Thaa aka Abu Halla. Terrorists Jamal Al-Gashey had been shot through his right wrist, Mohammed Safady had sustained a flesh wound to his leg and Adnan Al-Gashey had escaped injury completely.

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(x) 51 years ago Friday 5th of September 1975 Gerald Rudolph Ford, originally Leslie Lynch King Jr. is attacked by member of the 'Manson Family' Lynette Fromme aka Squeaky in Capitol Park, south of 1121 L Street, Sacramento, California, United States. Fromme stood a little more than an arm's length from Ford and pointed a M1911 pistol at him. Her gun failed to fire and no one was injured. Fromme spent 34 years in prison for her assassination attempt and was released on 14 August 2009 – two years and eight months after Ford's death.

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(x) 49 years ago Monday 5th of September 1977 62-year-old Vorsitzender des Bundesverbandes der Deutschen Industrie Hanns Martin Schleyer is kidnapped by die Rote Armee Fraktion Kommando Siegfried Hausner in Vincenz-Statz-Straße, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

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(x) 48 years ago Tuesday 5th of September 1978 49-year-old Serial killer Charles Ray Hatcher aka Evil Incarnate is arrested as Richard Clarke for sodomizing an unidentified 16-year-old boy in Omaha, Nebraska, United States.

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(x) 46 years ago Friday 5th of September 1980 21-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Ladder - 2' in ICC, Meir 50, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium. I placed my self-made ladders on the marble staircase and then fell from the stairs 6 times.

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(-) 38 years ago Monday 5th of September 1988 Student and unofficial prostitute Olga Gaevskaya dies of AIDS at the age of 29 in Leningrad, Northwestern Federal District, Russia. Gaevskaya turned to doctors in 1985 and over the next 3 years she received inoperable diagnoses 26 times for various diseases. Gaevskaya was the first official victim of aids in the USSR and she died from pneumocystic pneumonia.

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(x) 29 years ago Friday 5th of September 1997 35-year-old Murderer Wilford Lee Berry aka The Volunteer is assaulted during a riot because his fellow death row inmates felt that his 'volunteer status' would negatively affect their efforts to delay their own executions in Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, Lucasville, Ohio, United States. Berry's jaw and facial bones were badly broken during the assault and required surgery and metal implants to repair the damage. Berry's right hand was also heavily damaged because he used it in an attempt to protect the back of his head from blows inflicted by a heavy padlock swung on a chain. Berry also suffered several broken ribs, bruised internal organs, and required staples in his head.

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(-) 29 years ago Friday 5th of September 1997 Nun and missionary Mother Teresa, originally Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu dies of heart failure at the age of 87 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.

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21 years ago The Eyes had it Monday 5th of September 2005 Our finalized Club Moral Monument containing the names of some 300 individuals and bands who played, performed, exhibited at Club Moral and/or contributed to Force Mental at the stonecutter in Borsbeek, Antwerpen, Belgium.

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(x) 21 years ago the Durian Was to Blame Monday 5th of September 2005 149 die in Mandala Airlines Flight 91 Boeing 737-230 Adv crash in Polonia International Airport, Medan, Sumatera Utara, Indonesia. The plane crashed into a heavily populated residential area seconds after taking off. Dozens of houses and cars were destroyed and 49 people perished on the ground. 17 passengers survived the accident. Observers reported smelling Durian fruit in the crash, leading to suggestions that the plane was overloaded with the prized fruit. The director of the airline initially denied that durian was on board but later admitted that 2,7 tonnes were loaded.

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