5 September 1960

California wildfires: A pyrotechnic device at a gender reveal party ignited the El Dorado Fire (pictured), burning for 71 days and killing one firefighter.

NASA launched the space probe Voyager 1, currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Squeaky Fromme (pictured), a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

The Palestinian militant group Black September took hostage eleven Israeli athletes and coaches at the Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany; all of the hostages were killed less than 24 hours later.

During the practice session of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza Circuit, Jochen Rindt was killed and subsequently became motor racing's only posthumous world champion.

Hurricane Cleo dissipated after causing 156 deaths, mainly in Haiti, and causing roughly US$187 million in damages across the Caribbean and southeastern United States.

World War II: American and Australian airborne forces landed at Nadzab as part of the New Guinea campaign against Japan.

Forty-eight people died in a fire in a makeshift cinema in Dromcolliher, Ireland.

The Zimmerwald Conference, the first of three international socialist conferences forming the Zimmerwald movement, opened in Switzerland.

The Casablanca Fair (poster pictured) opened in the French protectorate in Morocco.

Under the mediation of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of a treaty at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.

A fire that killed 186 people broke out at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, England.

A group of London schoolboys led by Bobby Buckle founded Hotspur Football Club to continue to play sports during the winter months.

Facing rising discontent in France, Louis XVIII was forced to dissolve the Chambre introuvable, the legislature dominated by Ultra-royalists.

American Revolutionary War: French naval forces handed Britain a major strategic defeat at the Battle of the Chesapeake (depicted).

In response to the British Parliament's enactment of the so-called Intolerable Acts, representatives from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies convened the First Continental Congress at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia.

Liz Truss is declared the winner of the UK Conservative Party leadership election, beating Rishi Sunak.

At least 93 people die and 25 are missing after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Sichuan, China.

The President of Guinea, Alpha Condé is captured by armed forces during a coup d'état.

An accidental explosion at a Turkish Army ammunition store in Afyon, western Turkey kills 25 soldiers and wounds four others.

Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashes after takeoff from Polonia International Airport in Medan, Indonesia, killing 149.

Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people.

Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers slaughter 158 civilians.

Pan Am Flight 73 from Mumbai, India with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.