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On Sept. 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
On this date:
In 1698, Russia's Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards.
In 1864, voters in Louisiana approved a new state constitution abolishing slavery.
In 1939, four days after war had broken out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in the conflict.
In 1960, at the Rome Olympics, American boxer Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) defeated Zbigniew Pietrzykowski (zuh-BIG'-nee-ehf pee-eht-chah-KAHF'-skee) of Poland to win the light-heavyweight gold medal; Wilma Rudolph of the United States won the second of her three gold medals with the 200-meter sprint.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation making aircraft hijackings a federal crime.
In 1972, the Palestinian group Black September attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Munich Games, killing 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team and a police officer. German forces killed five of the gunmen.
In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, California.
In 1986, four hijackers who had seized a Pan Am jumbo jet on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan, opened fire when the lights inside the plane failed; a total of 20 people were killed before Pakistani commandos stormed the jetliner.
In 1991, the 35th annual Naval Aviation Symposium held by the Tailhook Association opened in Las Vegas; during the four-day gathering, there were reports that dozens of people, most of them women, were sexually assaulted or otherwise harassed.