Today’s highlights

On Sept. 1, 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

On this date

1715: Following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday; he was succeeded by his 5-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV.

1897: The first section of Boston’s new subway was opened, creating the first underground rapid transit system in North America.

1914: The passenger pigeon, once one of the most abundant bird species on earth, went extinct as the last known example, named Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

1923: The Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

1939: Nazi Germany invaded Poland, an event regarded as the start of World War II.

1964: Pitcher Masanori Murakami of the San Francisco Giants became the first Japanese baseball player to play in a Major League Baseball game.

1972: American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik, Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of their 21st and final game.

1983: 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

Today’s birthdays

Attorney Alan Dershowitz is 86. Comedian-actor Lily Tomlin is 85. Singer Barry Gibb is 78. Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 74. Singer Gloria Estefan is 67.