Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) Today is Friday, Sept. 5 or the sixth day of the ninth month of the Year of the Rat according to the lunar calendar. Following is a list of important events that have occurred on this date in the past: 

   1666: Navy teams at last halt the massive city-wide fire that has raged in London for a number of days by blowing up a swathe of buildings in the path of the flames. More than 13,000 homes and 90 churches have been destroyed but only nine lives were lost. 

   1735: Johann Christian Bach, German composer known as the "English Bach," is born. Son of Johann Sebastian Bach, he became Music Master to Queen Charlotte of Britain and composed more than 40 symphonies and several operas. 

   1798: Turkey declares war on France. 

   1857: Auguste Comte, French philosopher known as the founder of positivism, dies at the age of 59. He also established sociology as a systematic study. 

   1864: French, British and Dutch fleets attack Japan in the Shimonoseki Strait after Japan closed its ports and expelled all foreigners. 

   1905: The Treaty of Portsmouth is signed in New Hampshire, ending the Russo-Japanese War. Through the treaty mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, a victorious Japan obtains complete control over Korea and rights and interests in southern Manchuria, leaving the north to Russia. 

   1915: The first convention for international socialists is convened in Switzerland. 

   1922: American aviator James Doolittle makes the first American coast-to-coast flight, lasting 21 hours 19 minutes. 

   1939: The United States proclaims neutrality at the start of World War II. 

   1945: The first units of the Chinese New Sixth Army Corps arrive in Nanking by air before General Ho Ying-ching receives the formal surrender of Japanese forces in China from General Okamura on Sept. 9. 

   1967: The Republic of China establishes diplomatic relations with Barbados. 

   1972: Palestinian terrorists strike at the Munich Olympics, killing 11 Israeli athletes. 

   1974: Lt. Gen. Walter M. Galligar, commander of the 5th U.S. Air Force, arrives in Taipei for a two-day visit. 

   1975: U.S. President Gerald Ford narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of the cult leader Charles Manson, in Sacramento. 

   1980: The 16.3 km St. Gottard road tunnel, the longest in the world, is formally opened to traffic in Switzerland. 

   1986: Four gunmen holding a hijacked Pan Am plane in Karachi open fire on 400 passengers on board, killing more than 10 people and injuring over 120 others after Pakistan security forces storm the Boeing 747 jet. 

   1987: Communist China's first Chinese arts festival opens in Beijing. 

   1988: The Executive Yuan announces that the long-range Hsiung Feng II missile has been successfully developed and will soon be added to the ROC arsenal. 

   1991: The Union of Soviet States is no more. Under pressure from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union reluctantly winds up the Union and hands power to the Soviet republics. 

   1995: France conducts an underground nuclear test on Mururoa Atoll, causing worldwide condemnation. 

   1997: Mother Teresa, an Albanian-born Indian nun who won the 1979 Nobel Peace prize, dies at the age of 87. Dedicated to relieving the suffering of India's desperately poor and dying people, she founded a Roman Catholic congregation of sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, in 1950. 

   1999: Guatemalan President Alvaro Arzu, Honduran President Carlos Flores and Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemen arrive in Taipei to attend the second Summit of the Republic of China and Central American countries. 

   2000: P. K. Chiang, former chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, warns that economic problems should not be politicized and that he is worried about the "inappropriate" economic policy of the administration. 

   2000: Pop singer Chang Hui-mei, known to her fans as Ah Mei, is honored by the Taiwan Junior Chamber as one of Taiwan's top 10 outstanding young people. 

   2001: Taiwan's plastics tycoon Wang Yung-ching gives President Chen Shui-bian the thumps up for his support for phasing out the "no haste, be patient" policy curbing investment in and trade with mainland China. 

   Confucius' lesson of the day: "Moral sense and intellect are the powers or faculties of our being. They combine the inner or subjective and outer or objective use of the power of the mind. Therefore with truth everything done is right." ENDITEM