Sven Magnus Carlsen of Norway has been the world champion since 2013. Russian Anatoly Karpov took the championship from Fisher in 1975, and no other American has won it.
On this day in 1945, Japanese delegates officially signed the country's surrender to the Allies, ending WWII On this day in 1935, the Labor Day Hurricane (in the days before storms were named) made landfall in the Upper Florida Keys. About 600 people were killed by one of the strongest storms to ever hit the US mainland. On this day in 1666, the Great Fire of London guts most of the city. The fire was started when cinders from a baker's oven ignited his woodpile and then consumed the building. Strong winds spread the fire before it could be brought under control. Nearly 90 percent of the homes in the city were destroyed, along with most government buildings and St. Paul's Cathedral.
On this day in 1783, the Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the American Revolutionary War and officially granting the colonies freedom from British rule. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin signed the treaty on behalf of the US, while King George III sent a representative, who - sore loser that he was - refused to sit for an official portrait to commemorate the treaty. On this day in 1838, Frederick Douglass boards a train in Baltimore carrying false ID papers and dressed as a sailor. He makes his way to New York, and a safe house for runaway slaves. Its his third attempt to escape slavery, and he will go on to become a leading abolitionist and one of the great American orators of the Antebellum period. On this day in 1942, bandleader Tommy Dorsey loses his lead singer when Frank Sinatra breaks his contract to attempt a solo career. History suggests he did alright.
