1974, just a month after taking office , President Gerald Fort pardons his predecessor Richard Nixon. Fort says Americans need to move beyond the Watergate Scandal that forces Nixon to resign. “It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I’ve concluded that only I can do that. ”

1664, what's now about the largest city in the United States changes hands. The Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the British who rename it New York.

1941, during World War II, Nazi Germany’s forces began a 900-day siege of Leningrader. And what’s then the Soviet Union. More than a half million of the people die, most of hunger, during the siege of the city now known as St. Petersburg Russia.

1922, comedian Sid Caesar, an early TV star with Your show of shows is born in Yonkers New York.

And 1966, "Star Trek", the sci-fi TV series that's bound to a media franchise that lasts to this day, premieres on NBC.

Today in History. September 8th. Tim Maguire, the Associated Press.