September 5

917 – Liu Yan declares himself emperor, establishing the Southern Han state in southern China, at his capital of Panyu. 1367 – Swa Saw Ke becomes king of Ava 1590 – Alexander Farnese's army forces Henry IV of France to lift the siege of Paris. 1622 – A hurricane overruns a Spanish fleet bound from Havana to Cadiz and sinks the galleon Atocha. Only five men are rescued, but 260 passengers and 200 million pesos are buried with the Atocha under 50 feet of water. 1661 – Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers. 1666 – Great Fire of London ends: Ten thousand buildings, including Old St Paul's Cathedral, are destroyed, but only six people are known to have died. 1697 – War of the Grand Alliance : A French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron at the Battle of Hudson's Bay. 1698 – In an effort to Westernize his nobility, Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry. 1725 – Wedding of Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska. 1774 – First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia. 1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: The British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown. 1791 – Olympe de Gouges writes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen. 1793 – French Revolution: The French National Convention initiates the Reign of Terror. 1798 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan law. 1812 – War of 1812: The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses. 1816 – Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber"). 1836 – Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas. 1839 – The United Kingdom declares war on the Qing dynasty of China. 1862 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia crosses the Potomac River at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.