On this day in conspiracies

At 11:58 a.m. a magnitude-7.9 earthquake devastates Tokyo, Yokohama, and the surrounding Kanto region. Firestorms fed by collapsed wooden houses and lunchtime cooking flames sweep the cities; the disaster ultimately kills around 105,000 people and leaves millions homeless.

At 04:45 German forces invade Poland. Hitler addresses the Reichstag, casting the war as a response to Polish aggression: 'This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory.' Germany invokes the manufactured attacks as its casus belli. Britain and France declare war on 3 September.

Aline Kearney reports a sweet odor and paralysis in her legs; her husband Bert Kearney later says he saw a tall man in dark clothing at the bedroom window. The Mattoon Journal-Gazette runs the story on its front page, and the case becomes the panic's first widely publicized 'attack.'

The airliner crosses the Kamchatka Peninsula and then Sakhalin Island, penetrating Soviet airspace by more than 300 kilometres. A Soviet Su-15 interceptor, flown by Major Gennadi Osipovich, is scrambled and closes on the aircraft.