Saturday, Sept. 1, is the 245th day of 2012. There are 121 days left in the year.

Today’s birthdays: Former Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird is 90. Conductor Seiji Ozawa is 77. Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 74. Comedian-actress Lily Tomlin is 73. Singer Barry Gibb is 66. Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 62. Singer Gloria Estefan is 55. Retired NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway is 46.

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was found not guilty of treason.

In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.

In 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

In 1961, the Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia. A TWA Lockheed Constellation crashed shortly after takeoff from Chicago’s Midway Airport, killing all 78 people on board.

In 1983, 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.

In 2007, Idaho Senator Larry Craig announced his resignation, saying he would leave office in the wake of fallout over his arrest and guilty plea in a Minnesota airport gay sex sting. (However, Craig later reversed his decision, saying he would serve out the rest of his term.) Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter against Baltimore in his second major league start, just hours after being called up by the Boston Red Sox.