Sept. 8, French poet and Nobel laureate Frederic Mistral born

1380 – Russians defeat Mongol-Tartar army in Battle of Kulikovo.

1937 – Syria hosts Arab conference to discuss the Palestine Cause in light of increasing Jewish immigration to it under the British mandate.

1941 – Beginning of Nazi siege of Soviet city of Leningrad during World War II.

1943 – Italy announces unconditional surrender in World War II.

1974 – US President Jerald Ford grants full pardon to former President Richard Nixon on Watergate scandal.

1830 – French poet and writer and Nobel laureate Frederic Mistral was born in Maillaine, a village in the Rhone Valley.

H.Zain/ H. Said