On This Day: September 2

September 2 carries three scenes in which an old arrangement could no longer hold. In London, a bakery fire became a citywide catastrophe and forced a new approach to rebuilding. In Tokyo Bay, the Second World War ended on the deck of the USS Missouri. In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent from France before a crowd at Ba Dinh Square.

The fire began just after one in the morning in the house of the king's baker on Pudding Lane. Dry timber buildings, tightly packed streets, stored fuel, and strong east winds helped the flames spread. The London Fire Brigade records the use of gunpowder to create breaks in the fire's path and the destruction of about 13,200 houses and 87 parish churches. 1

The fire burned from September 2 to 5, 1666, and led to decades of reconstruction, including Christopher Wren's work on the new St. Paul's Cathedral. 2

The formal surrender ceremony began at 9:02 a.m. aboard the USS Missouri and ended twenty-three minutes later. Japanese representatives and delegates from nine Allied nations signed the Instrument of Surrender; the USS Missouri Memorial Association records that the war was officially over at 9:25. 3 The Truman Library Institute provides the ceremony's setting, participants, and the document's role in formally closing the war with Japan. 4

Hours later and thousands of miles away, Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam's Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square. The proclamation drew on the language of the American Declaration of Independence while arguing against French colonial rule. The Viet Minh had seized Hanoi, Emperor Bao Dai had abdicated, and the declaration began a political struggle that continued through war and another three decades before reunification. 56

The episode follows the objects that hold these turning points: a bakery, a battleship, and a public square.