Today is Sunday, Sept. 18, the 262nd day of 2016. There are 104 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 18, 1793, President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
On this date:
In A.D. 14, the Roman Senate officially confirmed Tiberius as the second emperor of the Roman Empire, succeeding the late Augustus.
In 1759, the French formally surrendered Quebec to the British.
In 1810, Chile made its initial declaration of independence from Spain with the forming of a national junta.
In 1927, the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System (later CBS) made its on-air debut with a basic network of 16 radio stations.
In 1931, an explosion in the Chinese city of Mukden damaged a section of Japanese-owned railway track; Japan, blaming Chinese nationalists, invaded Manchuria the next day.
In 1947, the National Security Act, which created a National Military Establishment and the position of Secretary of Defense, went into effect.
In 1959, during his U.S. tour, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the grave of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Khrushchev called on all countries to disarm.
In 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold (dahg HAWM’-ahr-shoold) was killed in a plane crash in northern Rhodesia.
In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix died in London at age 27.
In 1975, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In 1981, a museum honoring former President Gerald R. Ford was dedicated in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In 1990, the city of Atlanta was named the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Ten years ago: An Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, Anousheh Ansari (ah-NOO’-shuh an-SAH’-ree), took off on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station, becoming the world’s first paying female space tourist. Aboard the space station, an oxygen generator overheated and spilled a toxic irritant, forcing the crew to don masks and gloves in the first emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
Five years ago: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, broke his silence four months after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault, calling his encounter with the woman a “moral failing” he deeply regretted, but insisting in an interview on French television that no violence was involved. A magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook northeastern India and Nepal, resulting in some 100 deaths. For a second year, Emmy Awards for drama and comedy went to “Mad Men” and “Modern Family.”
One year ago: The Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had intentionally skirted clean air laws by using software that enabled about 500,000 of its diesel cars to emit fewer smog-causing pollutants during testing than in real-world driving conditions; the EPA ordered VW to fix the cars at its own expense. President Barack Obama announced he would nominate longtime Pentagon official Eric Fanning to be the Army’s new secretary; Fanning became the nation’s first openly gay leader of a military service. Authorities in Boston announced that they had identified “Baby Doe,” a young girl whose body was found on Deer Island in Winthrop the previous June, as two-year-old Bella Bond. (The boyfriend of Bella’s mother was charged with murder while the mother was accused of helping conceal the body; both have yet to stand trial.)
Today’s Birthdays: Voice actress June Foray is 99. Singer Jimmie Rodgers is 83. Actor Robert Blake is 83. Actor Fred Willard is 83. Actor Eddie Jones is 82. Gospel singer Bobby Jones is 78. Singer Frankie Avalon is 76. Actress Beth Grant is 67. Rock musician Kerry Livgren is 67. Actress Anna Deavere Smith is 66. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino is 64. College Football Hall of Famer and retired NFL player Billy Sims is 61. Movie director Mark Romanek is 57. Baseball Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is 57. Alt-country-rock musician Mark Olson is 55. Singer Joanne Catherall (Human League) is 54. Actress Holly Robinson Peete is 52. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ricky Bell (Bell Biv Devoe and New Edition) is 49. Actress Aisha Tyler is 46. Former racing cyclist Lance Armstrong is 45. Opera singer Anna Netrebko is 45. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith is 45. Actor James Marsden is 43. Actress Emily Rutherfurd is 42. Actor Travis Schuldt is 42. Rapper Xzibit is 42. Comedian-actor Jason Sudeikis is 41. Actress Sophina Brown is 40. Actor Barrett Foa is 39. Talk show co-host Sara Haines (TV: “The View”) is 39. Actress Alison Lohman is 37. Actors Brandon and Taylor Porter are 23. Actor C.J. Sanders is 20.
Thought for Today: “We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don’t it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.” — Jessamyn West, American author (1902-1984).
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