HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Tuesday, September 12, the 255th day of 2017. There are 110 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1970 – Dawson’s Field hijackings: Palestinian terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Jordan, continuing to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman. 1977 – South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody. 1979 – Indonesia is hit with an earthquake that measures 8.1 on the Richter scale. 1980 – Military coup in Turkey. 1983 – The USSR vetoes a United Nations Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet shooting down of a Korean civilian jetliner on September 1. 1990 – The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification. 1992 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space. 1992 – Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, is captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path’s leadership fell as well. 1994 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House’s south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself. 1999 – Indonesia announces it will allow international peacekeepers into East Timor. 2001 – Ansett Australia, Australia’s first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry, leaving 10,000 people unemployed. 2003 – The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. 2003 – Iraq War: In Fallujah, US forces mistakenly shoot and
kill eight Iraqi police officers. 2005 – Hong Kong Disneyland opens in Penny’s Bay, Lantau
Island, Hong Kong. 2007 – Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is
convicted of the crime of plunder. 2011 – The 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City opens
to the public. 2014 – Oscar Pistorius is found guilty of the culpable homicide
of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.