HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Saturday, September 16, the 259th day of 2017. There are 106 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1959 – The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City. 1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people. 1963 – Malaysia is formed from the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak. However, Singapore soon leaves this new country. 1966 – The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s opera Antony and Cleopatra. 1970 – King Hussein of Jordan declares military rule following the hijacking of four civilian airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This results in the formation of the Black September Palestinian paramilitary unit. 1975 – Papua New Guinea gains independence from

Australia. 1976 – Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from the

trolleybus that had fallen into Yerevan reservoir. 1978 – An earthquake measuring 7.5 to 7.9 on the Richter scale hits the city of Tabas, Iran killing about 25,000 people. 1987 – The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone

layer from depletion. 1990 – The railroad between the People’s Republic of China and Kazakhstan is completed at Dostyk, adding a sizable link to the concept of the Eurasian Land Bridge. 1992 – The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega ends in the United States with a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering. 2005 – The Camorra organized crime boss Paolo Di Lauro is

arrested in Naples, Italy. 2007 – One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew

and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people. 2007 – Mercenaries working for Blackwater Worldwide shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad; all criminal charges against them are later dismissed, however they are later tried and convicted of the crime. 2013 – A gunman kills twelve people at the Navy Yard in

Washington, D.C. 2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its

Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces.