HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Wednesday, September 20, the 263rd day of 2017. There are 102 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1946 – The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been
delayed seven years due to World War II. 1961 – Greek general Konstantinos Dovas becomes Prime
Minister of Greece. 1962 – James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily
barred from entering the University of Mississippi. 1967 – RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched at John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. It is operated by the Cunard Line. 1970 – Syrian tanks roll into Jordan in response to continued
fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen. 1971 – Having weakened after making landfall in Nicaragua the previous day, Hurricane Irene regains enough strength to be renamed Hurricane Olivia, making it the first known hurricane to cross from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific. 1973 – Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the
Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome. 1979 – A coup d’état in the Central African Empire overthrows
Emperor Bokasa I. 1984 – A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in
Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people. 1985 – Capital gains tax is introduced in Australia, one of a number of tax reforms by the Hawke/Keating government. 1990 – South Ossetia declares its independence from
Georgia. 2000 – The United Kingdom’s MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building is attacked by individuals using a Russian-built RPG-22 anti-tank missile. The perpetrators remain unidentified. 2001 – In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, US President George W. Bush declares a “War on Terror”. 2003 – Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan
Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé. 2007 – Between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena, Louisiana, in support of six black youths who had been convicted of assaulting a white classmate. 2008 – A dump truck full of explosives detonates in front of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 54 people and injuring 266 others. 2011 – The United States military ends its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.