TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, SEPT. 14, the 257th day of 2017. There are 108 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1814, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” (later “The Star-Spangled Banner”) after witnessing the American flag flying over the Maryland fort following a night of British naval bombardment during the War of 1812. In 1829, the Treaty of Adrianople was signed, ending war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. In 1861, the first naval engagement of the Civil War took place as the USS Colorado attacked and sank the Confederate private schooner Judah off Pensacola, Fla. In 1867, the first volume of “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx was published in Hamburg, Germany. In 1901, President William McKinley died in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him. In 1927, modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of the sports car she was riding in. In 1954, the Soviet Union detonated a 40-kiloton atomic test weapon.

In 1975, Pope Paul VI declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint.

In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, died at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, appeared together on radio and television to appeal for a “national crusade” against drug abuse.

In 1991, the government of South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party signed a national peace pact.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Walter Koenig is 81. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown is 77. Singeractress Joey Heatherton is 73. Actor Sam Neill and singer Jon “Bowzer” Bauman (Sha Na Na) are 70. Rock musician Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) is 62.