TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, SEPT. 11, the 254th day of 2018. There are 111 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2001, on America’s single-worst day of terrorism, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida members hijacked four passenger jetliners, sending two of the planes smashing into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.
In 1297, Scottish rebels led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeated English troops in the Battle of Stirling Bridge during the First War of Scottish Independence.
In 1789, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1814, an American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.
In 1857, the Mountain Meadows Massacre took place in present-day southern Utah as a 120-member Arkansas immigrant party was slaughtered by Mormon militiamen aided by Paiute Indians.
In 1941, groundbreaking took place for the Pentagon. In a speech that drew accusations of anti-Semitism, Charles A. Lindbergh told an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa, that “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration” were pushing the United States toward war.
In 1954, the Miss America pageant made its network TV debut on ABC; Miss California, Lee Meriwether, was crowned the winner.
In 2003, actor John Ritter died six days before his 55th birthday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Calif. — the same hospital where he was born in 1948.
In 2006, in a prime-time address, President George W. Bush invoked the memory of the victims of the 9-11 attacks as he staunchly defended the war in Iraq, though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the attacks.
In 2007, a new Osama bin Laden videotape was released on the sixth anniversary of 9-11; in it, the al-Qaida leader’s voice is heard commemorating one of the suicide hijackers and calling on young Muslims to follow his example by martyring themselves in attacks.
In 2012, a mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Earl Holliman is 90. Comedian Tom Dreesen is 79. Movie director Brian De Palma is 78. Singer-actress-dancer Lola Falana is 76. Rock musician Mickey Hart (The Dead) is 75. Singer-musician Leo Kottke is 73. Actor Phillip Alford is 70. Actress Amy Madigan is 68. Rock singer-musician Tommy Shaw (Styx) and sports reporter Lesley Visser are 65. Actor Reed Birney is 64. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and musician Jon Moss (Culture Club) are 61. Actor Scott Patterson, rock musician Mick Talbot (The Style Council) and actress Roxann Dawson are 60. Actor John Hawkes is 59. Actress Anne Ramsay is 58. Actress Virginia Madsen is 57. Actress Kristy McNichol is 56. Musician-composer Moby and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are 53. Business reporter Maria Bartiromo and singer Harry Connick Jr. are 51. Rock musician Bart Van Der Zeeuw is 50. Actresses Taraji P. Henson and Laura Wright are 48. Rock musician Jeremy Popoff (Lit) and blogger Markos Moulitsas are 47. Singer Brad Fischetti (LFO) is 43. Rappers Mr. Black and Ludacris, and rock musician Jon Buckland (Coldplay) are 41. Rock singer Ben Lee and actor Ryan Slattery are 40. Actress Ariana Richards is 39. Country singer Charles Kelley (Lady Antebellum) is 37.