TODAY IN HISTORY
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction, a measure primarily concerned with protecting voting rights and which also established a Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice. On this date
In 1776, the second Continental Congress made the term "United States" official, replacing "United Colonies."
In 1850, California became the 31st state of the union.
In 1893, Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther, in the White House; it was the first (and, to date, only) time a president's child was born in the executive mansion.
In 1919, some 1,100 members of Boston's 1,500-man police force went on strike. (The strike was broken by Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge with replacement officers.)
In 1926, the National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) was incorporated by the Radio Corp. of America.
In 1942, during World War II, a Japanese plane launched from a submarine off the Oregon coast dropped a pair of incendiary bombs in a failed attempt at igniting a massive forest fire; it was the first aerial bombing of the U.S. mainland by a foreign power.
In 1956, Elvis Presley made the first of three appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
In 1967, the comedy show "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" aired as a onetime special on NBC; its success led to a regular series beginning in January 1968.
In 1971, prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, beginning a siege that ended up claiming 43 lives.
In 1976, Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong died in Beijing at age 82. JVC unveiled its new VHS videocassette recorder during a presentation in Tokyo.
In 1986, Frank Reed, director of a private school in Lebanon, was taken hostage; he was released 44 months later.
In 1997, Sinn Fein (shin fayn), the IRA's political ally, formally renounced violence as it took its place in talks on Northern Ireland's future. Actor Burgess Meredith died in Malibu, California, at age 89.
Ten years ago: Seemingly taunting Osama bin Laden, President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, said in Sunday talk-show appearances that the fugitive al-Qaida leader was "virtually impotent" beyond his ability to hide away and spread anti-American propaganda.