This Day in History

On Sept. 15, 1972, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted seven men in connection with the Watergate break-in..

On this date:

In 1776, British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.

In 1789, the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge two weeks after he was found not guilty of treason.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship.

In 1940, during the World War II Battle of Britain, the tide turned as the Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses upon the Luftwaffe.

In 1942, during World War II, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; the U.S. Navy ended up sinking the badly damaged vessel.

In 1950, during the Korean conflict, United Nations forces landed at Incheon in the south and began their drive toward Seoul.

In 1961, the United States began Operation Nougat, a series of underground nuclear explosions in the Nevada Test Site, two weeks after the Soviet Union resumed testing its nuclear weapons.

In 1963, four black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.)

In 1981, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor.

In 1982, Iran’s former foreign minister, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, was executed after he was convicted of plotting against the government. The first edition of USA Today was published.

In 2001, President George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops to get ready for war and braced Americans for a long, difficult assault against terrorists to avenge the Sept. 11 attack. Afghans streamed out of Kabul, fearing a U.S. military strike against Taliban rulers harboring Osama bin Laden.

Ten years ago: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 504.48, or 4.42 percent, to 10,917.51 while oil closed below $100 a barrel.