TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Sept. 6, the 250th day of 2020. There are 116 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On Sept. 6, 1997, a public funeral was held for Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in London, six days after her death in a car crash in Paris. In Calcutta, India, weeping masses gathered to pay homage to Mother Teresa, who had died the day before at age 87.
On this date:
In 1888, diplomat and financier Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was born in Boston.
In 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later; Czolgosz was executed on Oct. 29.)
In 1909, American explorer Robert Peary sent a telegram from Indian Harbor, Labrador, announcing that he had reached the North Pole five months earlier.
In 1916, the first self-serve grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders.
In 1943, 79 people were killed when a New York-bound Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed and crashed in Philadelphia.
In 1972, the Summer Olympics resumed in Munich, West Germany, a day after the deadly hostage crisis that claimed the lives of eleven Israelis and five Arab abductors.
In 1985, all 31 people aboard a Midwest Express Airlines DC-9 were killed when the Atlanta-bound jetliner crashed just after takeoff from Milwaukee’s Mitchell Field.
In 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record by playing his two-thousand-131st consecutive game.
In 2002, meeting outside Washington, D.C. for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of September 11.
In 2003, Justine Henin-Hardenne won the all-Belgian women’s singles final at the U.S. Open, beating countrywoman Kim Clijsters, 7-5, 6-1.
In 2006, President George W. Bush acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was running secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation had forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.
In 2007, opera star Luciano Pavarotti died in Modena, Italy, at the age of 71.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama rolled out a spending program that would have exceeded $50 billion on construction projects, and coupled it with an opportunistic campaign-season assault accusing Republicans of causing Americans’ hard economic times. (The proposal ended up being blocked by the Senate.)
Five years ago: Guatemala held its general election; with no presidential candidate winning more than 50 percent of the vote, there was a runoff the following month that was won by former TV comedian Jimmy Morales.
One year ago: Zimbabwe’s president announced that Robert Mugabe, the country’s former leader who was forced to resign after a 37-year rule, had died at the age of 95; he had taken power after white minority rule ended in 1980. A weakened Hurricane Dorian flooded homes on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, forcing people to climb to their attics. Hundreds of desperate hurricane survivors gathered at the port on the Bahamian island of Grand Abaco in hopes of getting off the devastated island. U.S. health officials again urged people to stop vaping until officials figured out why some were coming down with serious breathing illnesses.