Today In History

Today is Saturday, Sept. 7, the 250th day of 2013. There are 115 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1963: The National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.

ON THIS DATE

1533: England’s Queen Elizabeth I was born in Greenwich.

1812: The Battle of Borodino took place as French troops clashed with Russian forces outside Moscow. ( The battle, ultimately won by Russia, was commemorated by composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky with his “1812 Overture.”)

1892: James J. Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan to win the world heavyweight crown in New Orleans in a fight conducted under the Marquess of Queensberry rules.

1940: Nazi Germany began its eight-month blitz of Britain during World War II with the first air attack on London.

1964: The controversial “Daisy” commercial, an ad for President Lyndon B. Johnson’s election campaign featuring a girl plucking flower petals followed by a nuclear explosion, aired on NBC-TV.

1968: Feminists protested outside the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J. (The pageant crown went to Miss Illinois Judith Ford.)

1977: The Panama Canal treaties, calling for the U.S. to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington by President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos.

1986: Desmond Tutu was installed as the first black to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

1996: Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Jazz musician Sonny Rollins is 83. Actress Susan Blakely is 65. Singer Gloria Gaynor is 64. Rock musician Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 60. Actor Corbin Bernsen is 59. Model-actress Angie Everhart is 44. Actor Tom Everett Scott is 43. Rock musician Chad Sexton (311) is 43. Singer-musician Wes Willis (Rush of Fools) is 27. Actress Evan Rachel Wood is 26.