Today In History

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2017. There are 116 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 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 October 29.)

ON THIS DATE

› 1916: The first selfserve grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders.

› 1925: The silent film horror classic “The Phantom of the Opera,” starring Lon Chaney, had its world premiere at the Astor Theater in New York.

› 1939: The Union of South Africa declared war on Germany.

› 1975: Eighteen-yearold tennis star Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum in the United States.

› 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.

› 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.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Comedian JoAnne Worley is 82. Country singer David Allan Coe is 78. Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 74. Actress Swoosie Kurtz is 73. Actor James Martin Kelly is 63. Country musician Joe Smyth (Sawyer Brown) is 60. Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 59. Actor-comedian Michael Winslow is 59. Rock musician Perry Bamonte is 57. Actor Steven Eckholdt is

56. Rock musician Scott Travis (Judas Priest) is

56. Country singer Mark Chesnutt is 54. Actress Betsy Russell is 54. Actress Rosie Perez is 53. Rhythm and blues singer Macy Gray is 50. Singer CeCe Peniston is 48. Rhythm and blues singer Darryl Anthony (Az Yet) is 48. Actress Daniele Gaither is 47. Rock singer Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries) is 46. Actor Dylan Bruno is 45. Actor Justin Whalin is 43. Actress Naomie Harris is

41. Rapper Noreaga is 40. Actress Natalia Cigliuti is

39. Rapper Foxy Brown is

39. Actor Howard Charles is 34. Rock singer Max George (The Wanted) is

29.