TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, Sept. 11, the 254th day of 2021. There are 111 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History: On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes into New York's World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.
On this date:
In 1789, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1814, an American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.
In 1936, Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) began operation as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a key in Washington to signal the startup of the dam's first hydroelectric generator.
In 1941, groundbreaking took place for the Pentagon. In a speech that drew accusations of anti-Semitism, Charles A. Lindbergh told an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa, that "the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration" were pushing the United States toward war.
In 1967, the comedyvariety program "The Carol Burnett Show" premiered on CBS.
In 1985, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds cracked career hit number 4,192 off Eric Show (rhymes with "how") of the San Diego Padres, eclipsing the record held by Ty Cobb. (The Reds won the game, 2-0).
In 2006, in a primetime address, President George W. Bush invoked the memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks as he staunchly defended the war in Iraq, though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the attacks.
In 2008, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama put aside politics as they visited ground zero together on the anniversary of 9/11 to honor its victims.
In 2012, a mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Ten years ago: The nation and the world marked the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In New York, a tree-covered memorial plaza at ground zero opened to the families of the victims for the first time. President Barack Obama, after visiting the sites where terrorists struck, declared: "It will be said of us that we kept that faith; that we took a painful blow, and emerged stronger."