TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction, a measure primarily concerned with protecting voting rights and which also established a Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice.
On this date
• In 1776, the second Continental Congress made the term “United States” official, replacing “United Colonies.”
• In 1850, California became the 31st state of the union.
• In 1893, Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther, in the White House; it was the first (and, to date, only) time a president’s child was born in the executive mansion.
• In 1926, the National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) was incorporated by the Radio Corp. of America.
• In 1942, during World War II, a Japanese plane launched from a submarine off the Oregon coast dropped a pair of incendiary bombs in a failed attempt at igniting a massive forest fire; it was the first aerial bombing of the U.S. mainland by a foreign power.
• In 1956, Elvis Presley made the first of three appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
• In 1976, Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong died in Beijing at age 82. JVC unveiled its new VHS videocassette recorder during a presentation in Tokyo.
• In 1986, Frank Reed, director of a private school in Lebanon, was taken hostage; he was released 44 months later.
On Sept. 10
• In 1608, John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.
• In 1935, Sen. Huey P. Long died in Baton Rouge two days after being shot in the Louisiana state Capitol, allegedly by Dr. Carl Weiss.
• In 1945, Vidkun Quisling was sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis (he was executed by firing squad in October 1945).
• In 1955, the Western series “Gunsmoke,” starring James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, began a 20-season run on CBS-TV.
• In 1963, 20 black students entered Alabama public schools following a standoff between federal authorities and Gov. George C. Wallace.
• In 1977, convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, became the last person to date to be executed by the guillotine in France.
• In 1979, four Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for a 1954 attack on the U.S. House of Representatives and a 1950 attempt on the life of President Harry S. Truman were freed from prison after being granted clemency by President Jimmy Carter.
• In 1987, Pope John Paul II arrived in Miami, where he was welcomed by President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan as he began a 10-day tour of the United States.
On Sept. 11
• In 1297, Scottish rebels led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray defeated English troops in the Battle of Stirling Bridge during the First War of Scottish Independence.
• 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 1857, the Mountain Meadows Massacre took place in present-day southern Utah as a 120-member Arkansas immigrant party was slaughtered by Mormon militiamen aided by Paiute Indians.
• 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 1974, Eastern Airlines Flight 212, a DC-9, crashed while attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 72 of the 82 people on board.
• 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 1997, Scots voted to create their own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.