TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Thursday, Sept. 21, the 264th day of 2017. There are 101 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History On September 21, 1897, responding to a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon, the New York Sun ran its famous editorial by Francis P. Church that declared, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.”
On this date
• In 1792, the French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.
• In 1925, the Rudolf Friml operetta “The Vagabond King” opened on Broadway.
• In 1937, “The Hobbit,” by J.R.R. Tolkien, was first published by George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. of London.
• In 1938, a hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming some 700 lives.
• In 1948, Milton Berle made his debut as permanent host of “The Texaco Star Theater” on NBC-TV.
• In 1957, Norway’s King Haakon VII died in Oslo at age 85. The legal mystery-drama “Perry Mason,” starring Raymond Burr, premiered on CBS-TV.
• In 1964, Malta gained independence from Britain.
• In 1970, “NFL Monday Night Football” made its debut on ABC-TV as the Cleveland Browns defeated the visiting New York Jets, 31-21.
• In 1977, after weeks of controversy over past business and banking practices, President Jimmy Carter’s embattled budget director, Bert Lance, resigned.
• In 1987, NFL players called a strike, mainly over the issue of free agency. (The 24-day walkout prompted football owners to hire replacement players.)
• In 1989, Hurricane Hugo crashed into Charleston, S.C. (the storm was blamed for 56 deaths in the Caribbean and 29 in the United States). Twentyone students in Alton, Texas, died when their school bus, hit by a soft-drink delivery truck, careened into a water-filled pit.
• In 1996, John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, Ga. The board of all-male Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women.
Ten years ago One student was mortally wounded, another injured, at Delaware State University. (A suspected gunman was indicted for second-degree murder, but the case was dismissed by a judge because prosecutors withheld evidence.) The Rev. Rex Humbard, whose televangelism ministry once spanned the globe, died in Atlantis, Fla., at age 88. Tony Award-winning actress Alice Ghostley died in Los Angeles at age 83.
Five years ago A plane carrying Ann Romney from Omaha, Ne., to Los Angeles made an emergency landing in Denver after smoke filled the cabin; there were no injuries. A man was bitten multiple times after leaping from a monorail into a tiger exhibit at the Bronx Zoo. People lined up to buy Apple’s iPhone5 as it went on sale in the United States and several other countries.
One year ago Outraged Republican and Democratic lawmakers grilled Heather Bresch, the CEO of pharmaceutical company Mylan, about the significant cost increase of its life-saving EpiPens; defending her company’s business practices, Bresch told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee she wished the company had “better anticipated the magnitude and acceleration” of the rising prices for some families.