Today’s highlight in history
On Sept. 7, 1927, American television pioneer Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting the image of a line through purely electronic means with a device called an “image dissector” at his San Francisco laboratory.
On this date
In 1916, the Federal Employees Compensation Act, providing financial assistance to federal workers who suffer job-related injuries, was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
In 1940, Nazi Germany began its eight-month blitz of Britain during World War II with the first air attack on London.
In 1963, the National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.
In 1964, the controversial “Daisy” commercial for President Lyndon Johnson’s election campaign, featuring a girl plucking flower petals followed by a nuclear explosion, aired on NBC-TV.
In 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.
In 1979, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, made its cable TV debut. In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later. Ten years ago: A jury in St. Francisville, La., acquitted Sal and Mabel Mangano, the owners of a nursing home where 35 patients died after Hurricane Katrina, of negligent homicide and cruelty charges. Five years ago: Twin earthquakes and a spate of aftershocks struck southwestern China, toppling thousands of houses and killing more than 80 people. One year ago: President Barack Obama, during a visit to Laos, pledged to help to clear away the 80 million unexploded bombs the U.S. dropped on the Southeast Asian country a generation ago.