TODAY IN 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

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.

1964 — Malta gained independence from Britain.

1970 — “NFL Monday Night Football” made its debut on ABC-TV as the Cleveland Browns defeated the visiting New York Jets, 31-21.

1989 — Hurricane Hugo crashed into Charleston, South Carolina (the storm was blamed for 56 deaths in the Caribbean and 29 in the United States). Twenty-one students in Alton, Texas, died when their school bus, hit by a soft-drink delivery truck, careened into a water-filled pit.

1996 — John F. Kennedy Jr. married Carolyn Bessette in a secret ceremony on Cumberland Island, Georgia. The board of all-male Virginia Military Institute voted to admit women.

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.