HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY

Today’s highlight:

On Sept. 9, 1850, California became the 31st state of the union.

On this date:

1776: The second Continental Congress made the term “United States” official, replacing “United Colonies.”

1919: Some 1,100 members of Boston’s 1,500-man police force went on strike. The strike was broken by Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge with replacement officers.

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. 1956: Elvis Presley made the first of three appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” 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.

1971: Prisoners seized control of the maximumsecurity Attica Correctional

Facility near Buffalo, New York, beginning a siege that ended up claiming 43 lives.

1976: Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong died in Beijing at age 82. JVC unveiled its new VHS videocassette recorder during a presentation in Tokyo. 1986: Frank Reed, director of a private school in Lebanon, was taken hostage; he was released 44 months later. 1997: Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political ally, formally renounced violence as it took its place in talks on Northern Ireland’s future.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush announced he would keep U.S. force strength in Iraq largely intact until the next administration, drawing rebukes from Democrats who wanted the war ended and a bigger boost of troops in troubled Afghanistan.