TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Sept. 20, the 264th day of 2020. There are 102 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight

On Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in more than 80 years, struck the island, wiping out as much as 75 percent of the power distribution lines and causing an island-wide blackout.

On this date

In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships to find a western passage to the Spice Islands. (Magellan was killed en route, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.)

In 1873, panic swept the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures.

In 1881, Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding the assassinated James A. Garfield.

In 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. was seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when he was stabbed in the chest by Izola Curry. (Curry was later found mentally incompetent; she died at a Queens, N.Y., nursing home in 2015 at age 98.)

In 1962, James Meredith, a Black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Democratic Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith was later admitted.)

In 1973, singer-songwriter Jim Croce died in a plane crash near Natchitoches, La.; he was 30.

In 1995, AT&T Corporation announced it was splitting into three companies.

Today’s birthdays

Sophia Loren is 86. Hockey Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur is 69. Actor Debbi Morgan is 69. Actor Gary Cole is 64. TV news correspondent Deborah Roberts is 60. Country-rock musician Joseph Shreve (Flynnville Train) is 59. Rock singers Gunnar and Matthew Nelson are 53.