TODAY IN HISTORY

On Sept. 14, 1812,

Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops entered Moscow following the Battle of Borodino to find the Russian city largely abandoned and parts set ablaze.

In 1814,

Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” (later “The Star-Spangled Banner”) after witnessing the American flag flying over the Maryland fort following a night of British naval bombardment during the War of 1812.

In 1847,

during the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott took control of Mexico City.

In 1861,

the first naval engagement of the Civil War took place as the USS Colorado attacked and sank the Confederate private schooner Judah off Pensacola.

In 1901,

President William McKinley died in Buffalo, New York, of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him.

In 1954,

the Soviet Union detonated a 40-kiloton atomic test weapon.

In 1963,

Mary Ann Fischer of Aberdeen, South Dakota, gave birth to four girls and a boy, the first known surviving quintuplets in the United States.

In 1991,

the government of South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party signed a national peace pact.

In 1994,

on the 34th day of a strike by players, Acting Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced the 1994 season was over.

In 2001,

Americans packed churches and clogged public squares on a day of remembrance for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.