TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2017. There are 116 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later; Czolgosz was executed on October 29.) On this date:

n In 1916, the first self-serve grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders.

n In 1925, the silent film horror classic “The Phantom of the Opera,” starring Lon Chaney, had its world premiere at the Astor Theater in New York.

n In 1970, Palestinian guerrillas seized control of three U.S.-bound jetliners. (Two were later blown up on the ground in Jordan, along with a London-bound plane hijacked on Sept. 9; the fourth plane was destroyed on the ground in Egypt. No hostages were harmed.)

n In 1985, all 31 people aboard a Midwest Express Airlines DC-9 were killed when the Atlantabound jetliner crashed just after takeoff from Milwaukee’s Mitchell Field.

n In 1997, a public funeral was held for Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in London, six days after her death in a car crash in Paris. Today’s Birthdays: Comedian JoAnne Worley is 82. Country singer David Allan Coe is 78. Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 74. Country singer-songwriter Buddy Miller is 65. Actor James Martin Kelly is 63. Country musician Joe Smyth (Sawyer Brown) is 60. Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 59. Rock musician Kevin Miller is 55. Country singer Mark Chesnutt is 54. Actress Rosie Perez is 53. Rock singer Dolores O’Riordan (The Cranberries) is 46. Actress Anika Noni (ah-NEE’-kuh NOH’-nee) Rose is 45. Rock singer Nina Persson (The Cardigans) is 43. Actor Justin Whalin is 43. Rapper Noreaga is 40. Thought for Today: “We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.”—Iris Murdoch, AngloIrish author and philosopher (19191999).