DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Thursday, Sept. 9, the 252nd day of 2021. There are 113 days left in the year.
On this date:
1776: The second Continental Congress made the term “United States” official, replacing “United Colonies.”
1850: California became the 31st state of the union.
1893: Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, gave birth to a daughter, Esther, in the White House; it was the first (and, to date, only) time a president’s child was born in the executive mansion.
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.)
1932: The steamboat Observation exploded in New York’s East River, killing 72 people.
1948: The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was declared.
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.
1960: In the first regular-season American Football League game, the Denver Broncos defeated the Boston Patriots, 13-10.
1971: Prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York, beginning a siege that claimed 43 lives.
1991: Boxer Mike Tyson was indicted in Indianapolis on a charge of raping Desiree Washington, a beauty pageant contestant. (Tyson was convicted and ended up serving three years of a sixyear prison sentence.)
2005: Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, the principal target of harsh criticism of the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, was relieved of his onsite command.
2015: Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning monarch in British history, serving as sovereign for 23,226 days (about 63 years and 7 months), according to Buckingham Palace, surpassing Queen Victoria, her great-greatgrandmother. New York became the first U.S. city to require salt warnings on chain-restaurant menus.
Actor Topol (“Fiddler on the Roof ”) is 86. Singer Inez Fox is 79. Singer Dee Dee Sharp is 76. Guitarist John Mcfee of The Doobie Brothers is 71. Actor Tom Wopat is 70. Musician-producer Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) is 69. Actor Angela Cartwright (“The Danny Thomas Show,” “Lost In Space”) is 69. Actor Hugh Grant is 61. Actor Charles Esten (“Nashville”) is 56. Actor Constance Marie (“George Lopez”) is 56. Actor-comedian Adam Sandler is 55. Model Rachel Hunter is 52. Actor Eric Stonestreet (“Modern Family”) is 50. Actor Henry Thomas (“E.T.”) is 50. Actor Goran Visnjic (“ER”) is 49. Jazz singer Michael Bublé is 46. Actor Michelle Williams (“Brokeback Mountain,” “Dawson’s Creek”) is 41.