DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Thursday, Sept. 23, the 266th day of 2021. There are 99 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1779: During the Revolutionary War, the American warship Bon Homme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, defeated the HMS Serapis in battle off Yorkshire, England; however, the seriously damaged Bon Homme Richard sank two days later.
1806: The Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis more than two years after setting out for the Pacific Northwest.
1846: Neptune was identified as a planet by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
1932: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded.
1949: President Harry S. Truman announced there was evidence the Soviet
Union had recently conducted a nuclear test explosion. (The test had been carried out on Aug. 29, 1949.)
1952: Sen. Richard M. Nixon, R-calif., salvaged his vice-presidential nomination by appearing on television from Los Angeles to refute allegations of improper campaign fundraising in what became known as the “Checkers” speech.
1955: A jury in Sumner, Mississippi, acquitted two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, of murdering Black teenager Emmett Till. (The two men later admitted to the crime in an interview with Look magazine.)
1957: Nine Black students who’d entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside.
1987: Sen. Joseph Biden, D-del., withdrew from the Democratic presidential race following questions about his use of borrowed quotations and the portrayal of his academic record.
1999: The Mars Climate Orbiter apparently burned up as it attempted to go into orbit around the Red Planet.
2001: President George W. Bush returned the American flag to full staff at Camp David, symbolically ending a period of national mourning following the 9/11 attacks.
2002: Gov. Gray Davis signed a law making California the first state to offer workers paid family leave.
2018: Capping a comeback from four back surgeries, Tiger Woods won the Tour Championship in Atlanta, the 80th victory of his PGA Tour career and his first in more than five years.
Singer Julio Iglesias is 78. Actor Paul Petersen (“The Donna Reed Show”) is 76. Actor-singer Mary Kay
Place is 74. Singer Bruce Springsteen is 72. Director George C. Wolfe (film’s “Nights in Rodanthe,” stage’s “Angels in America”) is 67. Drummer Leon Taylor of The Ventures is 66. Actor Rosalind Chao (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “MASH”) is 64. Actor Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) is 62. Actor Chi Mcbride (“Hawaii Five-0,” “Boston Public”) is 60. Steel guitarist Don Herron of BR549 is 59. Actor Lisaraye (“All of Us,” “Beauty Shop”) is 55. Singer Ani Difranco is 51. Singer Sam Bettens of K’s Choice is 49. Rapper-producer-record head Jermaine Dupri is 49. Actor Kip Pardue (“The Rules of Attraction,” “Remember the Titans”) is 45. Actor Anthony Mackie (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”) is 43.