TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Sept. 11, 2001

On America’s single-worst day of terrorism, nearly 3,000people were killed as 19al-Qaida members hijacked four passenger jetliners, sending two of the planes smashing into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1297

Scottish rebels led by William Wallace and AndrewMoray defeated English troops in the Battle of Stirling Bridge during the First War of Scottish Independence.

1789

Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

1814

An American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.

1857

The Mountain Meadows Massacre took place in present-day southern Utah as a 120-member Arkansas immigrant party was slaughtered by Mormon militiamen aided by Paiute Indians.

1936

Boulder Dam began operation as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a key in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator.

1954

The Miss America pageant made its network TV debut on ABC.

2006

In a prime-time address, President GeorgeW. Bush invoked thememory of the victims of the 9⁄11 attacks as he staunchly defended the war in Iraq, though he acknowledged that Saddam Husseinwas not responsible for the attacks.

2012

A mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.