TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY SEP 15, 2021

2001

President George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops to get ready for war and braced Americans for a long, difficult assault against terrorists to avenge the Sept. 11 attack. Beleaguered Afghans streamed out of Kabul, fearing a U.S. military strike against Taliban rulers harboring Osama bin Laden.

1776

British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.

1789

The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.

1857

William Howard Taft — who served as President of the United States and as U.S. chief justice — was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1890

English mystery writer Agatha Christie was born in Torquay.

1935

The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship.

1959

Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States as he arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

1963

Four Black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

1972

A federal grand jury in Washington indicted seven men in connection with the Watergate break-in.

1981

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Sandra Day O’connor.

1985

Nike began selling its “Air Jordan 1” sneaker.

2008

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 504.48, or 4.42 percent, to 10,917.51 while oil closed below $100 a barrel for the first time in six months amid upheaval in the financial industry as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch & Co. was sold to Bank of America.