Today in history
Today is Wednesday, Sept. 12, the 255th day of 2018. There are 110 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 12, 1942, during World War II, a German U-boat off West Africa torpedoed the RMS Laconia, which was carrying Italian prisoners of war, British soldiers and civilians; it’s estimated more than 1,600 people died while some 1,100 survived after the ship sank. The German crew, joined by other U-boats, began rescue operations. (On September 16, the rescue effort came to an abrupt halt when the Germans were attacked by a U.S. Army bomber; as a result, U-boat commanders were ordered to no longer rescue civilian survivors of submarine attacks.)
On this date:
In 1846, Elizabeth Barrett secretly married Robert Browning at St. Marylebone Church in London.
In 1914, during World War I, the First Battle of the Marne ended in an Allied victory against Germany.
In 1953, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier ( boo-vee-AY’) in Newport, Rhode Island.
In 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Cooper v. Aaron, unanimously ruled that Arkansas officials who were resisting public school desegregation orders could not disregard the high court’s rulings.
In 1959, the Soviet Union launched its Luna 2 space probe, which made a crash landing on the moon. The TV Western series “Bonanza” premiered on NBC.
In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed questions about his Roman Catholic faith, telling the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, “I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”
In 1977, South African black student leader and anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko (BEE’-koh), 30, died while in police custody, triggering an international outcry.
In 1986, Joseph Cicippio (sih-SIH’-pee- oh), the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped (he was released in December 1991).
In 1987, reports surfaced that Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden had borrowed, without attribution, passages of a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock (KIHN’-ik) for one of his own campaign speeches. (The Kinnock report, along with other damaging revelations, prompted Biden to drop his White House bid.)
In 1992, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off, carrying with it Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space; Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space; and Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese national to fly on a U.S. spaceship. Police in Peru captured Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman. Actor Anthony Perkins died in Hollywood at age 60.
In 1994, a stolen, single- engine Cessna crashed into the South Lawn of the White House, coming to rest against the executive mansion; the pilot, Frank Corder, was killed.
In 2012, the U. S. dispatched an elite group of Marines to Tripoli, Libya, after the mob attack in Benghazi that killed the U. S. ambassador and three other Americans. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the violence, and vowed to bring the killers to justice; Republican challenger Mitt Romney accused the administration of showing weakness in the face of tumultuous events in the Middle East.