Today’s snapshot of what is going on locally
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Today is Sunday, Sept. 23, the 266th day of 2018. There are 99 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 23, 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.)
On this date:
In 1780, British spy John Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British.
In 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis more than two years after setting out for the Pacific Northwest.
In 1889, Nintendo was founded in Kyoto, Japan, as a playing card company.
In 1846, Neptune was identified as a planet by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (GAH’-luh).
In 1926, Gene Tunney scored a ten-round decision over Jack Dempsey to win the world heavyweight boxing title in Philadelphia.
In 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.
In 1957, nine black students who’d entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside.
In 1962, “The Jetsons,” an animated cartoon series about a Space Age family, premiered as the ABC television network’s first program in color.
In 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.
In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter apparently burned up as it attempted to go into orbit around the Red Planet.
In 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.
In 2002, Gov. Gray Davis signed a law making California the first state to offer workers paid family leave.
Ten years ago: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ah-muh-DEE’neh-zhahd) accused what he called “a few bullying powers” of trying to thwart his country’s peaceful nuclear program and declared in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly that “the American empire” was nearing collapse. A 22-year- old gunman opened fire at his trade school in Finland, killing 10 people before fatally shooting himself.
Five years ago: Facing possible firing, Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency’s tea party scandal, retired. An Egyptian court ordered the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood and the confiscation of its assets. After 20 consecutive years of losing, the Pittsburgh Pirates clinched at least a National League wild card when they beat the Chicago Cubs 2-1 and Washington lost to St. Louis 4- 3. ( The Pirates’ year came to an end as they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in a division series that went the full five games.)
One year ago: President Donald Trump tweeted that NBA star Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors was no longer invited to the White House because Curry had said he didn’t want to make such a visit with his championship team; NBA star LeBron James responded with a tweet calling Trump a “bum” and saying, “Going to the White House was a great honor until you showed up!” Large amounts of federal aid began moving into Puerto Rico to help communities still without fresh water, fuel, electricity or phone service in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.