Today in history
Today is Thursday, Sept. 14, the 257th day of 2017. There are 108 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem “Defence of Fort McHenry” (later “The Star-Spangled Banner”) after witnessing the American flag flying over the Maryland fort following a night of British naval bombardment during the War of 1812.
On this date
In 1829, the Treaty of Adrianople was signed, ending war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.
In 1861, the first naval engagement of the Civil War took place as the USS Colorado attacked and sank the Confederate private schooner Judah off Pensacola, Florida.
In 1867, the first volume of “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx was published in Hamburg, Germany.
In 1901, President William McKinley died in Buffalo, New York, of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him.
In 1927, modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of the sports car she was riding in.
In 1941, Vermont passed a resolution enabling its servicemen to receive wartime bonuses by declaring the U.S. to be in a state of armed conflict, giving rise to headlines that Vermont had “declared war on Germany.”
In 1954, the Soviet Union detonated a 40-kiloton atomic test weapon.
In 1964, Pope Paul VI opened the third session of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, also known as “Vatican II.” (The session closed two months later.)
In 1975, Pope Paul VI declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.born saint.
In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, died at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before; Lebanon’s president-elect, Bashir Gemayel (bah-SHEER’ jeh-MAY’-el), was killed by a bomb.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, appeared together on radio and television to appeal for a “national crusade” against drug abuse.
In 1991, the government of South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha (in-KAH’-tah) Freedom Party signed a national peace pact.
Ten years ago: Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility of cutting U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 100,000 by the end of 2008, well beyond the cuts President George W. Bush had approved. In Iraq, some 1,500 mourners called for revenge as they buried the leader of the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, Adbul-Sattar Abu Risha, who had been assassinated in a bombing claimed by an al-Qaida front.
Five years ago: Fury over an anti-Muslim film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad spread across the Muslim world, with deadly clashes near Western embassies in Tunisia and Sudan, an American fast-food restaurant set ablaze in Lebanon, and international peacekeepers attacked in the Sinai. A French gossip magazine’s publication of topless photos of Prince William’s wife, Kate, prompted an immediate lawsuit from the royal couple. (On Sept. 5, 2017, a French court ruled that photographers and gossip magazine executives had violated the privacy of the Duchess of Cambridge and fined two executives of gossip magazine Closer each the maximum of 45,000 euros ($53,500) for such an offense.)