Today in history
On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of January 1, 1863.
In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, Capt. Nathan Hale, 21, was hanged as a spy by the British in New York.
In 1927, Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in the famous “longcount” fight in Chicago.
In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.
In 1950, Omar N. Bradley was promoted to the rank of five-star general, joining an elite group that included Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall and Henry H. “Hap” Arnold.
In 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued rules prohibiting racial discrimination on interstate buses.
In 1975, Sara Jane Moore attempted to shoot President Gerald R. Ford outside a San Francisco hotel, but missed.
In 1980, the Persian Gulf conflict between Iran and Iraq erupted into full-scale war.
In 1985, rock and country music artists participated in “FarmAid,” a concert staged in Champaign, Illinois, to help the nation’s farmers.
In 1989, the Irish Republican Army bombed the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, Kent, England, killing 11 band members. Songwriter Irving Berlin died in New York City at age 101.
In 1993, 47 people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train fell off a bridge and crashed into Big Bayou Canot near Mobile, Alabama. (A tugboat pilot lost in fog pushed a barge into the railroad bridge, knocking the tracks 38 inches out of line just minutes before the train arrived.)
In 1994, the situation comedy “Friends” debuted on NBCTV.
In 1995, an AWACS plane carrying U.S. and Canadian military personnel crashed on takeoff from Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska, killing all 24 people aboard.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, visiting New York, brought together Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for their first face-to-face meeting. Al-Qaida released a 106-minute-long video predicting President Obama’s downfall at the hands of the Muslim world.
Five years ago: The United States and five Arab nations launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, sending waves of planes and Tomahawk cruise missiles against an array of targets.
One year ago: Negotiations between the Senate Judiciary Committee and Christine Blasey Ford on the conditions for her possible testimony continued, with committee chairman Chuck Grassley saying the panel would go ahead and vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh if no agreement could be worked out for Ford to testify about what she said was a sexual assault by Kavanaugh. Paul Simon ended what was billed as his final concert tour in a park in Queens, New York, telling the hometown crowd that their cheers “mean more than you can know.”