HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Thursday, September 14, the 257th day of 2017. There are 108 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1954 – In a top secret nuclear test, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber drops a 40 kiloton atomic weapon just north of Totskoye village. 1958 – The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere. 1959 – The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it. 1960 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded. 1960 – Congo Crisis: With CIA help, Mobutu Sese Seko seizes power in a military coup, suspending parliament and the constitution. 1975 – The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI. 1979 – Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki is assassinated upon the order of Hafizullah Amin, who becomes the new president. 1982 – President-elect of Lebanon, Bachir Gemayel, is assassinated. 1984 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean. 1985 – Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in Malaysia, connecting the island of Penang to the mainland, opens to traffic. 1992 – The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declares the breakaway Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia to be illegal. 1994 – The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike. 1995 – Body Worlds opens in Tokyo, Japan 1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations. 2000 – Microsoft releases Windows ME. 2001 – Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation’s capital. 2003 – In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union. 2007 – Late-2000s financial crisis: The Northern Rock bank experiences the first bank run in the United Kingdom in 150 years. 2008 – All 88 people on board Aeroflot Flight 821 are killed when the plane crashes on approach to Perm Airport.