TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, SEPT. 16, the 259th day of 2019. There are 106 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 2001, President George W. Bush, speaking on the South Lawn of the White House, said there was “no question” Osama bin Laden and his followers were the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks; Bush pledged the government would “find them, get them running and hunt them down.”
In 1810, Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.
In 1910, Bessica Medlar Raiche of Mineola, New York, made the first accredited solo airplane flight by a woman in the United States.
In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.
In 1976, the Episcopal Church, at its General Convention in Minneapolis, formally approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops.
In 1982, the massacre of between 1,200 and 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
In 1987, two dozen countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth’s ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.
In 1994, a federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, ordered Exxon Corp. to pay $5 billion in punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The U.S. Supreme Court later reduced that amount to $507.5 million. Also in 1994, two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in 10 years.
In 2005, President George W. Bush ruled out raising taxes to pay the massive costs of Gulf Coast reconstruction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying other
government spending had to be cut to pay for the recovery effort. In 2007, contractors for the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA guarding a U.S. State Department convoy in Baghdad opened fire on civilian vehicles, mistakenly believing they were under attack; 14 Iraqis died. Also in 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery, and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017. In 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former U.S. Navy reservist, went on a shooting rampage inside the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 victims before being shot dead by police.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Janis Paige is 97. Bluesman Billy Boy Arnold is 84. Movie director Jim McBride is 78. Actress Linda Miller is 77. Rhythm-andblues singer Betty Kelley (Martha & the Vandellas) is 75. Musician Kenney Jones (Small Faces; Faces; The Who), actress Susan Ruttan and rock musician Ron Blair (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers; Mudcrutch) are 71. Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 70. Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 69. Actor Mickey Rourke is 67. Actor-comedian Lenny Clarke, actors Kurt Fuller and Christopher Rich, and jazz musician Earl Klugh are 66. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount is 64. Magician David Copperfield is 63. Country singer-songwriter Terry McBride, actress Jennifer Tilly and retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser are 61. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Tim Raines is 60. Comedian Molly Shannon is 55. Singer Marc Anthony is 51. News anchor/talk show host Tamron Hall is 49. Comedianactress Amy Poehler is 48. Actress Alexis Bledel is 38. Rock singer Teddy Geiger is 31. Actress-dancer Bailey De Young is 30. Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 27. Actress Elena Kampouris is 22.