TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, SEPT. 11, the 254th day of 2021. There are 111 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.
In 1789, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1814, an American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.
In 1936, Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) began operation as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a key in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator.
In 1941, groundbreaking took place for the Pentagon. In a speech that drew accusations of anti-Semitism, Charles A. Lindbergh told an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa, that “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration” were pushing the United States toward war.
In 1967, the comedy-variety program “The Carol Burnett Show” premiered on CBS.
In 1985, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds cracked career hit number 4,192 off Eric Show of the San Diego Padres, eclipsing the record held by Ty Cobb. (The Reds won the game, 2-0).
In 2003, actor John Ritter died six days before his 55th birthday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California — the same hospital where he was born in 1948.
In 2006, in a prime-time address, President George W. Bush invoked the memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks as he staunchly defended the war in Iraq, though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the attacks.
In 2008, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama put aside politics as they visited ground zero together on the anniversary of 9/11 to honor its victims.
In 2012, a mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Earl Holliman is 93. Comedian Tom Dreesen is 82. Movie director Brian De Palma is 81. Singer-actor-dancer Lola Falana is 79. Rock musician Mickey Hart (The Dead) is 78. Rock singer-musician Tommy Shaw (Styx) and sports reporter Lesley Visser are 68. Actor Reed Birney is 67. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and musician Jon Moss (Culture Club) are 64. Actor John Hawkes is 62. Actor Anne Ramsay is 61. Actor Virginia Madsen is 60. Actor Kristy McNichol is 59. Business reporter Maria Bartiromo and singer Harry Connick Jr. are 54. Actors Taraji P. Henson and Laura Wright are 51. Singer Brad Fischetti (LFO) is 46. Rock musician Jon Buckland (Coldplay) and rapper Ludacris are 44. Country singer Charles Kelley (Lady A) is 40.