On this day, Sept. 21

1861 Property damage was heavy in a flood that reached a mark of 30 feet, 9½ inches.

1893 One of America’s first horseless carriages was taken for a short test drive in Springfield, Mass., by Frank Duryea, who had designed the vehicle with his brother, Charles.

1919 A campaign to unionize the steel industry started in Pittsburgh when a strike was called by National Committee for Organizing Iron and Steel Workers, headed by William Z. Foster, later general secretary of the American Communist Party; 365,000 steel workers struck throughout nation for union recognition and reduction of the 12-hour day.

1978 Edward Suratt of Aliquippa, already charged with three murders and a suspect in 17 others, was convicted of the rape of a woman and her daughter in Vilano Beach, Fla.

2018 President Donald Trump directly challenged by name the woman accusing his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, saying that if the attack on Christine Blasey Ford had been as bad as she claimed then she would have filed charges.

Some items are from Stefan Lorant’s “Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City” (digital.library.pitt.edu/chronology). — Compiled by Rick Nowlin Today’s birthdays: Author-comedian Fannie Flagg, 78. Author Stephen King, 72. Basketball Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore, 70. Actorcomedian Bill Murray, 69. Retired MLB AllStar Cecil Fielder, 56. Country singer Faith Hill, 52. Actress-talk show host Ricki Lake, 51. Actor Billy Porter, 50. Actor Luke Wilson, 48. Actress Maggie Grace, 36. Thought for today: “The only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have done and what we might have been on the one hand, and the thing we have made and the things we have made of ourselves on the other.”