On this day, Sept. 8

1883 Allegheny County commissioners offered $2,500 each to five outstanding architects to prepare sketches for a new courthouse and jail.

1935 Sen. Huey P. Long, a Louisiana Democrat, was shot and mortally wounded inside the Louisiana State Capitol; he died two days later. (The assailant was identified as Dr. Carl Weiss, who was gunned down by Long’s bodyguards.)

1964 Public schools in Prince Edward County, Va., reopened after being closed for five years by officials attempting to prevent court-ordered racial desegregation.

1975 The Pittsburgh Board of Public Education announced a $45 million school desegregation plan.

1994 A USAir Boeing 737 crashed, killing 131 passengers and crew near Hopewell, Beaver County.

2011 Addressing a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama challenged a reluctant Congress to urgently pass a larger-than-expected $450 billion jobs plan to “jolt an economy that has stalled.”

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: Ventriloquist Willie Tyler, 81. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., 80. Actor Alan Feinstein, 80. Pop singer Sal Valentino (The Beau Brummels), 79. Author Ann Beattie, 74. Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, 71. Cajun singer Zachary Richard, 71. Musician Will Lee, 69. Actor Heather Thomas, 64. Singer Aimee Mann, 61. Pop musician David Steele (Fine Young Cannibals), 61. Actor Thomas Kretschmann, 59. Gospel singer Darlene Zschech, 56. Alternative country singer Neko Case, 51. TV personality Brooke Burke, 50. Actor Martin Freeman, 50. Actor David Arquette, 50. TV-radio personality Kennedy, 49. Rock musician Richard Hughes (Keane), 46. Actor Larenz Tate, 46. Actor Nathan Corddry, 44. R&B singer Pink, 42. Singer-songwriter Eric Hutchinson, 41. Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, 40. Rapper and Taylor Allderdice High School alumnus Wiz Khalifa, 34. Actor Gaten Matarazzo (TV: “Stranger Things”), 19.

Thought for today: “Censorship is the height of vanity.”

— Martha Graham, American modern dance pioneer (1893-1991)