HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY

On Sept. 16, 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.

1810: Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.

1857: The song “Jingle Bells” by James Pierpont was copyrighted under its original title, “One Horse Open Sleigh.” The song, while considered a Christmastime classic, was actually written for Thanksgiving.

1908: General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

1919: The American Legion received a national charter from Congress.

1940: President Franklin

D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act. Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1964: The rock-and-roll show “Shindig!” premiered on ABC-TV.

1974: President Gerald R. Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.

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.

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). Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in ten years.