DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, Sept. 5, the 248th day of 2021. There are 117 days left in the year. On this date:
1774: The first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
1864: Voters in Louisiana approved a new state constitution abolishing slavery.
1939: Four days after war had broken out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in the conflict.
1957: The novel “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac, was first published by Viking Press.
1972: The Palestinian group Black September attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Munich Games, killing 11 Israelis and a police officer. German forces killed five of the gunmen.
1975: President Gerald R. Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, California.
1984: The space shuttle Discovery ended its inaugural flight as it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1986: Four hijackers who had seized a Pan Am jumbo jet on the ground in Karachi, Pakistan, opened fire when the lights inside the plane failed; a total of 20 people were killed before Pakistani commandos stormed the jetliner.
1991: The 35th annual Naval Aviation Symposium held by the Tailhook Association opened in Las Vegas; during the four-day gathering, there were reports that dozens of people, most of them women, were sexually assaulted or otherwise harassed. (The episode triggered the resignation of Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett and the early retirement of Adm. Frank B. Kelso, then the chief of naval operations.)
1997: Breaking the royal reticence over the death of Princess Diana, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II delivered a televised address in which she called her former daughter-in-law “a remarkable person.” Mother Teresa died in Calcutta, India, at age 87; conductor Sir Georg Solti died in France at age 84.
2006: Katie Couric began a five-year run as principal anchor of “The CBS Evening News.”
2018: The New York Times published an opinion piece from an anonymous senior administration official claiming to be part of an internal “resistance” working to thwart President Donald Trump’s “worst inclinations;” Trump responded that if such a “gutless” person exists, “the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to the government at once!”
Comedian-actor Bob Newhart is 92. Broadway actor Carol Lawrence is 89. Actor Lucille Soong (“Fresh Off the Boat”) is 86. Actor William Devane (“Jessie Stone,” “24”) is 82. Actor George Lazenby is 82. Actor Raquel Welch is 81. Singer Al Stewart is 76. Actor-director Dennis Dugan (“Big Daddy,” “Happy Gilmore”) is 75. Singer Loudon Wainwright III is 75. Saxophonist Mel Collins of King Crimson and of Kokomo is 74. Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite (“Cathy”) is 71. Actor Michael Keaton is 70. Drummer Jamie Oldaker of The Tractors is 70. Actor Debbie Turner-larson (“The Sound of Music”) is 65. Actor Kristian Alfonso (“Days of Our Lives”) is 58. Singer Terry Ellis of En Vogue is 58.