TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Sept. 18, 1975

Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1759

The French formally surrendered Quebec to the British.

1793

President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.

1850

Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which created a force of federal commissioners charged with returning escaped slaves to their owners.

1851

The first edition of The New York Times was published.

1947

The National Security Act, which created a National Military Establishment and the position of Secretary of Defense, went into effect.

1959

During his U.S. tour, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the grave of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Khrushchev called on all countries to disarm.

2001

A week after the Sept. 11 attack, President George W. Bush said he hoped to “rally the world” in the battle against terrorism and predicted that all “people who love freedom” would join.

2007

O.J. Simpson was charged with seven felonies, including kidnapping, in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a Las Vegas casino-hotel room.

2008

President George W. Bush told the country his administration was working feverishly to calm turmoil in the financial markets.