TODAY IN HISTORY

1765

The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.

1849

Author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore at age 40.

1910

A major wildfire devastated the northern Minnesota towns of Spooner and Baudette, charring at least 300,000 acres; some 40 people are believed to have died.

1954

Marian Anderson became the first Black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.

1985

Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean.

1998

Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten and left tied to a wooden fencepost outside of Laramie, Wyo.; he died five days later.

2001

The war in Afghanistan started as the United States and Britain launched air attacks against military targets and Osama bin Laden’s training camps in the wake of the September 11attacks.