Thursday, September 15

This Day In History

• 1776   British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.
  
• 1789   The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.
  
• 1821   Independence was proclaimed for Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
  
• 1857   Timothy Alden of New York City earned a patent for the typesetting machine. Newspaper and magazine publishers were very happy, as the machine made the production of these publications much faster and easier to accomplish ... making them more timely. We wonder what Timothy would have thought of the computer.
  
• 1857   William Howard Taft   who served as president of the United States and as chief justice   was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
  
• 1917   Russia was proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky, the head of a provisional government.
  
• 1935   The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship and made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.
  
• 1940   The Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses on the Luftwaffe as the tide turned in the Battle of Britain during World War II.
  
• 1950   During the Korean War, United Nations forces landed at Inchon in the south and began their drive toward Seoul.
  
• 1953   The National Boxing Association adopted the 10-point ‘must’ scoring system for all of its matches. The winner of each round must get 10 points, while the loser of each round must have fewer than 10 points.
  
• 1982   Iran's former foreign minister, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, was executed after he was convicted of plotting against the government.
  
• 1989   Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States, died in Stratton, Vt., at age 84.
  
• 1997   The IRA-allied Sinn Fein party entered Northern Ireland's peace talks for the first time.
  
• 2001   President George W. Bush identified Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and told Americans to prepare for a long, difficult war against terrorism.
  
• 2003   The WUSA soccer league shut down operations five days before the Women's World Cup, saying it didn't have enough money to stay in business for a fourth season.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1789   James Fenimore Cooper (writer: The Leatherstocking Tales: The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers, The Prairie; died Sep 14, 1851)
  
• 1857   William Howard Taft (27th U.S. President [1909-1913]; married to Helen Herron [two sons, one daughter]; Yale University law professor; Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court [1921-30]; died Mar 8, 1930)
  
• 1890   Agatha (Marie Clarissa) Christie (Miller) (writer: Murder on the Orient Express, 65 other mysteries; playwright: The Mousetrap [world’s longest running play]; died Jan 12, 1976)
  
• 1903   Roy Acuff (‘The King of Country Music’)
  
• 1907   Fay Wray (actress: King Kong)
  
• 1908   Penny Singleton (Mariana McNulty) (actress: Blondie series)
  
• 1922   Jackie Cooper (John Cooperman Jr.) (actor)
  
• 1984   Prince Harry (Henry Charles Albert David) (third in line to the British throne; see 1984 [above])