Today's Highlights in History
On Sept. 14, 1959, the Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.
On Sept. 14, 1879, Margaret Sanger, the outspoken early twentieth-century advocate of birth control, was born. Following her death on Sept. 6, 1966, her obituary appeared in The Times.
On September 14, 1901, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the assassination of President William McKinley.
On this date in:
1814 Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner" after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812.
1847 U.S. forces under Gen. Winfield Scott took control of Mexico City.
1901 President William B. McKinley died in Buffalo, N.Y., of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin eight days earlier. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, 42, was sworn in, becoming the youngest president in U.S. history.
1940 Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
1948 Ground was broken in New York City for the United Nations' world headquarters.
1975 Pope Paul VI declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first U.S.-born saint.
1982 Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, died at age 52 of injuries suffered in a car crash.
1982 Lebanon's president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was killed by a bomb.
1994 Acting commissioner Bud Selig announced the cancellation of the rest of the baseball season on the 34th day of a strike by players.
2001 The FBI released the names of the 19 hijackers who took part in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; President George W. Bush toured the ruins of the World Trade Center and addressed rescue workers over a bullhorn.
2005 Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2005 A federal judge in San Francisco declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional.
2009 Actor Patrick Swayze died at age 57.
Current Birthdays
Actor-director Tyler Perry turns 41 years old today.
74 Walter Koenig
Actor ("Star Trek")
70 Larry Brown
Hall of Fame basketball coach
66 Joey Heatherton
Singer, dancer
63 Jon "Bowzer" Bauman
Rock singer (Sha Na Na)
63 Sam Neill
Actor
46 Faith Ford
Actress ("Faith and Hope," "Murphy Brown")
40 Ben Garant
Actor ("Reno911!")
40 Craig Montoya
Rock musician
39 Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Actress ("According to Jim")
37 Nas
Rapper
27 Amy Winehouse
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Margaret Sanger
9/14/1879 - 9/6/1966
American birth-control advocate
(Go to obit.)
81 Luigi Cherubini
9/14/1760 - 3/15/1842
Italian-born French composer of opera and sacred music
89 Alexander von Humboldt
9/14/1769 - 5/6/1859
German naturalist and explorer
92 Alice Stone Blackwell
9/14/1857 - 3/15/1950
American women's suffragist and editor
77 Charles Dana Gibson
9/14/1867 - 12/23/1944
American artist and illustrator
61 Jan Masaryk
9/14/1886 -
/1948
Czechoslovakian statesman and diplomat
66 Karl Compton
9/14/1887 - 6/22/1954
American educator, physicist, and president of M. I. T. (1930-48)
74 Norman Chandler
9/14/1899 - 10/20/1973
American publisher of the Los Angeles Times
87 Hal Wallis
9/14/1899 - 10/5/1986
American motion-picture producer
62 Allan Bloom
9/14/1930 - 10/7/1992
American writer, philosopher and teacher
