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There are 98 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
- On Sept. 24, 1789, Congress passed a Judiciary Act which provided for an Attorney General and a Supreme Court.
On this date:
- In 1869, thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic known as "Black Friday" after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market.
- In 1929, Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY-2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.
- In 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver.
- In 1958, "The Donna Reed Show" premiered on ABC-TV.
- In 1960, the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Va.
- In 1963, the U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.
- In 1968, the TV news magazine "60 Minutes" premiered on CBS; the undercover police drama "The Mod Squad" premiered on ABC.
- In 1976, Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery in San Francisco carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (She was released after 22 months after receiving clemency from President Carter.)
- In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the men's 100-meter dash at the Seoul Summer Olympics — but he was disqualified three days later for using anabolic steroids.
- In 1988, members of the eastern Massachusetts Episcopal diocese elected Barbara C. Harris the first female bishop in the church's history.
Ten years ago:
- Hurricane Georges was charging toward the Florida Keys, after killing hundreds of people in the Caribbean.
- The government began releasing the new, harder-to-counterfeit $20 bill.
Five years ago:
- After four turbulent months, three special legislative sessions and two Democratic walkouts, both houses of the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature adopted redistricting plans favoring the GOP.
- The top candidates vying to replace California Gov. Gray Davis joined in a lively debate.
One year ago:
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance at Columbia University in New York.
- United Auto Workers walked off the job at GM plants in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976; a tentative pact ended the walkout two days later.
- Two kidnapped Italian intelligence operatives were rescued in a NATO-led combat operation in western Afghanistan, two days after they went missing.
- As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by Buddhist monks marched in Yangon, Myanmar.
Today's Birthdays:
- Actor-singer Herb Jeffries is 97.
- Actress Sheila MacRae is 84.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Sonny Turner (The Platters) is 69.
- Singer Barbara Allbut (The Angels) is 68.
- Singer Phyllis "Jiggs" Allbut (The Angels) is 66.
- Singer Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers) is 66.
- Actor Gordon Clapp is 60.
- Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass., is 56.
- Actor Kevin Sorbo is 50.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Cedric Dent (Take 6) is 46.
- Actress-writer Nia Vardalos is 46.
- Country musician Marty Mitchell is 39.
- Actress Megan Ward is 39.
- Singer-musician Marty Cintron (No Mercy) is 37.
- Contemporary Christian musician Juan DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 33.
- Actor Kyle Sullivan is 20.
Thought for Today:
"The easiest way to get a reputation is go outside the fold, shout around for a few years as a violent atheist or a dangerous radical, and then crawl back to the shelter."
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
"Let's all be careful out there!"
