SEPTEMBER 8TH

Today is Monday, September 8, the 252nd day of 2008.
There are 114 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On September 8, 1900, Galveston, Texas, was struck by a hurricane that killed an estimated 8,000 people.

On this date:

• In 1565, a Spanish expedition established the first permanent European settlement in North America at present-day St. Augustine, Fla.
• In 1664, the Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it New York.
• In 1930, the comic strip "Blondie," created by Chic Young, was first published.
• In 1934, 134 people lost their lives in a fire aboard the liner Morro Castle off the New Jersey coast.
• In 1941, the 900-day Siege of Leningrad by German forces began during World War II.
• In 1951, a peace treaty with Japan was signed by 49 nations in San Francisco.
• In 1974, President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former President Nixon.
• In 1975, Boston's public schools began court-ordered citywide busing to achieve racial desegregation amid scattered incidents of violence.
• In 1988, two nuclear-missile rocket motors were destroyed at an army ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas; they were the first U.S. weapons to be eliminated under an arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union.
• In 1994, a USAir Boeing 737 crashed into a ravine as it was approaching Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 people on board.

Ten years ago:

• Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals broke major league baseball's record for home runs in a single season, hitting number 62 off Chicago Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel and eclipsing the 37-year-old record held by Roger Maris.

Five years ago:

• The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry's largest trade group, filed 261 copyright lawsuits across the country against Internet users for trading songs online.
• Nazi-era filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl died in Poecking, Germany, at age 101.

One year ago:

• Sheriff's deputies in Logan County, W. Va., rescued Megan Williams, a 20-year-old black woman, from a house in Big Creek, where she'd endured what authorities described as days of torture. (Six whites later pleaded guilty to various charges; a seventh is awaiting trial.)
• Top-ranked Justine Henin overwhelmed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3 to win her second U.S. Open women's title and seventh Grand Slam championship.

Today's Birthdays:

• Comedian Sid Caesar is 86.
• Ventriloquist Willie Tyler is 68.
• Actor Alan Feinstein is 67.
• Pop singer Sal Valentino (The Beau Brummels) is 66.
• Author Ann Beattie is 61.
• Cajun singer Zachary Richard is 58.
• Musician Will Lee ("Late Show with David Letterman") is 56.
• Actress Heather Thomas is 51.
• Singer Aimee Mann is 48.
• Pop musician David Steele (Fine Young Cannibals) is 48.
• Actor Thomas Kretschmann is 46.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Marc Gordon (Levert) is 44.
• Gospel singer Darlene Zschech is 43.
• Alternative country singer Neko Case is 38.
• TV personality Brooke Burke is 37.
• Actor Martin Freeman is 37.
• Actor Henry Thomas is 37.
• Actor David Arquette is 37.
• Rock musician Richard Hughes (Keane) is 33.
• Actor Larenz Tate is 33.
• Actor Nathan Corddry is 31.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Pink is 29.
• Actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is 27.

Thought for Today:

"That pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric."
T.H. Huxley, English biologist and author (1825-1895).

"Let's all be careful out there!"