13th September: Today In History

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 13th, the 256th day of 2017. There are 109 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

Events:

1788:  The Congress of the Confederation authorized the first national election, and declared New York City the temporary national capital.

1759:  During the French and Indian War, the British defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham overlooking Quebec City.

1814:  During the War of 1812, British naval forces began bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore but were driven back by American defenders in a battle that lasted until the following morning.

1911:  The song “Oh, You Beautiful Doll,” a romantic rag by Nat D. Ayer and Seymour Brown, was first published by Jerome H. Remick & Co.

1923:  Miguel Primo de Rivera, the captain general of Catalonia, seized power in Spain.

1948:  Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was elected to the U.S. Senate; she became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

1959:  Elvis Presley first met his future wife, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, while stationed in West Germany with the U.S. Army. (They married in 1967, but divorced in 1973.)

1962:  Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s order for the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, a black student, declaring in a televised address, “We will not drink from the cup of genocide.”

1971:  A four-day inmates’ rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York ended as police and guards stormed the prison; the ordeal and final assault claimed the lives of 32 inmates and 11 hostages.

1977:  Conductor Leopold Stokowski died in Hampshire, England, at age 95.

1989:  Fay Vincent was elected commissioner of Major League Baseball, succeeding the late A. Bartlett Giamatti (juh-MAH’-tee).

1997:  Funeral services were held in Calcutta, India, for Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa.

2002:  The earliest known online use of the term “selfie” (a photographic self-portrait, usually taken with a smartphone) occurred on an Australian Broadcasting Corp. website forum; it came from a man named Nathan Hope, who denied coining the term, saying it was “common slang.”

Birthdays:

Actress Barbara Bain is 86.

Actress Eileen Fulton (TV: “As the World Turns”) is 84.

Actor Joe E. Tata is 81.

TV producer Fred Silverman is 80.

Rock singer David Clayton-Thomas (Blood, Sweat & Tears) is 76.

Actress Jacqueline Bisset is 73.

Singer Peter Cetera is 73.

Quotes Of The Day:

 “Better to be without logic than without feeling.” — Charlotte Bronte (BRAWN’-tee),