15th September: Today In History

Today is Friday, Sept. 15th, the 258th day of 2017. There are 107 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

Events:

1940:  During the World War II Battle of B:ritain, the tide turned as the Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses upon the Luftwaf:fe.

1789:   The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.

1807:  Former Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge two weeks after he was found not guilty of treason.

1857:  William Howard Taft — who served as President of the United States and as U.S. chief justice — was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1917:   First issue of Forbes magazine was published.

1935:  The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship.

1942:  During World War II, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; the U.S. Navy ended up sinking the badly damaged vessel.

1950:  During the Korean conflict, United Nations forces landed at InTcheon in the south and began their drive toward Seoul (sohl).

1963:  Four black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three:   Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.)

1972:  A federal grand jury in Washington indicted seven men in connection with the Watergate break-in.

1981:  The Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor.

1997:  Two of the nation’s most popular diet drugs — dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine — were pulled off the market because of new evidence they could seriously damage patients’ hearts.

2000:  The 2000 Summer Olympics opened in Sydney, Australia, with a seemingly endless parade of athletes and coaches and a spectacular display; Aborigine runner Cathy Freeman ignited an Olympic ring of fire.

Birthdays:

Actor Forrest Compton is 92.

Comedian Norm Crosby is 90.

Actor Henry Darrow is 84.

Baseball Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry is 79.

Actress Carmen Maura is 72.

Opera singer Jessye Norman is 72.

Writer-director Ron Shelton is 72.

Actor Tommy Lee Jones is 71.

Movie director Oliver Stone is 71.

Quotes Of The Day:

The lack of a sense of history is the damnation of the modern world.” — Robert Penn Warren