16th September: Today In History

Today is Saturday, Sept. 16th, the 259th day of 2017. There are 106 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History:

Events:

1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act. Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1498: Tomas de Torquemada, notorious for his role in the Spanish Inquisition, died in Avila, Spain.

1857:  The song “Jingle Bells” by James Pierpont was copyrighted under its original title, “One Horse Open Sleigh.” (The song, while considered a Christmastime classic, was actually written for Thanksgiving.)

1893:  More than 100,000 settlers swarmed onto a section of land in Oklahoma known as the “Cherokee Strip.”

1908: General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

1919:  The American Legion received a national charter from Congress.

1925:  The Irving Berlin song “Always” (written for his future wife, Ellin Mackay) was published.

1953:  “The Robe,” the first movie presented in the widescreen process CinemaScope, had its world premiere at the Roxy Theater in New York.

1967:  The TV series “Mannix,” starring Mike Connors as a private investigator, premiered on CBS.

1977:  Maria Callas, the American-born prima donna famed for her lyric soprano and fiery temperament, died in Paris at age 53.

1982:  The massacre of between 1,200 and 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

1987:  Two dozen countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth’s ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.

1994:  A federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska, ordered Exxon Corp. to pay $5 billion in punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez (val-DEEZ’) oil spill (the U.S Supreme Court later reduced that amount to $507.5 million). Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in ten years.

Birthdays:

Actress Janis Paige is 95.

Actor George Chakiris is 85.

Bluesman Billy Boy Arnold is 82.

Movie director Jim McBride is 76.

Actress Linda Miller is 75.

Rhythm-and-blues singer Betty Kelley (Martha & the Vandellas) is 73.

Musician Kenney Jones (Small Faces; Faces; The Who) is 69.

Actress Susan Ruttan is 69.