This Day in History
1776: In the Revolutionary War, British troops under Gen. William Howe seize New York City.
1821: Guatemala, which includes present-day Central America from Chiapas to Costa Rica, proclaims its independence.
1916: During World War I, tanks are used for the first time in the Battle of the Somme near Courcelette, France, with disappointing results.
1940: In the turning point of Hitler's World War II siege of Britain, the Battle of Britain ends, concluding the biggest daylight bombing raid of the country by the Luftwaffe.
1944: U.S. troops enter Germany, reaching the southwest frontier.
1950: In the Korean War, U.S. forces land on Inchon.
1959: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev begins an unprecedented visit by a Soviet leader to the United States.
1963: A Baptist church in Birmingham, AL, is bombed, killing 4 black girls.
1972: Two former White House aides, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, are indicted along with 5 others on charges stemming from the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC.
2001: Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of Afghanistan's military opposition to the Taliban rulers, dies of injuries incurred in a Sept. 9 suicide attack attributed by some to Osama bin Laden . The government of Pakistan, which borders on Afghanistan, pledges its "full support" to the U.S. in tracking those responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Today's Birthdays
1789: James Fenimore Cooper, novelist/historian (Burlington, NJ; died 1851)
1830: Porfirio Diaz, president of Mexico (Oaxaca, Mexico; died 1915)
1857: William Howard Taft, 27th president of the United States and chief justice of the Supreme Court (Cincinnati, OH; died 1930)
1889: Robert Benchley, writer (Worcester, MA; died 1945)
1890: Dame Agatha Christie, mystery writer (Torquay, England; died 1976)
1894: Jean Renoir, director (Paris, France; died 1979)
1903: Roy Acuff, country singer/fiddler (Maynardville, TN; died 1992)
1904: Umberto II, king of Italy (Racconigi, Italy; died 1983)
1907: Fay Wray, actress (Alberta, Canada; died 2004)
1916: Margaret Lockwood, actress (Pakistan; died 1990)
1921: Jackie Cooper, actor/director/producer (Los Angeles, CA)
1924: Bobby Short, singer/pianist (Danville, IL; died 2005)
1927: Norm Crosby, comedian (Boston, MA)
1928: Cannonball Adderley, saxophonist and bandleader (Tampa, FL; died 1975)
1929: Murray Gell-Mann, physicist, Nobel Prize winner (New York, NY)
1937: Robert Lucas, Jr., economist, Nobel Prize winner (Yakima, WA)
1938: Gaylord Perry, baseball pitcher (Williamston, NC)
1940: Merlin Olsen, football player, sportscaster, and actor (Logan, UT)
1945: Jessye Norman, opera singer (Augusta, GA)
1946: Tommy Lee Jones, actor (San Saba, TX). Oliver Stone, director/screenwriter (New York, NY)
1961: Dan Marino, football quarterback (Pittsburgh, PA)
1984: Prince Harry, prince of England (London, England)
