Thursday, September 10th
The 253rd day of 2009.
There are 112 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
On Sept. 10, 1919, New York City welcomed home Gen. John J. Pershing and 25,000 soldiers who had served in the United States 1st Division during World War I. (Go to article.)
On Sept. 10, 1934, Roger Maris, the professional baseball player who held the record for home runs in a single season from 1961 to 1998, was born. Following his death on Dec. 14, 1985, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On September 10, 1864, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the stock and gold markets during the Civil War. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1608 John Smith was elected president of the Jamestown colony council in Virginia.
1813 Oliver H. Perry sent the message, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," after an American naval force defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812.
1846 Elias Howe of Spencer, Mass., received a patent for the sewing machine.
1924 A judge in Chicago sentenced Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb to life in prison for the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks - a "thrill killing" that had shocked the nation. (Loeb was killed in prison in 1936; Leopold was paroled in 1958 and died in 1971.)
1935 Sen. Huey P. Long, the "Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, died two days after being shot in Baton Rouge.
1939 Canada declared war on Germany during World War II.
1945 Vidkun Quisling, who had served in the government of occupied Norway, was sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazis.
1948 American-born Mildred Gillars, the Nazi wartime radio broadcaster known as "Axis Sally," was indicted in Washington, D.C., for treason.
1955 "Gunsmoke" premiered on CBS. (It ran for 20 years, longer than any other network prime-time series.)
1963 Twenty black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Ala., following a standoff between federal authorities and Gov. George C. Wallace.
1977 Convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant, became the last person to be executed by the guillotine in France.
1988 Steffi Graf of West Germany achieved tennis' Grand Slam - winning all four major tournaments in a calendar year - by taking the U.S. Open women's title.
1989 Hungary stopped enforcing East German visa restrictions and opened its borders, beginning a flood of emigration that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall two months later.
1998 President Bill Clinton met with members of his Cabinet to apologize and ask forgiveness in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
2000 NBC's "The West Wing" won a record nine Emmy awards, including best drama series.
2002 Switzerland became the 190th member of the United Nations.
2003 Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, 46, was stabbed in a Stockholm department store; she died the next day.
2008 The world's largest particle collider passed its first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile ring under the Franco-Swiss border.
Current Birthdays
Arnold Palmer turns 80 years old today.
AP Photo/Danny Johnston Golfer Arnold Palmer turns 80 years old today.
78 Philip Baker Hall
Actor
72 Tommy Overstreet
Country singer
70 Greg Mullavey
Actor
69 Roy Ayers
Jazz vibraphonist
67 Danny Hutton
Singer (Three Dog Night)
64 Jose Feliciano
Singer
64 Tom Ligon
Actor
61 Judy Geeson
Actress
61 Bob Lanier
Basketball Hall of Famer
59 Joe Perry
Rock musician (Aerosmith)
56 Amy Irving
Actress
53 Rosie Flores
Country singer
52 Kate Burton
Actress
51 Chris Columbus
Writer, director
49 Colin Firth
Actor
49 David Lowery
Rock singer, musician
46 Randy Johnson
Pitcher, San Francisco Giants
46 Sean O'Bryan
Actor
45 John E. Sununu
Former U.S. senator, R-N.H.
44 Robin Goodridge
Rock musician (Bush)
43 Stevie D.
Rock musician (Buckcherry)
43 Miles Zuniga
Rock musician (Fastball)
42 Nina Repeta
Actor
41 Big Daddy Kane
Rapper
41 Guy Ritchie
Director
35 Ryan Phillippe
Actor
33 Gustavo Kuerten
Tennis player
29 Mikey Way
Rock musician (My Chemical Romance)
25 Matthew Followill
Rock musician (Kings of Leon)
35 Sanjaya Malakar
Singer ("American Idol")
18 Hannah Hodson
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Roger Maris
9/10/1934 - 12/14/1985
American professional baseball player
(Go to obit.)
? Alonso Perez Medina-Sidonia
9/10/1550 - ?/?/1619
Spanish naval commander
83 Sir John Soane
9/10/1753 - 1/20/1837
English Neoclassical architect
74 William Torrey Harris
9/10/1835 - 11/5/1909
American public school educator and philosopher
92 John Lynch
9/10/1847 - 11/2/1939
American politician; served in Mississippi legislature and U.S. Congress during Reconstruction
64 Carl Van Doren
9/10/1885 - 7/18/1950
American novelist, biographer and critic
54 Franz Werfel
9/10/1890 - 8/26/1945
German Expressionist poet, playwright and novelist
83 Elsa Schiaparelli
9/10/1890 - 11/13/1973
Italian-born French dress designer
69 Arthur Holly Compton
9/10/1892 - 3/15/1962
American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1927)
71 Cyril Connolly
9/10/1903 - 11/26/1974
English critic, novelist and founder of Horizon magazine
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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