Today in History (September 15th):
1254: Birthdays: Italian explorer Marco Polo;
1789: Birthdays: Novelist James Fenimore Cooper;
1812: The Russians set fire to Moscow in an effort to keep out Napoleon and his invading French troops.
1857: Birthdays: William Howard Taft, 27th president of the United States;
1889: Birthdays: Humorist Robert Benchley;
1890: Birthdays: British mystery writer Agatha Christie;
1903: Birthdays: Country music star Roy Acuff;
1907: Birthdays: Actor Fay Wray;
1914: Birthdays: Writer Orhan Kemal;
1918: Birthdays: Comedian Nipsey Russell;
1922: Birthdays: Actor Jackie Cooper;
1924: Birthdays: Singer/pianist Bobby Short;
1927: Birthdays: Comedian Norm Crosby;
1928: Birthdays: Jazz saxophone player Julian Cannonball Adderley;
1938: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Gaylord Perry;
1940: Birthdays: Football player-turned-actor Merlin Olsen;
1942: The armies of Nazi Germany began their siege of the Russian city of Stalingrad.
1945: Birthdays: Soprano Jessye Norman;
1946: Birthdays: Filmmaker Oliver Stone; Actor Tommy Lee Jones;
1954: The famous scene in which Marilyn Monroe is shown laughing as her skirt is blown up by a blast of air from a subway vent was shot during the filming of The Seven Year Itch. The scene infuriated her husband, Joe DiMaggio, who felt it was exhibitionist. The couple divorced a short time later.
1961: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Dan Marino;
1963: Four black girls were killed in the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala. Two black teenage boys were shot to death later that day as citywide rioting broke out.
1971: The environmental organization Greenpeace was founded by 12 members of the Don’t Make A Wave committee of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
1972: Two former White House aides and five other men were indicted on charges of conspiracy in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate complex, touching off the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
1984: Birthdays: Prince Henry, called Harry, second son of Britain’s Prince Charles; Late Princess Diana;
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1993: Katherine Ann Power, a Vietnam War opponent and a fugitive for more than 20 years in the death of a police officer during a bank robbery in Boston, surrendered. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison.
1999: A Fort Worth, Texas, man opened fire during a youth service at a Baptist church, killing seven people and wounding seven more before killing himself. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force to the Indonesian island of East Timor.
2000: The 27th Summer Olympic Games opened in Sydney, Australia, with a record number of female athletes participating and with North and South Korea marching together in the opening procession.
2003: More than 100 prisoners were killed in a fire at a maximum-security prison outside the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh.
2006: Iraqi officials reported at least 100 bodies found on the streets of Baghdad over a 3-day period. Most of the victims were said to have been shot in the head and appeared to have been tortured.
2008: The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 504 points, or 4.4 percent, in the biggest decline since 2001. Officials blamed at least 195 deaths on Hurricane Ike, a storm that cut across Haiti before reaching the United States. The storm caused more than $37 billion in damage across the Caribbean and United States.
2009: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession, which began in December 2007, was very likely over but the American economy would appear weak for some time. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told a congressional hearing that more troops probably would be needed in Afghanistan to deal with stepped up insurgency attacks blanketing the country.
2010: Typhoon-triggered floods and landslides killed dozens of people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in North Korea. U.S. voters were reported more inclined than they had been in 20 years to replace their own member of Congress but held both major parties in low regard, a New York Times/CBS News poll indicated.
2011: Libyan rebel forces moved in on the only section of the country still loyal of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Gunfire and explosions were heard around Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, while fighters readied attacks on two other Gadhafi strongholds. British planes armed with Brimstone missiles supported the rebel onslaught. A Swiss global financial firm, UBS AG, accused one of its investment traders of fraudulent practices that cost it $2.3 billion.
Quotes
“Too often I find that the volume of paper expands to fill the available briefcases.” – Jerry Brown, California Gov.
“Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop offs at tedium and counter productivity.” – Erma Bombeck
“I don’t have any kids. Well, at least none that I know about. I’d like to have kids one day, though. I want to be called Mommy by somebody other than Spanish guys in the street.” – Carol Leifer
William Howard Taft (1857-1930) US President (27):
“Don’t worry over what the newspapers say. I don’t. Why should anyone else? I told the truth to the newspaper correspondents – but when you tell the truth to them they are at sea.”
“I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town.”
“I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don’t like me.”
“Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.”
“Politics makes me sick.”
“Politics, when I am in it, it makes me sick.”
“Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that to-day is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.”
“The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.”