Today in History

US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is attacked and burned down; 4 Americans are killed including the US ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.

Russia detonates a nano-bomb; dubbed the “Father of All Bombs,” it is the largest non-nuclear weapon developed to date.

Israel completes its unilateral disengagement of all Israeli civilians and military from the Gaza Strip.

In an unprecedented, highly coordinated attack, terrorists hijack four U.S. passenger airliners, flying two into the World Trade Center towers in New York and one into the Pentagon, killing thousands. The fourth airliner, headed toward Washington likely to strike the White House or Capitol, is crashed just over 100 miles away in Pennsylvania after passengers storm the cockpit and overtake the hijackers.

Haile Selassie I is deposed from the Ethiopian throne.

Harry Connick Jr., Grammy and Emmy award-winning singer, musician, actor.

Princess Akishino, nee Kiko Kawashima, wife of Prince Akishino, second son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan. She is only the second commoner to marry into Japan’s royal family.

Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria since 2000.

Thurgood Marshall is appointed a judge of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

American troops enter Luxembourg.

Theodore Olson, US Solicitor General under Pres. George W. Bush (2001-04).

Charles M. “Chuck” Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc.

Robert L. Crippen, US Navy captain, astronaut; former director of Kennedy Space Center.

Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, winning two Super Bowls.

Jessica Mitford, investigative journalist (The American Way of Death).

The “Star Spangled Banner” is sung at the beginning of a baseball game for the first time in Cooperstown, New York.

The battleship Connecticut, launched in New York, introduces a new era in naval construction.

D.H. Lawrence, English novelist (Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Sons and Lovers).

James Jeans, physicist.

A 10-day truce is declared between generals William Sherman and John Hood so civilians may leave Atlanta, Georgia.

O. Henry, (William Sydney Porter), short story writer who wrote “The Gift of the Magi,” and “The Last Leaf.”

Indians incited by Mormon John D. Lee kill 120 California-bound settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Soprano opera singer Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” makes her American debut at New York’s Castle Garden Theater.

Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susanna” is first performed in a saloon in Pittsburgh.

U.S. forces led by Thomas Macdonough route the British fleet on Lake Champlain.

Piedmont, Italy, is annexed by France.

The Convention of Annapolis opens with the aim of revising the Articles of Confederation.

General George Washington and his troops are defeated by the British under General Sir William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania.

The first mention of an African American doctor or dentist in the colonies is made in the Pennsylvania Gazette.

John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, wins the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet.

James Thomson, Scottish poet.

Imperial troops under Eugene of Savoy defeat the Turks at the Battle of Zenta.

Scots under William Wallace defeat the English at Stirling Bridge.