Today is Monday, Sept. 4, the 247th day of 2006. There are 118 days left in the year. This is Labor Day.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 4, 1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers.
On this date:
In 1888, George Eastman received a patent for his roll-film camera, and registered his trademark: Kodak.
In 1893, English author Beatrix Potter first told the story of Peter Rabbit in the form of a “picture letter” to Noel Moore, the son of Potter’s former governess.
In 1944, during World War II, British troops entered Antwerp, Belgium.
In 1951, President Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast.
In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.
In 1957, Ford Motor Co. began selling its ill-fated Edsel.
In 1967, Michigan Gov. George Romney told a TV interview he’d undergone a “brainwashing” by U.S. officials during a 1965 visit to Vietnam — a comment that apparently damaged Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
In 1971, an Alaska Airlines jet crashed near Juneau, killing 111 people.
In 1984, Canada’s Progressive Conservatives, led by Brian Mulroney, won a landslide victory in general elections over the Liberal Party of Prime Minister John N. Turner.
In 1995, attorney William Kunstler, who spoke out for the politically unpopular in a controversial career, died in New York at age 76.
Ten years ago: Anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies of Baghdad, hours after the United States fired a new round of cruise missiles into southern Iraq and destroyed an Iraqi radar site. Whitewater prosecutors had Susan McDougal held in contempt for refusing to tell a grand jury whether President Clinton had lied at her trial.
Five years ago: President Bush opened the door to a future cut in the capital gains tax, but said he first wanted to see the effects of the previous spring’s income tax cut. Texas Republican Phil Gramm announced he would leave the U.S. Senate at the end of his third term, following fellow conservatives Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond into retirement.
One year ago: As New Orleans turned much of its attention to gathering up and counting the dead in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt told CNN thousands of people had died due to the storm and its aftermath.
Today’s Birthdays: ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey is 88. Actress Mitzi Gaynor is 75. Singer Merald “Bubba” Knight (Gladys Knight & The Pips) is 64. Actress Jennifer Salt is 62. Golfer Tom Watson is 57. Rhythm-and-blues musician Ronald LaPread is 56. Actress Judith Ivey is 55. Rock musician Martin Chambers (The Pretenders) is 55. Actress Khandi Alexander is 49. Actor-comedian Damon Wayans is 46. Rock musician Kim Thayil is 46. Actor Noah Taylor is 37. Actress Ione Skye is 35. Rhythm-and-blues singer Richard Wingo (Jagged Edge) is 31. Actor Wes Bentley is 28. Singer Dan Miller (“Making the Band”) is 26. Singer Beyonce Knowles is 25.
Thought for Today: “Show me the country in which there are no strikes and I’ll show you that country in which there is no liberty.” — Emma Goldman, American anarchist (1869-1940).
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)