Today is Wednesday, Sept. 7, the 250th day of 2005. There are 115 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 7, 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, the French hero of the American Revolution, bade farewell to President John Quincy Adams at the White House.
On this date:
In 1822, Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.
In 1892, James J. Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan to win the world heavyweight crown in New Orleans in the first major prize fight conducted under the Marquis of Queensberry rules.
In 1901, the Peace of Beijing ended the Boxer Rebellion in China.
In 1936, rock legend Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas.
In 1940, Nazi Germany began its initial blitz on London during World War II.
In 1963, the National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.
In 1969, Senate Republican leader Everett M. Dirksen died in Washington D.C.
In 1977, the Panama Canal treaties, calling for the U.S. to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington.
In 1979, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) made its cable TV debut.
In 1990, Kimberly Bergalis of Fort Pierce, Fla., came forward to identify herself as the young woman who had been infected with AIDS, apparently by her late dentist. (Bergalis died the following year.)
Ten years ago: After 27 years in the Senate, Bob Packwood, R-Ore., announced he would resign, heading off a vote by colleagues to expel him for allegations of sexual and official misconduct. The space shuttle Endeavour thundered into orbit with five astronauts on a mission to release and recapture a pair of science satellites.
Five years ago: A jury in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, awarded $6.3 million to a woman and her son who had been attacked by Aryan Nations guards outside the white supremacist group’s north Idaho headquarters.
One year ago: An Associated Press tally showed that U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign had passed the 1,000 mark. Former Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice died in Jackson, Miss., at age 70.
Today’s Birthdays: Heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey is 97. Pianist Arthur Ferrante is 84. Senator Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, is 81. Jazz musician Sonny Rollins is 75. Actor John Phillip Law is 68. Singer Alfa Anderson (Chic) is 59. Singer Gloria Gaynor is 56. Rock singer Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) is 54. Actress Julie Kavner is 54. Actor Corbin Bernsen is 51. Rock musician Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 51. Pianist Michael Feinstein is 49. Singer Margot Chapman is 48. Rock musician Leroi Moore (The Dave Matthews Band) is 44. Model-actress Angie Everhart is 36. Actor Tom Everett Scott is 35. Rock musician Chad Sexton (311) is 35. Actress Diane Farr is 34. Actress Shannon Elizabeth is 32. Actor Oliver Hudson is 29. Actor Devon Sawa is 27. Actress Evan Rachel Wood is 18.
Thought for Today: “People do not live in the present always, at one with it. They live at all kinds of and manners of distance from it, as difficult to measure as the course of planets. Fears and traumas make their journeys slanted, peripheral, uneven, evasive.” — Anais Nin, American writer (1903-1977).