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Today In History

Today is Thursday, Sept. 20, the 263rd day of 2018. There are 102 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Sept. 20, 1962, James Meredith, a black student, was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Democratic Gov. Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith was later admitted.)

On this date:

In 1519, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his crew set out from Spain on five ships to find a western passage to the Spice Islands. (Magellan was killed enroute, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.)

In 1911, the British liner RMS Olympic collided with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight; although seriously damaged, the Olympic was able to return to Southampton under its own power.

In 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. was seriously wounded during a book signing at a New York City department store when he was stabbed in the chest by Izola Curry. (Curry was later found mentally incompetent; she died at a Queens, New York, nursing home in 2015 at age 98.)

In 1963, President Kennedy proposed a joint U-S-Soviet expedition to the moon.

In 1967, the Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 was christened by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II in Clydebank, Scotland.

In 1973, in their so-called “battle of the sexes,” tennis star Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, at the Houston Astrodome. Singer-songwriter Jim Croce, 30, died in a plane crash near Natchitoches, Louisiana.

In 1976, Playboy magazine released an interview in which Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter admitted he’d “looked on a lot of women with lust.”

In 1984, a suicide car bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing at least 14 people, including two Americans and 12 Lebanese. The family sitcoms “The Cosby Show” and “Who’s the Boss?” premiered on NBC and ABC, respectively.

In 1995, in a move that stunned Wall Street, A-T-and-T Corporation announced it was splitting into three companies.

In 1999, Lawrence Russell Brewer became the second white supremacist to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas. (Brewer was executed on September 21, 2011.) Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, died at a German hospital after a battle with leukemia; she was 67.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Sophia Loren is 84. Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Taylor is 83. Rock musician Chuck Panozzo is 70. Actor Tony Denison is 69. Hockey Hall of Famer Guy LaFleur is 67. Actress Debbi Morgan is 67. Jazz musician Peter White is 64. Actress Betsy Brantley is 63. Actor Gary Cole is 62. TV news correspondent Deborah Roberts is 58. Country-rock musician Joseph Shreve (Flynnville Train) is 57. Rock musician Randy Bradbury (Pennywise) is 54. Actress Kristen Johnston is 51. Rock singers Gunnar and Matthew Nelson are 51.

In 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray announced the end of the Whitewater investigation, saying there was insufficient evidence to warrant charges against President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton. Former Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov died at age 65.

In 2001, during an address to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush announced a new Cabinet-level office to fortify homeland security and named Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge its director.

Ten years ago: The Bush administration asked Congress for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression. A suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killed 53 people, including the Czech ambassador.

Five years ago: Charting a collision course with the White House, the Republican-controlled House approved, 230-189, legislation to avoid a partial government shutdown while also defunding President Barack Obama’s 3-year-old health care law. (The Democratic-led Senate rebuffed the House’s attempts to roll back the health care law; the partial government shutdown began October 1 with the start of the fiscal new year).

One year ago: Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in more than 80 years, struck the island, wiping out as much as 75 percent of the power distribution lines and causing an island-wide blackout. Rescuers worked furiously at a collapsed school in Mexico City where a girl was believed trapped under debris in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake; it was later determined that no children were still trapped in the debris.

Rock musician Ben Shepherd is 50. Actress Enuka Okuma is 46. Actress-model Moon Bloodgood is 43. Actor Jon Bernthal is 42. Singer The Dream is 41. Actor Charlie Weber is 40. Rock musician Rick Woolstenhulme (WOOL’-sten-hyoolm) (Lifehouse) is 39. Actress Crystle Stewart is 37. Rapper Yung Joc is 36. Actor Aldis Hodge is 32. Actor Malachi (MAL’-ah-ky) Kirby is 29.

Thought for Today: “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” — George Washington Carver, American botanist (1864-1943).

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.

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