Today in History

Today is Thursday, September 24, the 267th day of 2015. There are 98 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On September 24, 1890, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Wilford Woodruff, wrote a manifesto renouncing the practice of plural marriage, or polygamy.

On this date:

In 1789, President George Washington signed a Judiciary Act establishing America's federal court system and creating the post of attorney general.

In 1869, thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic known as "Black Friday" after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market.

In 1929, Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY-2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.

In 1934, Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance as a player with the New York Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox. (The Sox won, 5-0.)

In 1948, Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio propagandist "Axis Sally," pleaded not guilty in Washington D.C. to charges of treason. (Gillars, later convicted, ended up serving 12 years in prison.)

In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver.

In 1957, the Los Angeles-bound Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0.

In 1960, the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Virginia. "The Howdy Doody Show" ended a nearly 13-year run with its final telecast on NBC.

In 1976, former hostage Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery in San Francisco carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was released after 22 months after receiving clemency from President Jimmy Carter.)

In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the men's 100-meter dash at the Seoul Summer Olympics -- but he was disqualified three days later for using anabolic steroids. Members of the eastern Massachusetts Episcopal diocese elected Barbara C. Harris the first female bishop in the church's history.

In 1991, kidnappers in Lebanon freed British hostage Jack Mann after holding him captive for more than two years. Children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as "Dr. Seuss," died in La Jolla, California, at age 87.

In 1995, Israel and the PLO agreed to sign a pact at the White House ending nearly three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities. Eric Borel, a 16-year-old in Cuers, France, shot and killed 12 people before taking his own life, a day after he'd killed three family members.

Ten years ago: Hurricane Rita struck eastern Texas and the Louisiana coast, causing more flooding in New Orleans. Crowds opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House, staging the largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the U.S. invasion. Vice President Dick Cheney had surgery to repair aneurysms on the back of both knees.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders meeting in New York sent China a firm message over territorial disputes between Beijing and its neighbors, calling for freedom of navigation in seas that China claimed as its own. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledged $100 million over the next five years to Newark, New Jersey, schools a week before the release of the biographical movie "The Social Network." Gennady Yanayev, 73, a leader of the abortive 1991 coup who had briefly declared himself Soviet president, died in Moscow.

One year ago: At the opening of the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for world leaders to join an international campaign to ease the plight of nearly unprecedented numbers of refugees, the displaced and victims of violence in a world wracked by wars and the swift-spreading and deadly Ebola epidemic. President Barack Obama implored the leaders to rally behind his expanded military campaign to stamp out the violent Islamic State group and its "network of death." A visibily upset President Francois Hollande of France announced that an al-Qaida splinter group had beheaded Herve Gourdel, a French mountaineer kidnapped while hiking in Algeria.

Today's Birthdays: Rhythm-and-blues singer Sonny Turner (The Platters) is 76. Singer Barbara Allbut Brown (The Angels) is 75. Singer Phyllis "Jiggs" Allbut Sirico (The Angels) is 73. Singer Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers) is 73. News anchor Lou Dobbs is 70. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Joe Greene is 69. Actor Gordon Clapp is 67. Songwriter Holly Knight is 59. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass., is 63. Actor Kevin Sorbo is 57. Christian/jazz singer Cedric Dent (Take 6) is 53. Actress-writer Nia Vardalos is 53. Rock musician Shawn Crahan (AKA Clown) (Slipknot) is 46. Country musician Marty Mitchell is 46. Actress Megan Ward is 46. Singer-musician Marty Cintron (No Mercy) is 44. Contemporary Christian musician Juan DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 40. Actor Ian Bohen is 39. Actor Justin Bruening is 36. Olympic gold medal gymnast Paul Hamm is 33. Actor Erik Stocklin is 33. Actor Kyle Sullivan is 27.

Thought for Today: "Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand." -- Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (1632-1677).

Copyright 2015, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.