Today in History

Today is Friday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2019. There are 116 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 6, 2006, President George W. Bush acknowledged for the first time that the CIA was running secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation had forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies.

On this date:

In 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later; Czolgosz was executed on Oct. 29.)

In 1909, American explorer Robert Peary sent a telegram from Indian Harbor, Labrador, announcing that he had reached the North Pole five months earlier.

In 1943, 79 people were killed when a New York-bound Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed and crashed in Philadelphia.

In 1949, Howard Unruh, a resident of Camden, N.J., shot and killed 13 of his neighbors. (Found to have paranoid schizophrenia, Unruh was confined for the rest of his life; he died in a Trenton nursing home in 2009 at age 88.)

In 1972, the Summer Olympics resumed in Munich, West Germany, a day after the deadly hostage crisis that claimed the lives of eleven Israelis and five Arab abductors.

In 1985, all 31 people aboard a Midwest Express Airlines DC-9 were killed when the Atlanta-bound jetliner crashed just after takeoff from Milwaukee's Mitchell Field.

In 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record by playing his two-thousand-131st consecutive game.

In 1997, a public funeral was held for Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in London, six days after her death in a car crash in Paris. In Calcutta, India, weeping masses gathered to pay homage to Mother Teresa, who had died the day before at age 87.

In 2002, meeting outside Washington, D.C. for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of September 11.

In 2003, Justine Henin-Hardenne won the all-Belgian women's singles final at the U.S. Open, beating countrywoman Kim Clijsters, 7-5, 6-1.

In 2004, in Iraq, seven members of the First Marine Division from Camp Pendleton, California, and three U.S.-trained Iraqi soldiers were killed by a car bomb near Fallujah.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, pounded Puerto Rico with heavy rain and powerful winds; authorities said more than 900,000 people were without power. (Hurricane Maria, which would destroy the island's power grid, arrived two weeks later.) A California parole panel recommended parole for Leslie Van Houten, who at 19 was the youngest of Charles Manson's murderous followers in 1969. (California Gov. Jerry Brown later blocked her release.)

Ten years ago: The White House announced the resignation of President Barack Obama's environmental adviser Van Jones, who'd become embroiled in a controversy over past inflammatory statements; Jones cited what he called a "vicious smear campaign" against him.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in an interview taped for NBC's "Meet the Press," said the surge of immigrant children entering the U.S. illegally had changed the politics surrounding the issue of immigration and led him to put off a pledge to use executive action that could have shielded millions of people from deportation.

One year ago: One after another, President Donald Trump's top lieutenants stepped forward to deny being the author of a New York Times opinion piece that purportedly came from a member of an administration "resistance" movement. The agent for actor Burt Reynolds confirmed that Reynolds, known for his roles in "Deliverance," "The Cannonball Run" and "Smokey and the Bandit," had died at the age of 82. Nike aired a controversial ad featuring Colin Kaepernick during the NFL season opener. Twitter permanently banned right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars show for abusive behavior. A Dallas police officer fatally shot her neighbor, saying afterward that she had mistaken his apartment for her own. (Testimony in Amber Guyger's murder trial is scheduled to begin later this month.) India's Supreme Court struck down a law that made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Today's Birthdays: Comedian JoAnne Worley is 84. Country singer David Allan Coe is 80. Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 76. Actress Swoosie Kurtz is 75. Comedian-actress Jane Curtin is 72. Rock musician Mick Mashbir is 71. Country singer-songwriter Buddy Miller is 67. Actor James Martin Kelly is 65. Country musician Joe Smyth (Sawyer Brown) is 62. Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 61. Actor-comedian Michael Winslow is 61. Rock musician Perry Bamonte is 59. Actor Steven Eckholdt is 58. Rock musician Scott Travis (Judas Priest) is 58. Pop musician Pal Waaktaar (a-ha) is 58. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is 57. Rock musician Kevin Miller is 57. ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas is 57. Country singer Mark Chesnutt is 56. Actress Betsy Russell is 56. Actress Rosie Perez is 55. Rhythm and blues singer Macy Gray is 52. Country songwriter Lee Thomas Miller (Songs: "The Impossible" ''You're Gonna Miss This") is 51. Singer CeCe Peniston is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer Darryl Anthony (Az Yet) is 50. Actress Daniele Gaither is 49. Actor Dylan Bruno is 47. Actor Idris Elba is 47. Actress Justina Machado is 47. Actress Anika Noni Rose is 47. Rock singer Nina Persson (The Cardigans) is 45. Actor Justin Whalin is 45. Actress Naomie Harris is 43. Rapper Noreaga is 42. Actress Natalia Cigliuti is 41. Rapper Foxy Brown is 41. Actor Howard Charles is 36. Actress/singer Deborah Joy Winans is 36. Actress Lauren Lapkus is 34. Rock singer Max George (The Wanted) is 31.

Thought for Today: "The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves." -- James A. Garfield, 20th president of the United States (1831-1881).

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