Today in History

Today is Monday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2021. There are 116 days left in the year.

Today's Highlights 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 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 1975, 18-year-old tennis star Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum in the United States.

In 1991, the Soviet Union recognized the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

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 2007, opera star Luciano Pavarotti died in Modena, Italy, at the age of 71.

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.)

In 2019, Zimbabwe's president announced that Robert Mugabe, the country's former leader who was forced to resign after a 37-year rule, had died at the age of 95; he had taken power after white minority rule ended in 1980.

Ten years ago: A man with a rifle opened fire in an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, Nevada, killing three uniformed National Guard members and a woman having breakfast with her husband; gunman Eduardo Sencion also shot himself and died in the parking lot. Convoys of Moammar Gadhafi loyalists, including his security chief, fled Libya, crossing the Sahara into Niger.

Five years ago: On the campaign trail, Democrat Hillary Clinton accused Republican Donald Trump of insulting America's veterans and pressing dangerous military plans, while Trump declared "our country is going to hell" because of policies he said Clinton would make even worse.

One year ago: Rescuers in military helicopters finished airlifting 207 people to safety after an explosive wildfire trapped them in a popular camping area in California's Sierra National Forest. Temperatures reached 111 degrees in downtown Los Angeles and a record-shattering 121 degrees in the nearby Woodland Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley, the highest temperature ever recorded in Los Angeles County. San Francisco set a record for the date with a high of 100 degrees, smashing the previous mark by 5 degrees. Top-seeded Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his fourth-round match at the U.S. Open after he accidentally hit a line judge with a tennis ball; he had smacked the ball behind him after falling behind in the first set.

Today's Birthdays: Comedian JoAnne Worley is 85. Country singer David Allan Coe is 82. Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 78. Actor Swoosie Kurtz is 77. Comedian-actor Jane Curtin is 74. Rock musician Mick Mashbir is 73. Country singer-songwriter Buddy Miller is 69. Actor James Martin Kelly is 67. Country musician Joe Smyth (Sawyer Brown) is 64. Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 63. Actor-comedian Michael Winslow is 63. Rock musician Perry Bamonte is 61. Actor Steven Eckholdt is 60. Rock musician Scott Travis (Judas Priest) is 60. Pop musician Pal Waaktaar (a-ha) is 60. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is 59. Television journalist Elizabeth Vargas is 59. Country singer Mark Chesnutt is 58. Actor Betsy Russell is 58. Actor Rosie Perez is 57. R&B singer Macy Gray is 54. Country songwriter Lee Thomas Miller (Songs: "The Impossible" "You're Gonna Miss This") is 53. Singer CeCe Peniston is 52. Actor Daniele Gaither is 51. Actor Dylan Bruno is 49. Actor Idris Elba is 49. Actor Justina Machado is 49. Actor Anika Noni Rose is 49. Rock singer Nina Persson (The Cardigans) is 47. Actor Justin Whalin is 47. Actor Naomie Harris is 45. Rapper Noreaga is 44. Actor Natalia Cigliuti is 43. Rapper Foxy Brown is 43. Actor Howard Charles is 38. Actor/singer Deborah Joy Winans is 38. Actor Lauren Lapkus is 36. Rock singer Max George (The Wanted) is 33.