Today in History

Today is Friday, Sept. 22, the 265th day of 2023. There are 100 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of January 1, 1863 if the states did not end the fighting and rejoin the union.

On this date:

In 1776, during the Revolutionary War, Capt. Nathan Hale, 21, was hanged as a spy by the British in New York.

In 1911, pitcher Cy Young, 44, gained his 511th and final career victory as he hurled a 1-0 shutout for the Boston Rustlers against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field.

In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.

In 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued rules prohibiting racial discrimination on interstate buses.

In 1975, Sara Jane Moore attempted to shoot President Gerald R. Ford outside a San Francisco hotel, but missed.

In 1980, the Persian Gulf conflict between Iran and Iraq erupted into full-scale war.

In 1985, rock and country music artists participated in "Farm Aid," a concert staged in Champaign, Illinois, to help the nation's farmers.

In 1993, 47 people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train fell off a bridge and crashed into Big Bayou Canot near Mobile, Alabama.

In 1994, the situation comedy "Friends" debuted on NBC-TV.

In 1995, an AWACS plane carrying U.S. and Canadian military personnel crashed on takeoff from Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska, killing all 24 people aboard.

In 2014, the United States and five Arab nations launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Syria, sending waves of planes and Tomahawk cruise missiles against an array of targets.

In 2020, U.S. deaths from the coronavirus topped 200,000, by far the highest confirmed death toll from the virus in the world at that point, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.

In 2017, as the scale of the damage from Hurricane Maria started to become clearer, Puerto Rican officials said they could not contact more than half of the communities in the U.S. territory, where all power had been knocked out to the island's 3.4 million people.

In 2018, Paul Simon ended what was billed as his final concert tour in a park in Queens, New York.

Today's Birthdays: Dancer/choreographer/singer Toni Basil is 80. Actor Paul Le Mat is 78. Musician King Sunny Ade is 77. Capt. Mark Phillips is 75. Rock singer David Coverdale (Deep Purple, Whitesnake) is 72. Actor Shari Belafonte is 69. Singer Debby Boone is 67. Country singer June Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 67. Singer Nick Cave is 66. Rock singer Johnette Napolitano is 66. Actor Lynn Herring is 66. Classical crossover singer Andrea Bocelli is 65. Singer-musician Joan Jett is 65. Actor Scott Baio is 63. Actor Catherine Oxenberg is 62. Actor Bonnie Hunt is 62. Actor Rob Stone is 61. Actor Dan Bucatinsky (TV: "24: Legacy") is 58. Musician Matt Sharp is 54. Rock musician Dave Hernandez is 53. Rapper Mystikal is 53. R&B singer Big Rube (Society of Soul) is 52. Actor James Hillier (TV: "The Crown") is 50. Actor Mireille Enos is 48. Actor Daniella Alonso is 45. Actor Michael Graziadei is 44. Actor Ashley Eckstein is 42. Actor Katie Lowes is 41. Rock musician Will Farquarson (Bastille) is 40. Actor Tatiana Maslany is 38. Actor Ukweli Roach (TV: "Blindspot") is 37. Actor Tom Felton is 36. Actor Teyonah Parris is 36. Actor Juliette Goglia is 28. Actor Dalya Knapp is 13.