This Day in History – September 9, 2011

1543 Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned “Queen of Scots” in the central Scottish town of Stirling. 1739 Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain’s mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina. 1776 The Continental Congress officially names its new union of sovereign states the United States. 1791 Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is named after President George Washington. 1817 Alexander Lucius Twilight, probably 1st black to graduate from US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College 1839 John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph. 1850 California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state. 1850 The Compromise of 1850 transfers a third of Texas’s claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to federal control in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas’s pre-annexation debt. 1862 Lee splits his army & sends Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry 1892 Almalthea, 5th moon of Jupiter, discovered by EE Barnard at Lick 1895 The American Bowling Congress formed (NYC) 1904 Boston Herald again refers to NY baseball club as Yankees, when it reports “Yankees take 2,” Yankee name not official till 1913 1913 Assn for Study of Negro Life & History organizes in Chicago 1919 Boston’s police force goes on strike 1926 The U.S. National Broadcasting Company is formed. 1927 Tony Lazzeri Day at Yankee Stadium 1940 George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer. 1942 World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon. 1947 First actual case of a computer bug being found: a moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University. 1950 1st use of TV laugh track-Hank McCune 1956 Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. 1965 The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is established. 1965 Hurricane Betsy makes its second landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, leaving 76 dead and $1.42 billion ($10–12 billion in 2005 dollars) in damages, becoming the first hurricane to top $1 billion in unadjusted damages. 1966 The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act is signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. 1968 1st US Open, held as an “open” (Arthur Ashe-wins) 1968 Minn Tommy Krammer passes for 6 touchdowns vs Green Bay (42-7) 1971 The four-day Attica Prison riot begins, which eventually results in 39 dead, most killed by state troopers retaking the prison. 1978 3rd game of the Boston Massacre; Yanks beat Red Sox 7-0 1979 John McEnroe beats Vitas Gerulaitis, for the US Open Tennis title 1983 Radio Shack announces their color computer 2 (the Coco2) 1983 Vitas Gerulatis bets his house that Martina Navratilova can’t beat the 100th ranked male tennis player 1984 John McEnroe beats Ivan Lendl, for the US Open Tennis title 1986 NYC jury indicts Gennadly Zakharov (Soviet UN employee) of spying 1987 Gary Hart admits to cheating on his wife on “Nightline” 1987 Larry Bird (Celtics), begins NBA free throw streak of 59 1987 Nolan Ryan strikes out his 4,500th batter 1989 Steffi Graf beats Martina Navratalova for the US Open championship 1990 Bush & Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait 1991 Only 1,695 fans watch Boston Red Sox play Clevland 1993 The Palestine Liberation Organization officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state. 1999 9/9/1999, both the beginning of the Y2K bug and the official debut of the Dreamcast. 2001 Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview. 2004 2004 Australian embassy bombing: A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.]]]]> ]]>