September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 105 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Tuesday or Wednesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Friday or Sunday (56).
CONSTITUTION DAY AND CITIZENSHIP DAY
642 – The library at Alexandria, Egypt is destroyed after Arabic Muslims under Amr ibn al `Aas conquer the city. The library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general and the successor of Alexander the Great, after whom the city was named.
The longest version of the story is in the Syriac Christian author Bar-Hebraeus (1226–1286), also known as Abu'l Faraj. He translated extracts from his history, the Chronicum Syriacum into Arabic, and added extra material from Arab sources. In this Historia Compendiosa Dynastiarumhe describes a certain "John Grammaticus" (490–570) asking Amr for the "books in the royal library." Amr writes to Omar for instructions, and Omar replies: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."
1778 – At 6 a.m. on this day in 1778, Mohawk Indian chief and British Loyalist leader Joseph Brant leads a force of 150 Iroquois Indians and 300 British Loyalists under the command of Captain William Caldwell in a surprise attack on the area of German Flats, New York. German Flats, now known as Herkimer, New York, was left virtually undefended by Patriot troops prior to the raid.
1939 – Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the "fine print" of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact—the invasion and occupation of eastern Poland.
1980 – Solidarity, full name, Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity," is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on 31 August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-Communist Party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 Congress (up to 10 million) that constituted one third of the total working age population of Poland. In its clandestine years, the United States provided significant financial support for Solidarity, estimated to be as much as 50 million US dollars.
Solidarity emerged on 31 August 1980 in Gdańsk at the Lenin Shipyards when the communist government of Poland signed the agreement allowing for its existence. On September , 17 1980, over 20 Inter-factory Founding Committees of free trade unions merged at the congress into one national organization NSZZ Solidarity. It officially registered on 10 November 1980.
1983 – Twenty-year old Vanessa Williams became the first African American to win the Miss America crown. Less than a year later, on July 23, 1984, Williams gave up her crown after nude photos of her surfaced. Despite the scandal, Williams later launched a successful singing and acting career, including a featured role on the hit television sitcom Ugly Betty.
2004 – Barry Bonds hits his 700th career home run. Bonds rewarded his fans in the opener of the San Francisco Giants' nine-game homestand with an opposite-field homer to left center leading off the third inning. It came on an 0-1 pitch from Jake Peavy and gave the Giants a 4-0 lead over the San Diego Padres. The ball was captured by Steven Williams, a 25-year-old fan from nearby Pacifica, in the middle of several fans. The ball rolled right in front of Williams while he was flat on the ground in the scrum.
NB: Bonds has not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame due to steroid use controversy.
2010 – The 54 year run (April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010) of the soap opera As the World Turns ends as its final episode is broadcast (13,858 episodes). Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on April 2, 1956, at 1:30 pm EST. Prior to that date, all serials had been fifteen minutes in length. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, which premiered on the same day at 4:30 pm EST, were the first two to be thirty minutes in length from their premiere.
On November 22, 1963, the live CBS broadcast of As The World Turns began as always at 1:30 EST. In this episode, the Hughes family were discussing plans for Thanksgiving. Ten minutes later, a "CBS News Bulletin" slide suddenly came up on the screen and Walter Cronkite gave the first report of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
CONSTITUTION DAY AND CITIZENSHIP DAY
642 – The library at Alexandria, Egypt is destroyed after Arabic Muslims under Amr ibn al `Aas conquer the city. The library was created by Ptolemy I Soter, who was a Macedonian general and the successor of Alexander the Great, after whom the city was named.
The longest version of the story is in the Syriac Christian author Bar-Hebraeus (1226–1286), also known as Abu'l Faraj. He translated extracts from his history, the Chronicum Syriacum into Arabic, and added extra material from Arab sources. In this Historia Compendiosa Dynastiarumhe describes a certain "John Grammaticus" (490–570) asking Amr for the "books in the royal library." Amr writes to Omar for instructions, and Omar replies: "If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."
1778 – At 6 a.m. on this day in 1778, Mohawk Indian chief and British Loyalist leader Joseph Brant leads a force of 150 Iroquois Indians and 300 British Loyalists under the command of Captain William Caldwell in a surprise attack on the area of German Flats, New York. German Flats, now known as Herkimer, New York, was left virtually undefended by Patriot troops prior to the raid.
1787 – The Constitution of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Supporters of the document waged a hard-won battle to win ratification by the necessary nine out of 13 U.S. states.
1796 – President George Washington prepared a final draft of his presidential farewell address. Two days later, the carefully crafted words appeared in Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, published in Philadelphia, officially notifying the American public that Washington would voluntarily step down as the nation's first president. The decision was extraordinary: rarely, if ever, in the history of western civilization had a national leader voluntarily relinquished his title. The action set a model for successive U.S. administrations and future democracies.
1862 – The Battle of Antietam (U.S. Civil War). Beginning early on the morning of this day in 1862, Confederate and Union troops in the Civil War clashed near Maryland's Antietam Creek in the bloodiest one-day battle in American history.
The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, to capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry.
1911 – The first transcontinental airplane flight, NY-Pasadena in 82 hrs 4 min, was made by Calbraith Perry Rodgers to win the Hearst prize offered by publisher William Randolph Hearst. He offered a $US 50,000 prize to the first aviator to fly coast to coast, in either direction, in less than 30 days from start to finish. Rodgers persuaded J. Ogden Armour, of Armour and Company, to sponsor the flight, and in return he named the plane after Armour's grape soft drink "Vin Fiz".The Battle of Antietam marked the culmination of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern states. Guiding his Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River in early September 1862, the great general daringly divided his men, sending half of them, under the command of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, to capture the Union garrison at Harper's Ferry.
1939 – Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the "fine print" of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact—the invasion and occupation of eastern Poland.
1961 – Fran Tarkenton plays his first NFL Game against the Chicago Bears, coming off the bench to lead the Vikings to a 37-13 victory, also becoming the only QB to throw four touchdown passes in his first career game.
1964 – The New York Yankee's Mickey Mantle gets career hits 1999, 2000 & 2001 and his 450th career home run in the same game.
1967 – In introducing them at the Monterey Pop Festival three months earlier, Eric Burdon of the Animals had offered high praise for the up-and-coming British rock band the Who, promising the crowd "A group that will destroy you in more ways than one." A substandard audio setup that day prevented the Who from unleashing the full sonic assault for which they were already becoming famous, but their high-energy, instrument-destroying antics inspired the next act, Jimi Hendrix, to burn his guitar and announced to the tens of thousands of Festival-goers the arrival of a powerful new force in rock and roll. The rest of America would get its introduction on September 17, 1967, when the Who ended an already explosive, nationally televised performance of "My Generation" with a literal bang that singed Pete Townshend's hair, left shrapnel in Keith Moon's arm and momentarily knocked The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour off the air.
1976 – NASA publicly unveils its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion and took nearly a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became the first space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding back to Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord.
Regular flights of the space shuttle began on April 12, 1981, with the launching of Columbia from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the two-day mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider at California's Edwards Air Force Base.
Regular flights of the space shuttle began on April 12, 1981, with the launching of Columbia from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the two-day mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider at California's Edwards Air Force Base.
1980 – Solidarity, full name, Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity," is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on 31 August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-Communist Party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 Congress (up to 10 million) that constituted one third of the total working age population of Poland. In its clandestine years, the United States provided significant financial support for Solidarity, estimated to be as much as 50 million US dollars.
Solidarity emerged on 31 August 1980 in Gdańsk at the Lenin Shipyards when the communist government of Poland signed the agreement allowing for its existence. On September , 17 1980, over 20 Inter-factory Founding Committees of free trade unions merged at the congress into one national organization NSZZ Solidarity. It officially registered on 10 November 1980.
1983 – Twenty-year old Vanessa Williams became the first African American to win the Miss America crown. Less than a year later, on July 23, 1984, Williams gave up her crown after nude photos of her surfaced. Despite the scandal, Williams later launched a successful singing and acting career, including a featured role on the hit television sitcom Ugly Betty.
2004 – Barry Bonds hits his 700th career home run. Bonds rewarded his fans in the opener of the San Francisco Giants' nine-game homestand with an opposite-field homer to left center leading off the third inning. It came on an 0-1 pitch from Jake Peavy and gave the Giants a 4-0 lead over the San Diego Padres. The ball was captured by Steven Williams, a 25-year-old fan from nearby Pacifica, in the middle of several fans. The ball rolled right in front of Williams while he was flat on the ground in the scrum.
NB: Bonds has not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame due to steroid use controversy.
2010 – The 54 year run (April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010) of the soap opera As the World Turns ends as its final episode is broadcast (13,858 episodes). Set in the fictional town of Oakdale, Illinois, the show debuted on April 2, 1956, at 1:30 pm EST. Prior to that date, all serials had been fifteen minutes in length. As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, which premiered on the same day at 4:30 pm EST, were the first two to be thirty minutes in length from their premiere.
TODAY'S BIRTHS
1677 – Stephen Hales, English physiologist and chemist, invented Forceps (d. 1761)
1819 – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African general and politician, 1st President of the South African Republic (d. 1901)
1859 – Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney), American gunman and outlaw (d. 1881)
1883 – William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1963)
1907 – Warren E. Burger, American lawyer and judge, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
1933 – Claude Provost, Canadian-American ice hockey player. Trivia subject: Player with the most Stanley Cups without being in the Hall of Fame
1677 – Stephen Hales, English physiologist and chemist, invented Forceps (d. 1761)
1819 – Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African general and politician, 1st President of the South African Republic (d. 1901)
1859 – Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney), American gunman and outlaw (d. 1881)
1883 – William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1963)
1907 – Warren E. Burger, American lawyer and judge, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
1933 – Claude Provost, Canadian-American ice hockey player. Trivia subject: Player with the most Stanley Cups without being in the Hall of Fame
1942 – Robert Graysmith, American author and illustrator ― Zodiac
(d. 1984)
1947 – Jeff MacNelly, American cartoonist ― Shoe (d. 2000)
(d. 1984)
1947 – Jeff MacNelly, American cartoonist ― Shoe (d. 2000)
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