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Today is Wednesday, September 11, the 255th day of 2024. There are 111 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed when 19 al-Qaeda hijackers took control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes to the World Trade Center in New York, one to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth to a field in western Pennsylvania. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
Also on this date:
In 1789, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
In 1814, an American fleet won a decisive victory over the British at the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.
In 1936, the Boulder Dam – later renamed the Hoover Dam – was put into service when President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a button in Washington to signal the start-up of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator.
In 1941, a groundbreaking event occurred for the Pentagon.
In 1954, the Miss America pageant made its network television debut on ABC.
In 1973, Chilean President Salvador Allende (ah-YEN’-dag) died during a violent military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
In 1985, Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds broke Ty Cobb’s MLB career hits record with his 4,192nd hit.
In 2008, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama put politics aside when they visited Ground Zero together on the anniversary of September 11 to honor its victims.
In 2012, a mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery nighttime attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
In 2023, more than 4,000 people died and thousands more went missing after heavy rains from Storm Daniel caused two dams to collapse, flooding the city of Derna, Libya.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Composer Arvo Pärt is 89.
- Film director Brian De Palma is 84.
- Singer-actor-dancer Lola Falana is 82.
- Musician Mickey Hart is 81.
- Guitarist Leo Kottke is 78.
- Actor Amy Madigan is 74.
- Rock musician Tommy Shaw (Styx) is 71.
- Sports reporter Lesley Visser is 71.
- Actor Scott Patterson is 66.
- Actor/director Roxann Dawson is 66.
- Actor John Hawkes is 65.
- Actor Virginia Madsen is 63.
- Musician-composer Moby is 59.
- Singer Harry Connick Jr. is 57.
- Actor Taraji (tuh-RAH’-jee) P. Henson is 54.
- Rapper Ludacris is 47.
- Football Hall of Famer Ed Reed is 46.
- Country singer Charles Kelley (Lady A) is 43.
- Actor Elizabeth Henstridge is 37.
- Actor Tyler Hoechlin (HEK’-lihn) is 37.