Today in History: September 16, GM is founded
Today in History
Today is Friday, Sept. 16, the 259th day of 2022. There are 106 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On Sept. 16, 2001, President George W. Bush, speaking on the South Lawn of the White House, said there was “no question” Osama bin Laden and his followers were the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks; Bush pledged the government would “find them, get them running and hunt them down.”
On this date:
In 1630, the Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.
In 1810, Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.
In 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.
In 1940, Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera officially opened its new opera house at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”
In 1972, “The Bob Newhart Show” premiered on CBS.
In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.
In 1982, the massacre of between 1,200 and 1,400 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
In 1987, two dozen countries signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty designed to save the Earth’s ozone layer by calling on nations to reduce emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.
In 2007, contractors for the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA guarding a U.S. State Department convoy in Baghdad opened fire on civilian vehicles, mistakenly believing they were under attack; 14 Iraqis died. O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017.)
In 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former U.S. Navy reservist, went on a shooting rampage inside the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being shot dead by police.
In 2016, after five years of promoting a false conspiracy theory about Barack Obama’s birthplace, Republican Donald Trump abruptly reversed course, acknowledging that the president was born in America, but then claiming the “birther movement” was begun by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. (While the question of Obama’s birthplace was raised by some backers of Clinton’s primary campaign against Obama eight years earlier, Clinton had long denounced it as a “racist lie.”)
Ten years ago: In appearances on Sunday news shows, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said there was no evidence that the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, was premeditated. But Libya’s interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, told CBS he had no doubt attackers spent months planning the assault and purposely chose the date, September 11.
Five years ago: Tropical Storm Maria, which would batter the Caribbean as a powerful hurricane, formed in the Atlantic. California lawmakers voted to move the state’s presidential primary up by about three months to March, a move that would force candidates to mount expensive campaigns earlier.
One year ago: Health officials said the state of Florida had surpassed 50,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic. A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the COVID-19 pandemic to an “alarming” increase in obesity in U.S. children and teenagers. A report published in JAMA Ophthalmology suggested that vision problems increased among Chinese schoolchildren during pandemic restrictions and online learning. Jane Powell, a star of Hollywood’s golden age musicals, died at her Connecticut home at 92.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Janis Paige is 100. Actor George Chakiris is 90. Bluesman Billy Boy Arnold is 87. Movie director Jim McBride is 81. Actor Linda Miller is 80. R&B singer Betty Kelley (Martha & the Vandellas) is 78. Musician Kenney Jones (Small Faces; Faces; The Who) is 74. Actor Susan Ruttan is 74. Rock musician Ron Blair (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers; Mudcrutch) is 74. Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 73. Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 72. Actor Mickey Rourke is 70. Actor-comedian Lenny Clarke is 69. Actor Kurt Fuller is 69. Jazz musician Earl Klugh is 69. Actor Christopher Rich is 69. TV personality Mark McEwen is 68. Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount is 67. Magician David Copperfield is 66. Country singer-songwriter Terry McBride is 64. Actor Jennifer Tilly is 64. Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser is 64. Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 63. Actor Jayne Brook is 62. Singer Richard Marx is 59. Comedian Molly Shannon is 58. Singer Marc Anthony is 54. News anchor/talk show host Tamron Hall is 52. Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is 51. Actor Toks Olagundoye (tohks oh-lah-GOON’-doh-yay) is 47. Country singer Matt Stillwell is 47. Singer Musiq (MYOO’-sihk) is 45. Actor Michael Mosley is 44. Rapper Flo Rida is 43. Actor Alexis Bledel is 41. Actor Sabrina Bryan is 38. Actor Madeline Zima is 37. Actor Ian Harding is 36. Actor Kyla Pratt is 36. Actor Daren Kagasoff is 35. Rock singer Teddy Geiger is 34. Actor-dancer Bailey De Young is 33. Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 30. Actor Elena Kampouris is 25.
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