September fourth

Today's Highlight in History:
On September fourth, 1972, US swimmer Mark Spitz won a record seventh Olympic gold medal, in the 400-meter relay at the Munich Summer Olympics.

On this date:
In 1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers.

In 1888, George Eastman received a patent for his roll-film camera, and registered his trademark: "Kodak."

In 1894, some 12,000 tailors in New York City went on strike to protest sweatshops.

In 1917, the American expeditionary force in France suffered its first fatalities in World War One.

In 1948, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated the Dutch throne for health reasons.

In 1951, in the first live, coast-to-coast television broadcast, President Truman addressed the nation from the Japanese peace treaty conference in San Francisco.

In 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.

In 1957, Ford Motor Company began selling its ill-fated "Edsel."

In 1969, the Food and Drug Administration issued a report calling birth control pills "safe," despite a slight risk of fatal blood-clotting disorders linked to the pills.

In 1971, an Alaska Airlines jet crashed near Juneau, killing 111 people.

Ten years ago: The air evacuation of Western women and children stranded in Iraq and Kuwait resumed, with 25 Americans among the nearly 300 who made it to Jordan.

Five years ago: The Fourth World Conference on Women opened in Beijing with more than 4,750 delegates from 181 countries. Attorney William Kunstler, who spoke out for the politically unpopular in a controversial career, died in New York at age 76.

One year ago: Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed a breakthrough land-for-security agreement during a ceremony in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Martin Frankel, a Connecticut money manager accused of cheating insurance companies in five states out of more than $200 million, was arrested in Germany. Anti-independence militias in East Timor went on a rampage, hours after the United Nations announced that residents had overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia.

"We grew up founding our dreams on the infinite promise of American advertising."

-- Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, American writer (1900-1948).