September 14th

Today's Highlight in History:
On September 14th, 1940, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in US history.

On this date:
In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland.

In 1847, US forces under General Winfield Scott took control of Mexico City.

In 1901, President McKinley died in Buffalo, New York, of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him.

In 1927, modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of her sports car.

In 1948, a groundbreaking ceremony took place in New York at the site of the United Nations' world headquarters.

In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna Two" became the first manmade object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.

In 1975, Pope Paul the Sixth declared Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first US-born saint.

In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, died at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before.

In 1982, Lebanon's president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was killed by a bomb.

In 1988, Hurricane "Gilbert" slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula after forcing thousands of residents to flee.

Ten years ago: During the Persian Gulf crisis, the US Navy reported that American troops had fired a warning shot at an Iraqi tanker, then boarded it briefly before allowing it to proceed.

Five years ago: NATO called a temporary halt to its aerial pounding of Serb rebels while a US envoy tried to clinch an agreement on withdrawing the Serbs' big guns from around Sarajevo.

One year ago: Indonesian soldiers looted the abandoned UN mission in East Timor, just hours after 110 UN personnel and 13-hundred East Timorese were evacuated and flown to safety to end a ten-day siege. Hurricane "Floyd" clobbered the Bahamas, toppling power lines, ripping roofs off homes and pushing a roiling sea into streets before heading toward the southeastern United States.

"I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."

-- Adlai E. Stevenson, American statesman (1900-1965).