September 15th

Today's Highlight in History:
On September 15th, 1963, 11-year-old Denise McNair and three 14-year-olds: Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins were killed when a dynamite bomb exploded during Sunday services at the all-black 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

On this date:
In 1776, British forces occupied New York City during the American Revolution.

In 1789, the US Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.

In 1821, independence was proclaimed for Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

In 1857, William Howard Taft -- who served as president of the United States and as chief justice -- was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1917, Russia was proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky, the head of a provisional government.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship and made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.

In 1940, during the Battle of Britain in World War Two, the tide turned as the Luftwaffe sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force.

In 1950, during the Korean conflict, United Nations forces landed at Inchon in the south and began their drive toward Seoul.

In 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev arrived in the US to begin a 13-day visit.

In 1989, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren, the first poet laureate of the United States, died in Stratton, Vermont, at age 84.

Ten years ago: France announced it would send 4,000 more soldiers to the Persian Gulf and expel Iraqi military attaches in Paris in response to Iraq's raids on French, Belgian and Canadian diplomatic compounds in Kuwait.

Five years ago: Hurricane "Marilyn," the third major storm to batter the Caribbean in less than a month, hit the Virgin Islands with heavy rains and 100 mile-an-hour winds. The UN Fourth World Conference on Women adjourned in Beijing after approving a wide-ranging platform running the gamut from promoting inheritance rights to condemning rape in wartime.

One year ago: One month after being charged in the United States with laundering suspected drug payoffs, Mexico's former top drug prosecutor, Mario Ruiz Massieu, was found dead in his New Jersey apartment, an apparent suicide. Gunman Larry Ashbrook opened fire in a Fort Worth, Texas, Baptist church, killing seven people and himself.

"God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road."

-- Isak Dinesen, Danish author (1885-1962).