September 16th

Today's Highlight in History:
On September 16th, 1940, Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

On this date:
In 1630, the Massachusetts village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.

In 1638, France's King Louis the 14th was born.

In 1810, Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.

In 1893, hundreds of thousands of settlers swarmed onto a section of land in Oklahoma known as the "Cherokee Strip."

In 1919, the American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress.

In 1940, President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in US history.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera opened its new opera house at New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

In 1974, President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.

In 1977, Maria Callas, the American-born prima donna famed for her lyric soprano and fiery temperament, died in Paris at age 53.

In 1982, the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children by Lebanese Christian militiamen began in west Beirut's Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps.

Ten years ago: Iraqi television broadcast an eight-minute videotaped address by President Bush, who warned the Iraqi people that Saddam Hussein's brinksmanship could plunge them into war "against the world."

Five years ago: President Clinton voiced support for a Senate welfare overhaul plan sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. Shawntel Smith of Oklahoma was crowned "Miss America" at the pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

One year ago: Hurricane "Floyd" hit the Carolinas and began making its way up the East Coast, damaging 12,000 homes and claiming more than 50 lives even after it weakened to a tropical storm. In southern Russia, an explosion described by authorities as the fourth massive terrorist attack in two weeks demolished an apartment building, killing at least 18 people.

"Stoicism is the wisdom of madness and cynicism the madness of wisdom."

-- Bergen Evans, American lexicographer (1904-1978).