September 19th

Today's Highlight in History:
On September 19th, 1777, during the Revolutionary War, American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga.

On this date:
In 1796, President Washington's farewell address was published.

In 1881, the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by an assassin.

In 1906, addressing the annual dinner of The Associated Press in New York, Mark Twain said there were "only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe ... the sun in the heavens and The Associated Press down here."

In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh infant.

In 1955, President Juan Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the army and navy.

In 1957, the United States conducted its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert.

In 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev reacted angrily during a visit to Los Angeles upon being told that, for security reasons, he wouldn't be allowed to visit Disneyland.

In 1960, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in New York to visit the United Nations, angrily checked out of the Shelburne Hotel in a dispute with the management.

In 1970, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" debuted on CBS TV.

In 1985, the Mexico City area was struck by the first of two devastating quakes that claimed some six-thousand lives.

Ten years ago: Iraq began confiscating foreign assets from countries that were imposing sanctions against the Baghdad government.

Five years ago: The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Unabomber's manifesto. The Senate passed a welfare overhaul bill. The US ambassador and the commander of American forces in Japan apologized for the rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl committed by three US servicemen.

One year ago: German voters handed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's governing Social Democrats a humiliating defeat in elections in the eastern state of Saxony, giving it just eleven percent of the votes.

"There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all."

-- Dame Rebecca West, Irish-born novelist (1892-1983).