September 20th

Today's Highlight in History:
On September 20th, 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia. (Magellan was killed enroute, but one of his ships eventually circled the world.)

On this date:
In 1870, Italian troops took control of the Papal States, leading to the unification of Italy.

In 1881, Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding James A. Garfield, who had been assassinated.

In 1884, the Equal Rights Party was formed during a convention of suffragists in San Francisco. The convention nominated Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood for president.

In 1947, former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia died.

In 1962, black student James Meredith was blocked from enrolling at the University of Mississippi by Governor Ross R. Barnett. (Meredith was later admitted.)

In 1963, President Kennedy proposed a joint US-Soviet expedition to the moon.

In 1973, singer-songwriter Jim Croce died in a plane crash near Natchitoches, Louisiana; he was 30.

In 1979, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, self-styled head of the Central African Empire, was overthrown in a French-supported coup while on a visit to Libya.

In 1984, a suicide car bomber attacked the US Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing a dozen people.

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk was sworn in as president of South Africa.

Ten years ago: Demanding equal time, Iraq asked US networks to broadcast a message by President Saddam Hussein in response to President Bush's videotaped address to the Iraqi people.

Five years ago: In a move that stunned Wall Street, AT&T Corporation announced it was splitting into three companies. Bosnian Serb rebels pulled back enough heavy weapons from around Sarajevo to keep NATO airstrikes at bay.

One year ago: Lawrence Russell Brewer became the second white supremacist to be convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Junior in Jasper, Texas. (Brewer was later sentenced to death.) Heavily armed international peacekeepers landed in East Timor, clearing the way for the rest of a UN-approved force charged with restoring order. Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, died after a battle with leukemia; she was 67.

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail."

-- William Faulkner, American author (1897-1962).