Ten years ago: President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect non-infected patients. Bank closings for 2009 surpassed 100, hitting 106 by day's end. The NBA and the referees union agreed on a two-year contract, ending a lockout of more than a month. Character actor Lou Jacobi died in New York at age 95.
Five years ago: Officials announced that an emergency room doctor who'd recently returned to New York City after treating Ebola patients in West Africa tested positive for the virus, becoming the first case in the city and the fourth in the nation. (Dr. Craig Spencer later recovered.) John "Bull" Bramlett, a former professional football and baseball player who was nicknamed the "Meanest Man in Football," died in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 73.
One year ago: Turkey's president demanded that Saudi Arabia identify those who ordered the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and turn over the suspects for trial. A lottery ticket sold in South Carolina was the only one to match all six numbers drawn for the Mega Millions jackpot, which totaled $1.537 billion - just short of the record for all U.S. lotteries. China opened the world's longest sea-crossing bridge, a 34-mile span connecting Hong Kong to the mainland. Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced that she had been diagnosed with "the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer's disease."
