Today is Friday, Sept. 15, the 258th day of 2017. There are 107 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On September 15, 1940, during the World War II Battle of Britain, the tide turned as the Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses upon the Luftwaffe.
On this date:
In 1789, the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.
In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge two weeks after he was found not guilty of treason.
In 1857, William Howard Taft - who served as President of the United States and as U.S. chief justice - was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1917, the first issue of Forbes magazine was published.
In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship.
In 1942, during World War II, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine; the U.S. Navy ended up sinking the badly damaged vessel.
In 1950, during the Korean conflict, United Nations forces landed at Incheon in the south and began their drive toward Seoul (sohl).
In 1963, four black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.)
In 1972, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted seven men in connection with the Watergate break-in.
In 1981, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve the Supreme Court nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor.
In 1997, two of the nation's most popular diet drugs - dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine - were pulled off the market because of new evidence they could seriously damage patients' hearts.
In 2000, the 2000 Summer Olympics opened in Sydney, Australia, with a seemingly endless parade of athletes and coaches and a spectacular display; Aborigine runner Cathy Freeman ignited an Olympic ring of fire.