Today in History: September 7, German air attack on London

Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 7, the 250th day of 2022. There are 115 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Sept. 7, 1940, Nazi Germany began its eight-month blitz of Britain during World War II with the first air attack on London.

On this date:

In 1901, the Peace of Beijing ended the Boxer Rebellion in China.

In 1943, a fire at the Gulf Hotel, a rooming house in Houston, claimed 55 lives.

In 1968, feminists protested outside the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, N.J. (The pageant crown went to Miss Illinois Judith Ford.)

In 1977, the Panama Canal treaties, calling for the U.S. to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington by President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos (toh-REE’-hohs).

In 1986, Desmond Tutu was installed as the first Black clergyman to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.

In 2005, police and soldiers went house to house in New Orleans to try to coax the last stubborn holdouts into leaving the city shattered by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2007, Osama bin Laden appeared in a video for the first time in three years, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they wanted the war in Iraq to end.

In 2008, troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed in government conservatorship.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton, interviewed by The Associated Press during a campaign swing through Iowa, said she did not need to apologize for using a private email account and server while at the State Department because “what I did was allowed.”

In 2019, President Donald Trump said he had canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghan leaders, just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, after a bombing in Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier.

In 2020, India’s increasing coronavirus caseload made the Asian giant the world’s second-worst-hit country behind the United States.

Ten years ago: The Labor Department reported that employers added just 96,000 jobs in August 2012, down from 141,000 in July; the dismal finding prompted Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to say, “We’re going in the wrong direction,” while President Barack Obama, fresh off his nomination for a second term in office, said: “We know it’s not good enough.” Dorothy McGuire Williamson, 84, who teamed with sisters Christine and Phyllis as the popular McGuire Sisters, died in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

Five years ago: More than a half million people were ordered to leave South Florida as Hurricane Irma approached, while Georgia’s governor ordered nearly 540,000 coastal residents to move inland. One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Mexico struck off the country’s southern coast, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing at least 90 people. (A deadlier quake would strike central Mexico nearly two weeks later.) Donald Trump Jr. told a Senate panel that he did not collude with Russia to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Equifax, one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus, announced that hackers had gained access to credit information on 143 million Americans.

One year ago: More than 400,0000 homes and businesses in Louisiana remained without power, nine days after Hurricane Ida hit; more than half of the gas stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge were without fuel. Louisiana health officials revoked the licenses of nursing homes that had evacuated residents to a warehouse where seven of the residents died amid squalid conditions. The Taliban announced an all-male interim government for Afghanistan stacked with veterans of their hard-line rule from the 1990s. The widow of the late Robert F. Kennedy said his assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, should not be released from prison; the statement further roiled a family divide over whether Sirhan should get parole for the 1968 killing. (In January 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a recommendation from a two-person panel of parole commissioners that Sirhan be released.)

Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musician Sonny Rollins is 92. Singer Gloria Gaynor is 79. Singer Alfa Anderson (Chic) is 76. Actor Susan Blakely is 74. Rock musician Dennis Thompson (MC5) is 74. Actor Julie Kavner is 72. Rock singer Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) is 71. Rock musician Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 69. Actor Corbin Bernsen is 68. Actor Michael Emerson is 68. Pianist Michael Feinstein is 66. Singer/songwriter Diane Warren is 66. Singer Margot Chapman is 65. Actor J. Smith-Cameron is 65. Actor W. Earl Brown is 59. Actor Toby Jones is 56. Actor-comedian Leslie Jones (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 55. Model-actor Angie Everhart is 53. Actor Diane Farr is 53. Actor Monique Gabriela Curnen is 52. Actor Tom Everett Scott is 52. Rock musician Chad Sexton (311) is 52. Actor Shannon Elizabeth is 49. Actor Oliver Hudson is 46. Actor Devon Sawa (SAH’-wuh) is 44. Actor JD Pardo is 43. Actor Benjamin Hollingsworth (TV: “Code Black”) is 38. Actor Alyssa Diaz (TV: “Ray Donovan”; “Zoo”) is 37. Singer-musician Wes Willis (Rush of Fools) is 36. Actor Evan Rachel Wood is 35. Actor Jonathan Majors is 33. Actor Ian Chen (TV: “Fresh Off the Boat”) is 16.

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