Today is Tuesday, September 17, the 261st day of the year 2024. There are 105 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On September 17, 2011, a demonstration called “Occupy Wall Street” began in New York, sparking similar protests across the United States and around the world.
Also on this date:
In 1787, the United States Constitution was completed and signed by the majority of delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
In 1862, more than 3,600 men were killed in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (an-TEE’-tum) in Maryland.
In 1908, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps became the first person to die in the crash of a powered airplane, the Wright Flyer, at Fort Myer, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied paratroopers launched Operation Market Garden and landed behind German lines in the Netherlands.
In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (men-AH’-kem BAY’-gihn) signed the Camp David Accords, the framework for a peace treaty, after twelve days of meetings at the US presidential headquarters at Camp David.
In 1980, former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay.
In 2001, six days after September 11, stock prices plunged sharply but did not completely crash during the emotional, flag-waving reopening of Wall Street.
In 2021, a Los Angeles jury convicted New York real estate heir Robert Durst of murdering his best friend 20 years ago. (Durst, who was sentenced to life in prison, died in 2022.)
Today’s birthdays:
- Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is 91.
- Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter (SOO’-tur) is 85.
- Mountaineer and explorer Reinhold Messner is 80.
- Basketball Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is 79.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 74.
- Actress Cassandra Peterson (“Elvira, Mistress of the Dark”) is 73.
- Director and actor Paul Feig is 62.
- Film director Baz Luhrmann is 62.
- Singer BeBe Winans is 62.
- Actor Kyle Chandler is 59.
- Rapper Doug E. Fresh is 58.
- The author Cheryl Strayed is 56.
- Actor Matthew Settle is 55.
- Designer and television star Nate Berkus is 53.
- NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson is 49.
- NHL striker Alexander Ovechkin (oh-VECH’-kin) is 39.
- Actress Danielle Brooks is 35.
- NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes is 29.
