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Today in History

  • Today in History 

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 30, the 274th day of 2020. There are 92 days left in the year. 

  • Today's Highlight in History: 

On Sept. 30, 1938, after co-signing the Munich Agreement allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said, "I believe it is peace for our time." 

  • On this date: 

In 1777, the Continental Congress — forced to flee in the face of advancing British forces — moved to York, Pennsylvania.
In 1791, Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" premiered in Vienna, Austria.
In 1912, the Columbia Journalism School in New York held its first classes.
In 1939, the first college football game to be televised was shown on experimental station W2XBS in New York as Fordham University defeated Waynesburg College, 34-7. 
In 1949, the Berlin Airlift came to an end. 
In 1955, actor James Dean, 24, was killed in a two-car collision near Cholame, California. 
In 1962, James Meredith, a Black student, was escorted by federal marshals to the campus of the University of Mississippi, where he enrolled for classes the next day; Meredith's presence sparked rioting that claimed two lives. 
In 1972, Roberto Clemente hit a double against Jon Matlack of the New York Mets during Pittsburgh's 5-0 victory at Three Rivers Stadium; the hit was the 3,000th and last for the Pirates star. 
In 1984, the mystery series "Murder, She Wrote," starring Angela Lansbury, premiered on CBS.
In 2001, under threat of U.S. military strikes, Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban rulers said explicitly for the first time that Osama bin Laden was still in the country and that they knew where his hideout was located. 
In 2014, the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. was confirmed in a patient who had recently traveled from Liberia to Dallas. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the nation's first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores.
In 2018, U.S. and Canadian officials announced an agreement for Canada to take part in a revamped North American free trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico; the new agreement would be called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, and would take effect on July 1, 2020.

  • Ten Years Ago: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Guatemalan leaders to apologize for 1940s U.S.-led experiments that infected occupants of a Guatemala mental hospital with syphilis, apparently to test the effectiveness of penicillin against some sexually transmitted diseases. The government of Ecuador declared a state of siege after rebellious police angered by a law that cut their benefits plunged the small South American nation into chaos.
  • Five years ago: Just hours before a midnight deadline, a bitterly divided Congress approved, and President Barack Obama signed, a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government open. Kelly Renee Gissendaner, the only woman on Georgia's death row, was executed by injection, making her the first woman put to death by the state in seven decades. (Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the 1997 slaying of her husband after she'd conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death.) Prosecutors declined to charge Caitlyn Jenner in a California car crash the previous February that killed another driver, Kim Howe, citing insufficient evidence.
  • One year ago: House Democrats subpoenaed President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for documents related to his interactions with Ukrainian officials. The Justice Department said President Donald Trump had recently asked Australia's prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Attorney General William Barr investigate the origins of the Russia probe. International opera star Jessye Norman died in New York at 74. Oakland Raiders linebacker Vontaze Burfict was suspended for the rest of the season for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle; it was the league's most severe punishment ever for an on-field infraction. Defying the NCAA, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law allowing college athletes at public and private schools in California to hire agents and make money from endorsement deals. 
  • Today's Birthdays: Actor Angie Dickinson is 89. Singer Cissy Houston is 87. Singer Johnny Mathis is 85. Actor Len Cariou is 81. Singer Marilyn McCoo is 77. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is 75. Pop singer Sylvia Peterson (The Chiffons) is 74. Actor Vondie Curtis-Hall is 70. Actor Victoria Tennant is 70. Actor John Finn is 68. Rock musician John Lombardo is 68. Singer Deborah Allen is 67. Actor Calvin Levels is 66. Actor Barry Williams is 66. Singer Patrice Rushen is 66. Actor Fran Drescher is 63. Country singer Marty Stuart is 62. Actor Debrah Farentino is 61. Former Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is 60. Actor Crystal Bernard is 59. Actor Eric Stoltz is 59. Rapper-producer Marley Marl is 58. Country singer Eddie Montgomery (Montgomery-Gentry) is 57. Rock singer Trey Anastasio is 56. Actor Monica Bellucci is 56. Rock musician Robby Takac (Goo Goo Dolls) is 56. Actor Lisa Thornhill is 54. Actor Andrea Roth is 53. Actor Amy Landecker is 51. Actor Silas Weir Mitchell is 51. Actor Tony Hale is 50. Actor Jenna Elfman is 49. Actor Ashley Hamilton is 46. Actor Marion Cotillard is 45. Actor Christopher Jackson is 45. Actor Stark Sands is 42. Actor Mike Damus is 41. Actor Toni Trucks is 40. Former tennis player Martina Hingis is 40. Olympic gold medal gymnast Dominique Moceanu is 39. Actor Lacey Chabert is 38. Actor Kieran Culkin is 38. Singer-rapper T-Pain is 36.