Today's Highlight in History:
On Sept. 5, 1972, Black September terrorists attacked the Israeli delegation at the Munich Olympic games; 11 Israelis, five guerrillas and a police officer were killed in the siege.
On this date:
In 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
In 1793, the Reign of Terror began during the French Revolution as the National Convention instituted harsh measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities.
In 1836, Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas.
In 1914, the First Battle of the Marne, resulting in a French-British victory over Germany, began during World War I.
In 1939, four days after war had broken out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring U.S. neutrality in the conflict.
In 1945, Japanese-American Iva Toguri D'Aquino, suspected of being wartime broadcaster "Tokyo Rose," was arrested in Yokohama. (D'Aquino was later convicted of treason and served six years in prison; she was pardoned in 1977 by President Gerald R. Ford.)
In 1958, the novel "Doctor Zhivago" by Russian author Boris Pasternak was published in the United States for the first time.
In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford escaped an attempt on his life by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a disciple of Charles Manson, in Sacramento, Calif.
In 1977, West German industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer was kidnapped in Cologne by the Baader-Meinhof gang. (Schleyer was later killed by his captors.) The U.S. launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft two weeks after launching its twin, Voyager 2.
In 1997, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II broke the royal reticence over Princess Diana's death, delivering a televised address in which she called her former daughter-in-law "a remarkable person." Mother Teresa died in Calcutta, India, at age 87; conductor Sir Georg Solti died in France at age 84.
Ten years ago: Hundreds of Islamic insurgents launched a new offensive in southern Russia, hours after a bomb smashed a building housing Russian military families; the blast was the first of four apartment building explosions blamed by Russian officials on Chechen rebels that killed a total of about 300 people. The Houston Comets won their third straight WNBA championship, beating the New York Liberty, 59-47. "Candid Camera" creator Allen Funt died in Pebble Beach, Calif., at age 84.
