GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, September 16, the 260th day of 2015 with 104 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:24 and sunset is @ 6:54. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus & Venus. The evening stars are, Mercury, Neptune & Saturn.
ON THIS DAY IN: 1400 – Owain Glyndwr was proclaimed Prince of Wales after rebelling against English rule. He was the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales.
1620 – The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England. The ship arrived at Provincetown, MA, on November 21st and then at Plymouth, MA, on December 26th. There were 102 passengers onboard.
1630 – The village of Shawmut changed its name to Boston.
1782 – The Great Seal of the United States was impressed on document to negotiate a prisoner of war agreement with the British. It was the first official use of the impression.
1810 – The Mexicans began a revolt against Spanish rule. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of Spanish descent, declared Mexico’s independence from Spain in the small town of Dolores.
1893 – The “Cherokee Strip” in Oklahoma was swarmed by hundreds of thousands of settlers.
1908 – General Motors was founded by William Crapo “Billy” Durant. The company was formed by merging the Buick and Olds car companies.
1924 – Jim Bottomley knocked in 12 runs in a single game setting a major league baseball record.
1940 – U.S. President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.
1940 – Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served for 17 years.
1941 – “The Arkansas Traveler” debuted on CBS Radio. The show was later renamed “The Bob Burns Show.”
1953 – “The Robe” premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York. It was the first movie filmed in the wide screen CinemaScope process.
1953 – The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given permission to move to Baltimore, MD, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.
1963 – “The Outer Limits” premiered on ABC-TV.
1965 – “The Dean Martin Show” debuted on NBC-TV.
1968 – “The Andy Griffith Show” was seen for the final time on CBS.
1972 – “The Bob Newhart Show” premiered on CBS-TV.
1974 – U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft-evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.
1976 – The Episcopal Church formally approved women to be ordained as priests and bishops.
1982 – In west Beirut, the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children began in refugee camps of the Lebanese Christian militiamen.
1985 – The Communist Party in China announced changes in leadership that were designed to bring younger officials into power.
1987 – The Montreal Protocol was signed by 24 countries in an effort to save the Earth’s ozone layer by reducing emissions of harmful chemicals by the year 2000.
1988 – Tom Browning pitched the 12th perfect game in major league baseball.
1990 – An eight-minute videotape of an address by U.S. President George H.W. Bush was shown on Iraqi television. The message warned that action of Saddam Hussein could plunge them into a war “against the world.”
1994 – Exxon Corporation was ordered by federal jury to pay $5 billion in punitive damages to the people harmed by the 1989Exxon Valdez spill.
1994 – Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery went on the first untethered spacewalk in 10 years.
1998 – Universal paid $9 million for the rights to the Dr. Seuss classics “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go.”
1998 – Meryl Streep received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.