19 September: G. W. Says "Later"; Kiwis Let Dames Vote; Commies Get Bad Service; Mothers Of Prevention Formed; Peron Ousted; Emoticons Invented; Gram Parsons Dies; Unabomber Manifesto Published; World Trembles In Fear As Bouffant Is Born, Becomes Bored Immediately

Today is Saturday, Sept. 19, the 262nd day of 2009. There are 103 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 19, 1796, President George Washington's farewell address was published. In it, the nation's first chief executive wrote, "Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all."

On this date:

In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga.
In 1783, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier launched a duck, a sheep and a rooster aboard a hot-air balloon at Versailles in France.
In 1881, the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, died 2 1/2 months after being shot by Charles Guiteau; Chester Alan Arthur became president.
In 1893, with the signing of the Electoral Bill by Gov. Lord Glasgow, New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant national voting rights to women.
In 1906, addressing the annual dinner of The Associated Press in New York, Mark Twain said there were "only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe ... the sun in the heavens and The Associated Press down here." [That sound you hear? Yup. Spinning like a top. — Ed.]
Seventy-five years ago, in 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnap-murder of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.

In 1945, Nazi radio propagandist William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw," was convicted of treason and sentenced to death by a British court.
In 1955, President Juan Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the military.
In 1957, the United States conducted its first contained underground nuclear test, code-named "Rainier," in the Nevada desert.
Fifty years ago, in 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, visiting Los Angeles, reacted angrily upon being told that, for security reasons, he wouldn't get to visit Disneyland.
In 1960, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in New York to visit the United Nations, angrily checked out of the Shelburne Hotel in a dispute with the management; Castro accepted an invitation to stay at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem.
In 1982, emoticons were born when Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman proposed punctuating humorous or sarcastic computer messages with a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis as a horizontal "smiley face." :-) [The horror. — Ed.]
In 1985, the Mexico City area was struck by the first of two devastating earthquakes that claimed some 6,000 lives.
In 1988, Israel succeeded in launching a test satellite, the Ofeq ("Horizon") 1, over the Mediterranean Sea.
Twenty years ago, in 1989, a Paris-bound DC-10 belonging to French airline UTA was bombed over Niger, killing all 170 people on board. (A French court later convicted six Libyans in absentia for the bombing; Libya agreed in 2004 to pay $170 million in compensation, although it stopped short of acknowledging responsibility.)
In 1994, U. S. troops entered Haiti to enforce the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
In 1995, The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Unabomber's manifesto.
Ten years ago: German voters handed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's governing Social Democrats a humiliating defeat in elections in the eastern state of Saxony, giving it just 11 percent of the votes.
In 2001, the Pentagon ordered combat aircraft to the Persian Gulf in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. [A building giving orders? Only in America. — Ed.]
In 2002, President George W. Bush asked Congress for authority to "use all means," including military force if necessary, to disarm and overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he did not quickly meet United Nations demands to abandon all weapons of mass destruction.
Five years ago: Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China with the departure of former President Jiang Zemin from his top military post. Militants decapitated three hostages believed to be Iraqi Kurds in a videotape that surfaced hours after Iraq's prime minister said that January elections would be held on schedule. The United States suffered its biggest Ryder Cup loss in 77 years as it lost to the Europeans, 18 1/2 to 9 1/2.
In 2005, former Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski was sentenced in New York to up to 25 years in prison for looting the company of hundreds of millions of dollars; Tyco's former finance chief, Mark Swartz, received the same sentence. Al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahri said his terror network had carried out the July 7 London bombings that killed 52 people. [Who is the greater criminal, Kozlowski or al-Zawahri? — Ed.]
One year ago: Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration laid out a radical bailout plan calling for a takeover of a half-trillion dollars or more in worthless mortgages and other bad debt held by tottering institutions. Relieved investors sent stocks soaring on Wall Street and around the globe.

 China's food safety crisis widened after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk produced by three of the country's leading dairy companies. Baseball's new instant replay system produced its first reversal when Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena had a two-run double changed to a three-run homer during the fourth inning of a game against Minnesota.

Today's Birthdays:

Opera singer Blanche Thebom is 91. Author Roger Angell is 89. TV host James Lipton ("Inside the Actors Studio") is 83. Actress Rosemary Harris is 82. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Duke Snider is 83. Former Defense Secretary Harold Brown is 82. Actor Adam West is 79. Retired baseball All-Star Bob Turley is 79. Actor David McCallum is 76. Singer-songwriter Paul Williams is 69. Singer Bill Medley is 69. Singer Sylvia Tyson (Ian and Sylvia) is 69. Baseball Hall of Famer and sportscaster Joe Morgan is 66. Golfer Jane Blalock is 64. Singer David Bromberg is 64. Actor Randolph Mantooth is 64. Singer Freda Payne is 64. Rock singer-musician Lol Creme (10cc) is 62. Former NFL running back Larry Brown is 62. Actor Jeremy Irons is 61. Actress Twiggy Lawson is 60. TV personality Joan Lunden is 59. Singer-producer Daniel Lanois is 58. Actor Scott Colomby is 57. Musician-producer Nile Rodgers is 57. Unknown web logger Malignant "Chas." Bouffant has 56 yrs. of indescribable suffering, pain & existential agony under his belt. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Reggie Williams is 55. Singer-actor Rex Smith is 54. Actor Kevin Hooks is 51. Actress Carolyn McCormick is 50. Country singer Jeff Bates is 46. Country singer Trisha Yearwood is 45. Actress-comedian Cheri Oteri is 44. News anchor Soledad O'Brien is 43. Former pitcher Jim Abbott is 42. R&B singer Espraronza Griffin is 40. Actress Sanaa Lathan is 38. Actress Stephanie J. Block is 37. Rock singer A. Jay Popoff (Lit) is 36. Comedian and TV talk show host Jimmy Fallon is 35. TV personality Carter Oosterhouse is 33. Actress-TV host Alison Sweeney is 33. Rock musician Ryan Dusick is 32. Actor Columbus Short is 27. Rapper Eamon is 26. Christian rock musician JD Frazier is 26. Actor Kevin Zegers is 25. Actress Danielle Panabaker is 22.

Today In Entertainment History September 19

In 1958, Elvis Presley set sail for Germany, where he would serve a tour of duty for the US Army. He arrived in West Germany on October first.
In 1970, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" debuted on CBS.
In 1973, singer-songwriter Gram Parsons died under mysterious circumstances in Joshua Tree, Calif. Parsons played with The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. His coffin was later stolen by two of his associates and set on fire.
In 1981, singers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel reunited for a free concert in New York's Central Park. More than 400,000 people turned out for the show, which was recorded and released as a double album.
In 1985, Frank Zappa appeared before a Senate panel to protest a proposal to rate the lyrics of rock music based on sexual and violent content.
Twenty years ago, in 1989, the Library of Congress announced the first 25 of 75 films named to the new national film registry. The registry was established to get high-quality copies of films to make sure they would be preserved. The first group included "Gone With The Wind," "The Maltese Falcon" and "Citizen Kane."
In 1998, singer Fabian married former Miss Pennsylvania Andrea Patrick in Farmington, Pennsylvania.
Five years ago, "The Sopranos" won best drama series at the Emmy Awards while "Arrested Development" won best comedy series.
In 2008, hours after performing for thousands of college students, former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash shortly after takeoff outside Columbia, South Carolina, that killed four people. (DJ AM, whose real name was Adam Goldstein, was found dead in his apartment on Aug. 28; he was 36.)

Thoughts for Today:

"If you are losing your leisure, look out; you may be losing your soul." — Logan Pearsall Smith, Anglo-American author (1865-1946).

"If god existed, it would be necessary to deny him." — M. "Chas." Bouffant, unknown pseudonymous American, born on this date in 1953.