September 11 Archives - PopHistory.org

The Christiana Riot

Year: 1851

Month Day: September 11

In Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of African Americans and white abolitionists skirmish with a Maryland posse intent on capturing four fugitive enslaved people hidden in the town. The violence came one year after the second fugitive slave law was passed by Congress, requiring the return of all escapees to their owners in the South. One member of the posse, landowner Edward Gorsuch, was killed and two others wounded during the fight. In the aftermath of the so-called Christiana Riot, 37 African Americans and one white man were arrested and charged with treason under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law. Most were acquitted.

In February 1793, Congress passed the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbade slavery, to forcibly return enslaved people who had escaped from other states to their original owners. The law stated that “no person held to service of labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.”

As Northern states abolished slavery, most relaxed enforcement of the 1793 law, and many passed laws ensuring fugitives a jury trial. Several Northern states even enacted measures prohibiting state officials from aiding in the capture of runaways or from jailing the fugitives. This disregard of the first fugitive slave law enraged Southern states and led to the passage of a second fugitive slave law as part of the “Compromise of 1850″ between North and South.

The second fugitive slave law called for the return of enslaved people “on pain of heavy penalty” but permitted a jury trial under the condition that fugitives be prohibited from testifying in their own defense. Fugitive slave trials like the Dred Scott case of 1857 stirred up public opinion on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Meanwhile, fugitive enslaved people circumvented the law through the “Underground Railroad,” a network of persons, primarily free African Americans, who helped fugitives escape to freedom in the Northern states or Canada.

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Donny Osmond has the #1 hit on the U.S. pop charts with “Go Away Little Girl”

Year: 1971

Month Day: September 11

Donny Osmond began his professional career in the early 1960s, as the dimpled, five-year-old frontman of the family barbershop quintet. These days, he is still a reliable Las Vegas nightclub draw; an occasional above-the-marquee star of touring Broadway musicals; and an on-again, off-again host of syndicated television chat- and game-shows. For one golden period in the 1970s, however, this hardworking showbiz survivor was a bona fide superstar. That period was well underway on September 11, 1971, when 13-year-old Donny Osmond earned his first solo (and second overall) #1 hit with “Go Away Little Girl.”

Performing together as the Osmonds, Donny and his brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay had burst onto the pop scene just seven months earlier with the #1 hit “One Bad Apple”—a brazen imitation of the bubblegum soul of the Jackson 5. And just as the Jacksons of Gary, Indiana, would soon do with their own lead singer, the Osmonds of Ogden, Utah, quickly moved to make a solo star out of Donny. “We push whoever is in front, and the rest of us divide the work necessary to keep the front runners in first place and the family strong,” is how Olive Osmond—matriarch of the Mormon show-business clan—once explained the process by which her young Donny was soon elevated above his less telegenic brothers.

The material chosen for Donny’s debut fell squarely into the teenybopper mainstream. “Sweet and Innocent,” his debut single, climbed as high as #7 on the pop charts, followed by “Go Away Little Girl,” written by the legendary team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King and previously a #1 hit in 1963 for Steve Lawrence. A string of similar cover tunes would follow, including Paul Anka’s “Puppy Love,” Frankie Avalon’s “Why,” Nat “King” Cole’s “Too Young” and Johnny Mathis’ “The Twelfth Of Never,” all of which were Top 20 hits. A 1973 cover of Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” however, would be Donny’s last Top 20 hit until 1989, when he returned with the #2 hit “Soldier of Love.”

In the intervening years, however, Donny Osmond appears not to have derived all the joy he might have from the success that made him a favorite of the Tiger Beat set in the early 1970s. “Throughout my 20s and into my 30s, I would apologize for my career, for all of the cheesy music I was a part of,” says the conflicted former teen idol. “It wasn’t until my late 30s or early 40s…[that I] thought to myself, ‘You know what? That music was great for what it was, people loved it, it was incredibly successful—why should I feel bad?’”

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America victorious on Lake Champlain

Year: 1814

Month Day: September 11

During the Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, a newly built U.S. fleet under Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough destroys a British squadron, forcing the British to abandon their siege of the U.S. fort at Plattsburg and retreat to Canada on foot. The American victory saved New York from possible invasion and helped lead to the conclusion of peace negotiations between Britain and the United States in Ghent, Belgium.

The War of 1812 began on June 18, 1812, when the United States declared war on Britain. The war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress known as the “War Hawks” had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial gains for the United States.

In the months after President James Madison proclaimed the state of war to be in effect, American forces launched a three-point invasion of Canada, all of which were decisively unsuccessful. In 1814, with Napoleon Bonaparte’s French empire collapsing, the British were able to allocate more military resources to the American war, and Washington, D.C., fell to the British in August. In Washington, British troops burned the White House, the Capitol, and other buildings in retaliation for the earlier burning of government buildings in Canada by U.S. soldiers.

In September 1814, the tide of the war turned when Thomas Macdonough’s American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburg, New York. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812. By the terms of the agreement, all conquered territory was to be returned, and a commission would be established to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada.

British forces assailing the Gulf Coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, the U.S. forces under Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. The American public heard of Jackson’s victory and the Treaty of Ghent at approximately the same time, fostering a greater sentiment of self-confidence and shared identity throughout the young republic.

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Chilean president Salvador Allende dies in coup

Year: 1973

Month Day: September 11

Chile’s armed forces stage a coup d’état against the government of President Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist leader in Latin America. Allende retreated with his supporters to La Moneda, the fortress-like presidential palace in Santiago, which was surrounded by tanks and infantry and bombed by air force jets. Allende survived the aerial attack but then apparently shot himself to death as troops stormed the burning palace, reportedly using an automatic rifle given to him as a gift by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

The U.S. government and its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had worked for three years to foment a coup against Allende, who was regarded by the Nixon administration as a threat to democracy in Chile and Latin America. Ironically, the democratically elected Allende was succeeded by the brutal dictator General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled over Chile with an iron fist for the next 17 years.

Salvador Allende Gossens was born into an upper-middle-class Chilean family in 1908. He became a Marxist activist and worked as a doctor and in 1933 was a founding member of Chile’s Socialist Party. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937, he later served as minister of health in the leftist government of President Pedro Aguirre Cerda. In 1945, he became a senator. He unsuccessfully ran for president several times in the 1950s and 1960s, and in September 1970 won a three-sided presidential race with 36.3 percent of the vote. Because he lacked a popular majority, his election had to be confirmed by the Chilean Congress.

After the victory of Allende and his leftist coalition, U.S. President Richard Nixon summoned CIA Director Richard Helms to the White House and ordered him in no uncertain terms to prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him. Allende, after all, had threatened to nationalize U.S.-owned industries in Chile, and Nixon did not want another Fidel Castro coming to power in an American hemisphere during his watch. President Nixon authorized $10 million for the covert operation against Allende and instructed that it be carried out without the knowledge of the U.S. embassy in Chile.

With its mandate from Washington, the CIA attempted to bribe, coerce, and blackmail Chile’s Congress and military into denying Allende the presidency, launched an international campaign of disinformation against Allende, and paid a right-wing general to assassinate General Rene Schneider, the chief of Chile’s armed forces. Although a conservative, Schneider was staunchly opposed to a coup or any other military interference in Chile’s democratic processes. He was murdered by a gang led by right-wing General Roberto Viaux. One month later, the group received a check for $35,000 from the CIA. Years later, the CIA would claim it only wanted Schneider kidnapped.

With only one week remaining before the Chilean Congress was to vote on Allende’s election, CIA headquarters sent a cable to its Chilean office that read: “It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup. It would be much preferable to have this transpire prior to 24 October but efforts in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date.”

After a heated debate in the Chilean Congress, the mostly conservative body decided to confirm Allende’s election on October 24 after he promised support of 10 libertarian constitutional amendments. In spite of U.S. opposition, respect for Chile’s democratic tradition–the oldest in Latin America–had won out over ideological hysteria. A few days later, a bungled coup by a group of Chilean military officers helped to rally the country around Allende, who was inaugurated on November 3.

In his nearly three years as Chilean president, Allende worked to restructure Chilean society along socialist lines while retaining democratic government and respecting civil liberties and the due process of law. Meanwhile, the CIA worked to destabilize Allende’s government, spending a total of $8 million on the effort. Opposition groups received funding from the CIA, anti-Allende propaganda efforts continued, strikes were instigated in key sectors of the Chilean economy, and CIA agents maintained close contact with the Chilean military. However, the real cause of the 1973 coup against President Allende was not the insidious activities of American spies but rather the U.S.-led international backlash against his economic policies, which had a disastrous effect on the Chilean economy.

In 1971, President Allende began nationalizing foreign businesses in Chile, including U.S.-owned copper mines–Chile’s main source of protection–and a large U.S.-run telephone company. Nixon was outraged, and he created an interagency task force to organize economic reprisals against Chile. The task force plotted steps to sink the world price of copper and ordered a complete ban on U.S. economic aid. The World Bank was successfully pressured to end all loans to Chile, and the Export-Import Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank likewise turned their back on the country. Meanwhile, other foreign investment in Chile dried up out of fears of nationalization.

By 1973, the Chilean economy was in shambles. Inflation, labor strikes, and food shortages were rampant, and violence between the right and the left became a daily occurrence. President Allende still had the support of many workers and peasants, but the middle class was united in opposition to him. There was open talk of an impending military coup, and conspirators needed little help from the CIA to put it in motion. The CIA, however, was informed of the planned coup in advance, and on September 10 this information was passed on to President Nixon.

The next day–September 11, 1973–Chile’s three armed forces launched a concerted attack against Chile’s democratic government. Allende gathered with his loyal presidential guard at La Moneda, the presidential palace. He was photographed inspecting the palace’s defenses, rifle in hand. Tanks and troops surrounded La Moneda, and Allende and his supporters were ordered to surrender by 11 a.m. or face attack by the Chilean air force. Allende refused.

At 11 a.m., via telephone, Allende’s voice was broadcast over Radio Magallanes, the Communist Party radio station. “I can only say this to the workers: I will not resign,” he declared. “With my life I will pay for defending the principles dear to our nation. I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this gray and bitter moment where betrayal threatens to impose itself. Continue knowing, all of you, that much sooner than later, the great avenues will open through which will pass free men in order to construct a better society. These are my last words having the certainty that this sacrifice has not been in vain.”

Just before noon, two fighter jets flew over Santiago and descended on La Moneda, firing rockets with pinpoint accuracy through the doors and windows of the north side of the palace. Six more attack waves came during the next 20 minutes. The palace was in flames, but Allende survived in a wing of the building. Sometime around 2 p.m., Allende allegedly died by placing his rifle under his chin and firing. Reportedly, a gold metal plate affixed to the stock of the gun had an inscribed message that read, “To my good friend Salvador Allende from Fidel Castro.”

A few weeks later, Fidel Castro would tell the Cuban people that Allende died while advancing on army troops and firing his gun. The fascist soldiers, Castro said, cut him down in a hail of bullets. This account was taken up by many supporters of Allende and persists in various forms to this day. However, Allende’s personal surgeon reported having seen the president shoot himself with the rifle, and a 1990 autopsy of Allende’s remains confirmed that he died from a single shot that shattered his skull.

In the aftermath of the coup, General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, commander in chief of the armed forces, became dictator of Chile. He rounded up hundreds of Allende’s supporters, including two American citizens, and had them tortured and executed. The United States immediately offered military and economic aid to the new ruler of Chile–”the savior of democracy”–and the CIA may have helped him identify and capture dissidents. In his 17 years of repressive authoritarian rule, more than 3,000 political opponents were assassinated or “disappeared.” His assassination squads were also active outside Chile, and in 1976 Orlando Letelier, Allende’s former defense minister, was killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C.

In 1988, Pinochet agreed to a national referendum on the future of Chile, and a majority of Chileans rejected the continuation of his dictatorship. Democratic elections were held in 1989, and in 1990 Pinochet stepped down as President Patricio Aylwin Azócar was sworn in as Chile’s new leader. That year, Salvador Allende’s remains were exhumed and given an official burial.

Pinochet remained head of Chile’s armed forces until 1998, whereupon he was made a “senator-for-life.” That October, during a trip to Britain, he was arrested after Spain sought his extradition for his execution of Spanish nationals. Under pressure from prosecutors in Europe, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered the CIA and other U.S. agencies to declassify all documents concerning their operations in Chile during the early 1970s. The CIA refused to release many of the documents, however, citing fears that they would reveal operational methods still in use around the world by the CIA.

After a long legal tug of war, Britain’s home secretary declared in January 2000 that the 84-year-old Pinochet was unfit to stand trial and ordered him sent back to Chile. Back in Chile he resigned his senatorial seat in 2002 after a Supreme Court ruling that he could not stand trial based on his failing health. Then, in May 2004, Chile’s supreme court finally ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In December 2004 he was charged with several crimes. He died in 2006.

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Attack on America

Year: 2001

Month Day: September 11

At approximately 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767—United Airlines Flight 175—appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

READ MORE: September 11 Attacks: The Facts

The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America’s support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the “muscle” in the operation. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.

As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C. and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.

WATCH: 9/11: Remembering and Rebuilding on HISTORY Vault

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane–United Flight 93–was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that “I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.” Another passenger—Todd Beamer—was heard saying “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll” over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were “Everyone’s running to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”

The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.

At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network based there, began on October 7, 2001. Bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by U.S. forces on May 2, 2011.

This pager, recovered from Ground Zero, belonged to Andrea Lyn Haberman. Haberman was from Chicago and was in New York City on September 11, 2001 for a meeting at Carr Futures offices, located on the 92nd floor of the North Tower. It was Haberman’s first time visiting New York; she was only 25 years old when she was killed in the attacks.

” data-full-height=”834″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTU4MzUyMjYxMDk2MDg5NTM1/3-pager.png” data-full-width=”1079″ data-image-id=”ci0232948b300027bf” data-image-slug=”3-pager” data-public-id=”MTU4MzUyMjYxMDk2MDg5NTM1″ data-source-name=”The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum” data-title=”9/11 Lost and Found: The Items Left Behind”>On September 11, FDNY Squad 18 responded to the attacks on the Twin Towers. Among this unit was David Halderman, who was a firefighter just like his father and brother. His helmet was found crushed on September 12, 2001 and given to his brother, Michael, who believes his death was due to the the collapse of the tower and a strike to the head. David Halderman’s body was not recovered until October 25, 2001.

” data-full-height=”834″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTU4MzUyMjYxMzY0MzI4Mzgz/5-firehelmet.png” data-full-width=”879″ data-image-id=”ci0232948b400027bf” data-image-slug=”5-firehelmet” data-public-id=”MTU4MzUyMjYxMzY0MzI4Mzgz” data-source-name=”The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum” data-title=”9/11 Lost and Found: The Items Left Behind”>This pair of women’s heels belonged to Fiduciary Trust employee Linda Raisch-Lopez, a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Center. She began her evacuation from the 97th floor of the South Tower after seeing flames from the North Tower. She removed her shoes and carried them as she headed down the stairs, reaching the 67th floor when the South Tower was stuck by Flight 175.

As she headed uptown to escape, she put her shoes back on, and they became bloody from her cut and blistered feet. She donated her shoes to the museum.

” data-full-height=”883″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTU4MzUyMjYxMDk1OTU4NDYz/1-shoes.png” data-full-width=”1325″ data-image-id=”ci0232948b100027bf” data-image-slug=”1-shoes” data-public-id=”MTU4MzUyMjYxMDk1OTU4NDYz” data-source-name=”The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum” data-title=”9/11 Lost and Found: The Items Left Behind”>This baseball cap belonged to 22-year veteran of the Port Authority Police Department, James Francis Lynch. At the time of the attacks, James was off duty and recovering from surgery, but felt the need to respond. He had previously responded to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He died at the age of 47 that day, and his body was not recovered until December 7, 2001.

” data-full-height=”883″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTU4MzUyMjYxNjMyNzYzODM5/8-police-baseball.png” data-full-width=”1029″ data-image-id=”ci0232948b500127bf” data-image-slug=”8-police baseball” data-public-id=”MTU4MzUyMjYxNjMyNzYzODM5″ data-source-name=”The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum” data-title=”9/11 Lost and Found: The Items Left Behind”>On March 30, 2002 a firefighter working at Ground Zero found a bible fused to a piece of metal. The bible was open to a page with fragments of legible text reading “an eye for an eye” and “resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Watch this video to learn more about the bible.

” data-full-height=”834″ data-full-src=”https://www.history.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Ch_2000%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_2000/MTU4MzUyMjYxNjMyNzYzMzQ5/10-bible.png” data-full-width=”547″ data-image-id=”ci0232948b600025d5″ data-image-slug=”10-bible” data-public-id=”MTU4MzUyMjYxNjMyNzYzMzQ5″ data-source-name=”The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum” data-source-page-url data-title=”9/11 Lost and Found: The Items Left Behind”>

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Hitler focuses East, sends troops to Romania

Year: 1940

Month Day: September 11

On September 11, 1940, Adolf Hitler sends German army and air force reinforcements to Romania to protect precious oil reserves and to prepare an Eastern European base of operations for further assaults against the Soviet Union.

As early as 1937, Romania had come under control of a fascist government that bore great resemblance to that of Germany’s, including similar anti-Jewish laws. Romania’s king, Carol II, dissolved the government a year later because of a failing economy and installed Romania’s Orthodox Patriarch as prime minister. But the Patriarch’s death and peasant uprising provoked renewed agitation by the fascist Iron Guard paramilitary organization, which sought to impose order. In June 1940, the Soviet Union co-opted two Romanian provinces, and the king searched for an ally to help protect it and appease the far right within its own borders. So on July 5, 1940, Romania allied itself with Nazi Germany—only to be invaded by its “ally” as part of Hitler’s strategy to create one huge eastern front against the Soviet Union.

King Carol abdicated on September 6, 1940, leaving the country in the control of the fascist Prime Minister Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard. While Romania would recapture the territory lost to the Soviet Union when the Germans invaded Russia, it would also have to endure the Germans’ raping its resources as part of the Nazi war effort. Besides taking control of Romania’s oil wells and oil installations, Hitler would help himself to Romania’s food crops—causing a food shortage for native Romanians.

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1st Cavalry Division arrives in South Vietnam

Year: 1965

Month Day: September 11

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) begins to arrive in South Vietnam at Qui Nhon, bringing U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam to more than 125,000. The unit, which had a long and storied history, was the first full U.S. Army division deployed to Vietnam. The division consisted of nine battalions of airmobile infantry, an air reconnaissance squadron, and six battalions of artillery. The division also included the 11th Aviation Group, made up of three aviation battalions consisting of 11 companies of assault helicopters, assault support helicopters, and gunships.

The division used a new concept by which the ground maneuver elements were moved around the battlefield by helicopters. Initially deployed to the II Corps area at Qui Nhon, the division took part in the first major engagement between U.S. and North Vietnamese forces during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley fought in November, just two months after the division began arriving in Vietnam. Later, the division moved further north to I Corps in 1968 to relieve the embattled U.S. Marines at Hue during the Tet Offensive; in October of the same year, they redeployed to III Corps to conduct operations to protect Saigon; and in 1970, the division took part in the invasion of Cambodia and conducted operations in both III and IV Corps (the Mekong Delta). Thus, the 1st Cavalry Division, popularly known as the “First Team,” was the only American division to fight in all four corps tactical zones. The bulk of the division began departing Vietnam in late April 1970, but the 3rd Brigade remained until June 1972. The 1st Cavalry Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and “First Team” soldiers won 25 Medals of Honor, 120 Distinguished Service Crosses, 2,766 Silver Stars, 2,697 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 8,408 Bronze Stars for Valor.

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120 emigrants murdered at the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Year: 1857

Month Day: September 11

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons), stoked by religious zeal and a deep resentment of decades of public abuse and federal interference, murder 120 emigrants at Mountain Meadows, Utah on September 11, 1857.

Although historical accounts differ, the conflict with the wagon train of emigrants from Missouri and Arkansas apparently began when the Latter-day Saints refused to sell the train any supplies. Some of the emigrants then began to commit minor depredations against fields, abuse the local Paiute tribes, and taunt the Mormons with reminders of how the Missourians had attacked and chased them out of that state during the 1830s.

Angered by the emigrants’ abuse and fired by a zealous passion against the growing tide of invading gentiles, a group of LDS guerillas from around Cedar City decided to take revenge. Cooperating with a group of Paiutes who had already attacked the train on their own initiative, the guerillas initially pretended to be protectors. The guerillas persuaded the emigrants that they had convinced the Paitues to let them go if they would surrender their arms and allow the Latter-day Saints to escort the wagon train through the territory. But as the train again moved forward under the LDS escort, a guerilla leader gave a pre-arranged signal. The Latter-day Saints opened fire on the unarmed male emigrants, while the Paiutes reportedly murdered the women.

Later accounts suggested that some Latter-day Saints had only fired in the air while others killed as few of the emigrants as they could. But when the shooting stopped in Mountain Meadows, 120 men and women were dead. Only 18 small children were spared.

As a direct result of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the U.S. government demanded a new settlement from Brigham Young. In 1858, the Latter-day Saints agreed to accept a continued presence of federal troops and a Gentile governor for Utah Territory. No further significant LDS-Gentile violence occurred, and the Latter-day Saints were thereafter largely left to govern themselves. But the era of complete LDS domination of Utah ended as a result of the tragedy that day in Mountain Meadows.

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“Fatal Attraction” premieres

Year: 1987

Month Day: September 11

The thriller Fatal Attraction, about a married man who has a fling with a woman who then becomes obsessed with him and stalks his family, premieres in U.S. theaters on September 11, 1987. Fatal Attraction, which starred Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, was a box-office hit and garnered six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Adrian Lyne) and Best Actress (Close). The film featured a now-famous scene in which Alex (Close), a single book editor, boils the pet bunny belonging to the young daughter of Douglas’ character, a New York City attorney named Dan, after Dan ends their affair. Fatal Attraction became a bona fide cultural phenomenon and stirred a debate among audiences about infidelity.

Michael Douglas, born on September 25, 1944, is the son of Kirk Douglas, who became an international film star during the 1950s and 1960s. The younger Douglas rose to fame in the 1970s as a star of the television series The Streets of San Francisco. He scored his first major movie success behind the camera, as the producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), which starred Jack Nicholson as an inmate at a mental institution. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director (Milos Forman). Among Douglas’ other movie credits in the 1970s was The China Syndrome, which he produced and co-starred in with Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon. In the 1980s, Douglas was featured in a string of blockbusters, including Romancing the Stone (1984), co-starring Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito (Douglas’ college roommate at the University of California at Santa Barbara) and its 1985 sequel Jewel of the Nile. Shortly after the success of Fatal Attraction, Douglas had another huge hit with 1987’s Wall Street, directed by Oliver Stone. Douglas portrayed the corporate raider Gordon Gekko, whose motto was “Greed is good.”

Before her starring role in Fatal Attraction, Glenn Close–born on March 13, 1957–appeared in such well-received films as The World According to Garp (1982), The Big Chill (1983) and The Natural (1984), earning a Best Supporting Actress nomination for each film, Among Close’s other movie credits are Dangerous Liaisons (1988), for which she received another Best Actress Oscar nod; Reversal of Fortune (1990) and 101 Dalmatians (1996).

Director Adrian Lyne’s pre- and post-Fatal Attraction credits include a number of similarly provocative films, including Flashdance (1983), starring Jennifer Beals; 9 ½ Weeks (1986), with Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke; Indecent Proposal (1993), with Robert Redford, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson; Lolita (1997), with Jeremy Irons, Melanie Griffith and Dominique Swain; and Unfaithful (2002), with Diane Lane and Richard Gere.

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Silent film star Fatty Arbuckle arrested for murder

Year: 1921

Month Day: September 11

Fatty Arbuckle, a silent-film era performer at the height of his fame, is arrested in San Francisco for the rape and murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappe. Arbuckle was later acquitted by a jury, but the scandal essentially put an end to his career.

Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born on March 24, 1887, in Smith Center, Kansas. He worked as a vaudeville performer and starting in 1913, began appearing in Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops comedies. Arbuckle became known for his comedic pratfalls and pie-throwing. In 1917, Arbuckle formed his own company and began writing and directing films, many of which starred his friend and fellow comedian Buster Keaton. In 1919, the heavy-set actor signed a $1 million per year deal with Paramount Pictures, an extraordinary sum for the time.

In early September 1921, Arbuckle went to San Francisco with two male friends for a short vacation and checked into the St. Francis Hotel. The men hosted a party in their suite, during which a guest named Virginia Rappe, who had been drinking, became ill. Rappe, who was in her twenties, died several days later from peritonitis caused by a ruptured bladder. Maude Delmont, another guest at the party, claimed Arbuckle had raped Rappe and injured her bladder.

Arbuckle’s arrest on September 11 by the San Francisco police soon generated a massive scandal. Arbuckle maintained his innocence, but he was lambasted in the press and the public, unused to Hollywood scandal, boycotted his films. The politically ambitious San Francisco district attorney was determined to prosecute Arbuckle, even though Delmont turned out to be a questionable witness, with a criminal record of her own. Several other witnesses would later claim the prosecution had intimidated them into giving false testimony.

After two mistrials, the jury in Arbuckle’s third trial found him not guilty and even issued him an apology. Despite this favorable outcome for Arbuckle, the U.S. film industry nevertheless temporarily banned him. He subsequently attempted a comeback and even directed several films under the pseudonym William B. Goodrich, but his career never fully recovered and he struggled with alcoholism. Arbuckle died of heart failure at age 46 on June 29, 1933, in New York City.

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