Flashback
Today is Saturday, Sept. 30, the 273rd day of 2006. There are 92 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history: On Sept. 30, 1846, Boston dentist William Morton used ether as an anesthetic for the first time as he extracted a tooth from merchant Eben Frost.
On this date:
In 1777, the Congress of the United States – forced to flee in the face of advancing British forces – moved to York, Pa.
In 1791, Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” premiered in Vienna, Austria.
In 1938, a day after co-signing the Munich Agreement allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain praised the accord on his return home, saying, “I believe it is peace for our time.”
In 1946, an international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.
In 1949, the Berlin Airlift came to an end.
In 1954, the first atomic-powered vessel, the submarine Nautilus, was commissioned by the Navy.
In 1955, actor James Dean, 24, was killed in a two-car collision near Cholame, Calif.
In 1962, black student James Meredith succeeded on his fourth try in registering for classes at the University of Mississippi.
In 1966, the Republic of Botswana declared its independence from Britain.
In 1986, the U.S. released accused Soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov, one day after the Soviets released Nicholas Daniloff.
Ten years ago: With just hours to spare before the start of the fiscal year, the Senate passed and President Clinton signed a $389 billion spending bill.
Five years ago: 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 hide-out was located. George Gately, the creator of the “Heathcliff” newspaper comic strip, died in Ridgewood, N.J., at age 72.
One year ago: Out of jail after 85 days, New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified before a grand jury investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. Six men were killed in a string of robberies targeting Hispanic immigrants at trailer parks in and around Tifton, Ga. (Four suspects were arrested and charged with murder and other offenses.)