CHICKEN BUCKETS: TODAY IN HISTORY

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

AP Highlight in History:
On Sept. 19, 1982, emoticons were born when Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman proposed using a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis – :–) – to depict a horizontal smiley face.

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

On this date in:

1777

American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga during the Revolutionary War.

1881

President James A. Garfield died of wounds inflicted by an assassin more than two months earlier.

1934

Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby.

AP Photo

1955

President Juan Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the military.

1957

The United States conducted its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert.

1970

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" debuted on CBS.

1985

The Mexico City area was struck by the first of two devastating earthquakes that claimed some 6,000 lives.

1994

U.S. troops entered Haiti to enforce the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

1995

The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Unabomber's manifesto.

2001

The Pentagon ordered combat aircraft to the Persian Gulf in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

2002

President George W. Bush asked Congress for authority to use military force if necessary to disarm and overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he did not abandon weapons of mass destruction.

2004

Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China with the departure of former President Jiang Zemin from his top military post.

2008

Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration asked Congress for $700 billion to buy up troubled mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions.