On September 9…

“Of the allegations leveled at hundreds of living priests across the country, only a handful were liable for prosecution because the statute of limitations had expired in so many cases. But the inability of prosecutors to bring charges was hardly a vindication of the Church.”
~The Boston Globe: The Crisis In The Catholic Church

1776 – The Continental Congress officially named its union of states the United States.
While most credit Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence as the instigating force behind independence, it was actually a June 7 resolution written by Virginian Richard Henry Lee that was the impetus for the name change.
In the Congressional declaration dated September 9, 1776, the delegates wrote, “That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the “United States.”

1942 – A Japanese floatplane dropped incendiary bombs on Oregon.
Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced west of Cape Blanco and launched a “Glen” Yokosuka E14Y floatplane, flown by Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita and Petty Officer Okuda Shoji, with a load of two incendiary bombs weighing 168 pounds each.
Fujita dropped two bombs on Wheeler Ridge on Mount Emily in Oregon intending to start a major forest fire. The bomb started a small fire about 10 miles due east of Brookings.
Howard “Razz” Gardner spotted and reported the incoming “Glen” from his fire lookout tower on Mount Emily in the Siskiyou National Forest.
Although Gardner did not see the bombing, he saw the smoke plume and reported the fire to the dispatch office. He was instructed to hike to the fire to see what suppression he could do. Dispatch also sent Fire Lookout Keith V. Johnson from the nearby Bear Wallow Lookout Tower.
The two men proceeded to the location and were able to keep the fire under control. Only a few small scattered fires were started because the bombs were not dropped from the correct height

1956 – Elvis Presley made his debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
At the time, Presley was filming Love Me Tender in Hollywood and was unable to travel to New York City. His appearance was simulcast from CBS Television City in Los Angeles. Host Charles Laughton was filling in for Sullivan who was recovering from a recent car accident.
82.6 percent of the U.S. television audience tuned in.

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction.
The House passed H.R. 6127 by a vote of 286 to 126. Under the direction of Senate Majority Leader and future President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, the Senate passed a watered-down version of the House bill which removed stringent voting protection clauses, but only after a shameful moment in the history of the Senate.
Then-Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, an ardent segregationist, sustained the longest one-person filibuster in history in an attempt to keep the bill from becoming law. His one-man filibuster lasted 24 hours and 18 minutes; he began with readings of every U.S. state’s election laws in alphabetical order. He later read from the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and George Washington’s Farewell Address.

1971 – John Lennon’s Imagine album was released in the U.S. The album was released in England one month later. It topped the charts in both countries.
If the title song was an attempt to reach beyond the political norms of religion, nation or possessions, there was How Do You Sleep?, the most notorious of the album’s songs. Written in response to various coded messages Lennon claimed were on Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 Ram album, it was an undisguised attack on McCartney (with a slide guitar solo from George Harrison). It was as far from living life in peace as you could get.

1971 – Prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, N.Y., beginning a four-day siege that claimed 43 lives.
Of the 43 men who died (33 inmates and 10 correctional officers and employees), all but one guard and three inmates were killed by law enforcement gunfire when the state retook control of the prison on the final day of the uprising.

1997 – Burgess Meredith died at age 89 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease and melanoma.
Although some fans will remember him for his portray of The Penguin in the Batman television series, he should be remembered for his stunning film work in Of Mice And Men, In Harm’s Way, The Day Of The Locust and his role as Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe, which General Dwight D. Eisenhower called “the best war film I have ever seen.”
Later film work included his role as Michael “Mickey” Goldmill in Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III and Grandpa Gustafson in Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men.

1999 – Catfish Hunter, Major League baseball pitcher for the Kansas City/Oakland A’s and New York Yankees, died at the age of 53, a year after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Though his career ended when he was just 33 years old, he still managed to win 224 games and five World Series championships (3 with the A’s and 2 with NY). He also became only the fourth (and last) American League pitcher to win 20 games in a season for five consecutive seasons (1971–1975).
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. At the time, Hall of Fame officials would always defer to the player’s wishes in determining which team would be memorialized on his Hall of Fame Plaque. For this reason, Hunter declined to choose a team; accordingly, his plaque depicts him with no logo on his cap.

2003 – The Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese agreed to pay $85 million to 552 people to settle clergy sex abuse cases.
It was a scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church to its core: Hundreds of priests molested children for decades and got away with it because church leaders covered it up by moving the priests from parish to parish instead of demanding their resignation.
Starting in January 2002 with a Boston Globe Spotlight series, Globe reporters revealed a widespread pattern of sexual abuse by priests that had been covered up by the Archdiocese of Boston. The scandal culminated with the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law in December 2002.
In 2002, criminal charges were brought against five Roman Catholic priests in the Boston, Massachusetts area (John Geoghan, John Hanlon, Paul Shanley, Robert V. Gale and Jesuit priest James Talbot) who were all convicted and sentenced to prison.
The Boston Globe won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service for its coverage, and was the central subject of the film Spotlight in 2015, which won two Academy Awards including Best Picture,

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2024 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com All Rights Reserved.