TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2018. There are 116 days left in the year.

HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY

On Sept. 6, 1997, a public funeral was held for Princess Diana at Westminster Abbey in London, six days after her death in a car crash in Paris.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

• Comedian Jo Anne Worley (“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”) is 83. • Country singer David Allan Coe is 79. • Rock singer-musician Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) is 75. • Actress Swoosie Kurtz is 74. • Comedian-actress Jane Curtin is 71. • Actor-comedian Jeff Foxworthy is 60. • ABC News correspondent Elizabeth Vargas is 56. • Country singer Mark Chesnutt is 55. • Actress Rosie Perez (“Do the Right Thing”) is 54. • Rhythm and blues singer Macy Gray is 51. • Actress Daniele Gaither (“MADtv”) is 48.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.” — Ernest Dimnet, French priest, lecturer and author (1866-1954).

ON THS DATE

In 1901, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. (McKinley died eight days later; Czolgosz was executed on Oct. 29

In 1909, American explorer Robert Peary sent a telegram from Indian Harbor, Labrador, announcing that he had reached the North Pole five months earlier.

In 1975, 18-year-old tennis star Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia, in New York for the U.S. Open, requested political asylum in the United States.

In 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record by playing his 2,131st consecutive game.

In 2002, meeting outside Washington, D.C., for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, pounded Puerto Rico with heavy rain and powerful winds.