By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Saturday, Sept. 7, the 250th day of 2019. There are 115 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Sept. 7, 1977, the Panama Canal treaties, calling for the U.S. to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington by President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos (toh-REE’-hohs).

On this date:

In 1892, James J. Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan to win the world heavyweight crown in New Orleans in a fight conducted under the Marquess of Queensberry rules.

In 1901, the Peace of Beijing ended the Boxer Rebellion in China.

In 1936, rock-and-roll legend Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas.

In 1940, Nazi Germany began its eight-month blitz of Britain during World War II with the first air attack on London.

In 1963, the National Professional Football Hall of Fame was dedicated in Canton, Ohio.

In 1972, the International Olympic Committee banned Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett of the U.S. from further competition for talking to each other on the victory stand in Munich during the playing of the “Star-Spangled Banner” after winning the gold and silver medals in the 400-meter run.

In 1990, Kimberly Bergalis of Fort Pierce, Florida, came forward to identify herself as the young woman who had been infected with AIDS, allegedly by her late dentist. (Bergalis died the following year.)

In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.

In 2005, police and soldiers went house to house in New Orleans to try to coax the last stubborn holdouts into leaving the storm-shattered city. President George W. Bush led the nation in a final tribute to William H. Rehnquist, remembering the late chief justice as the Supreme Court’s steady leader and a man of lifetime integrity.

In 2007, Osama bin Laden appeared in a video for the first time in three years, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they wanted the war in Iraq to end.

In 2008, troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed in government conservatorship.

In 2017, more than a half million people were ordered to leave South Florida as Hurricane Irma approached; Georgia’s governor ordered nearly 540,000 coastal residents to move inland. One of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in Mexico struck off the country’s southern coast, toppling hundreds of buildings and killing at least 90 people. (A deadlier quake would strike central Mexico nearly two weeks later.)

Ten years ago: Addressing a Labor Day picnic in Cincinnati, President Barack Obama declared that modern benefits like paid leave, minimum wage and Social Security “all bear the union label” as he appealed to organized labor to help him win the health care fight in Congress.