By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 18, the 261st day of 2019. There are 104 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Sept. 18, 1793, President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.

On this date:

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which created a force of federal commissioners charged with returning escaped slaves to their owners.

In 1940, Harper and Brothers published “You Can’t Go Home Again” by Thomas Wolfe, two years after the author’s death.

In 1947, the National Security Act, which created a National Military Establishment and the position of Secretary of Defense, went into effect.

In 1959, during his U.S. tour, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the grave of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Khrushchev called on all countries to disarm.

In 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold (dahg HAWM’-ahr-shoold) was killed in a plane crash in northern Rhodesia.

In 1964, the situation comedy “The Addams Family,” inspired by the Charles Addams cartoons, premiered on ABC-TV.

In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix died in London at age 27.

In 1975, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

In 1990, The organized crime drama “GoodFellas,” directed by Martin Scorsese, had its U.S. premiere in New York.

In 1994, tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis, 40, was found dead in the guest cottage of a friend’s home in Southampton, New York, of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

In 2001, a week after the Sept. 11 attack, President George W. Bush said he hoped to “rally the world” in the battle against terrorism and predicted that all “people who love freedom” would join. Letters postmarked Trenton, N.J., that later tested positive for anthrax were sent to the New York Post and NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw.

In 2007, O.J. Simpson was charged with seven felonies, including kidnapping, in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in a Las Vegas casino-hotel room. (Simpson, sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison, was released on parole in October 2017.)

Ten years ago: Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in defiance of Iran’s Islamic leadership, clashing with police and confronting state-run anti-Israel rallies. Writer-editor Irving Kristol, known as the godfather of neoconservatism, died at 89. The final episode of “Guiding Light” aired on CBS, ending a 72-year run on radio and television.

Five years ago: In a show of solidarity with Ukraine, President Barack Obama welcomed the new president of the embattled former Soviet republic, Petro Poroshenko, to the White House.