Today is Wednesday, September 24, the 268th day of 2008. There are 98 days left in the year.
312 _ Start of Imperial Indication
1493 _ Columbus' second expedition to the New World
1845 _ First baseball team is organized
1852 _ A new invention, the dirigible, is demonstrated
1865 _ James Cooke walks tightrope from Cliff House to Seal Rocks, S.F.
1895 _ First round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle (took 15 months)
1963 _ Senate ratifies treaty with Britain and USSR limit nuclear testing
1976 _ Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst sentenced to seven years for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. Released after 22 months by President Carter
1988 _ Canada's Ben Johnson runs drug-assisted 100 meters in 9.79 seconds
1990 _ Supreme Soviet gives approval to switch to free market