Today’s highlights

On Sept. 18, 2020, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering champion of women’s rights who became the court’s second female justice, died at her home in Washington at age 87, of complications from pancreatic cancer.

On this date

1793: President George Washington laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.

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

1851: The first edition of The New York Times was published.

1970: Rock star Jimi Hendrix died in London at age 27.

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

2014: Voters in Scotland rejected independence, opting to remain part of the United Kingdom in a historic referendum.

Today’s birthdays

Hockey Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman is 91. Singer Frankie Avalon is 84. Actor Anna Deavere Smith is 74. Neurosurgeon-author-politician Ben Carson is 73. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino is 72. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is 70. Hockey Hall of Famer Peter Štastný is 68. Baseball Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is 65. Actor Holly Robinson Peete is 60. R&B singer Ricky Bell (Bell Biv Devoe, New Edition) is 57. Basketball Hall of Famer Toni Kukoc is 56. Actor Aisha Tyler is 54.