Today’s highlights

On Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida hijackers seized control of four jetliners, sending two of the planes into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania.

On this date

1789: Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

1814: An American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812.

1936: Boulder Dam — later renamed the Hoover Dam — began operation as President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a button in Washington to signal the startup of the dam’s first hydroelectric generator.

1941: Groundbreaking took place for the Pentagon.

1954: The Miss America pageant made its network TV debut on ABC.

1985: Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds broke Ty Cobb’s MLB career hits record with his 4,192nd hit.

2012: A mob launched a fiery nightlong attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Today’s birthdays

Film director Brian De Palma is 84. Singer-actor-dancer Lola Falana is 82. Musician Mickey Hart is 81. Guitarist Leo Kottke is 78. Actor Amy Madigan is 74. Rock musician Tommy Shaw is 71. Sportscaster Lesley Visser is 71. Actor Scott Patterson is 66. Actor/director Roxann Dawson is 66. Actor John Hawkes is 65. Actor Virginia Madsen is 63. Musician-composer Moby is 59. Singer Harry Connick Jr. is 57. Rapper Ludacris is 47.