September 7, 1813 : United States nicknamed Uncle Sam

On this day in 1813, the United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam.
The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New
York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during
the War of 1812. Wilson (1766-1854) stamped the barrels with "U.S."
for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as "Uncle
Sam's." The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam
eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S.
federal government.

In the late 1860s and 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast
(1840-1902) began popularizing the image of Uncle Sam. Nast continued
to evolve the image, eventually giving Sam the white beard and
stars-and-stripes suit that are associated with the character today.
The German-born Nast was also credited with creating the modern image
of Santa Claus as well as coming up with the donkey as a symbol for
the Democratic Party and the elephant as a symbol for the Republicans.
Nast also famously lampooned the corruption of New York City's Tammany
Hall in his editorial cartoons and was, in part, responsible for the
downfall of Tammany leader William Tweed.

Perhaps the most famous image of Uncle Sam was created by artist James
Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960). In Flagg's version, Uncle Sam wears a
tall top hat and blue jacket and is pointing straight ahead at the
viewer. During World War I, this portrait of Sam with the words "I
Want You For The U.S. Army" was used as a recruiting poster. The
image, which became immensely popular, was first used on the cover of
Leslie's Weekly in July 1916 with the title "What Are You Doing for
Preparedness?" The poster was widely distributed and has subsequently
been re-used numerous times with different captions.

In September 1961, the U.S. Congress recognized Samuel Wilson as "the
progenitor of America's national symbol of Uncle Sam." Wilson died at
age 88 in 1854, and was buried next to his wife Betsey Mann in the
Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York, the town that calls itself "The
Home of Uncle Sam."

September 8, 1900 : Deadly hurricane destroys Galveston

On this day in 1900, a Category 4 hurricane rips through Galveston,
Texas, killing an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 people. A 15-foot storm
surge flooded the city, then situated at less than nine feet above sea
level, and numerous homes and buildings were destroyed. The hurricane
remains the worst weather-related disaster in U.S. history in terms of
loss of life.

Galveston, first visited by French and Spanish explorers in the 16th
and 17th centuries, is located on Galveston Island, a 29-mile strip of
land about two miles off the Texas coast and about 50 miles southeast
of Houston. The city, which was named in the late 18th century for the
Spanish governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Galvez, was incorporated in
1839 and is linked to the mainland by bridges and causeways. Galveston
is a commercial shipping port and, with its warm weather and miles of
beaches, has also long been a popular resort. At the time of the 1900
hurricane, Galveston, nicknamed the Oleander City, was filled with
vacationers. Sophisticated weather forecasting technology didn't exist
in 1900, but the U.S. Weather Bureau issued warnings telling people to
move to higher ground. However, these advisories were ignored by many
vacationers and residents alike.

After the hurricane, a large seawall was eventually built to protect
Galveston from flooding. The city was pummeled again by major
hurricanes in 1961 and 1983, but they caused less damage than the one
that struck in 1900.

The word "hurricane" comes from Hurican, the Carib god of evil.
Hurricanes typically form in the tropical zones north and south of the
equator. They can be hundreds of miles wide and last for several weeks
as they move across the ocean. The Atlantic Ocean hurricane season
runs from June through November.

In 1953, the U.S. National Weather Service, which tracks hurricanes
and issues advisories, started giving storms female names in order to
help scientists and the public follow them. Beginning in 1979, men's
names were also used. The World Meteorological Organization assigns
one name for each letter of the alphabet, with the exception of Q, U
and Z. The lists of names are reused every six years; however, when a
hurricane is especially deadly or costly its name is retired and a new
name is added to the list. In 2006, "Katrina," along with four other
names from the 2005 hurricane season, was taken out of service.
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
states in August 2005, was the costliest natural disaster in U.S.
history.

September 9, 1971 : Riot at Attica prison

Prisoners riot and seize control of the maximum-security Attica
Correctional Facility near Buffalo, New York. Later that day, state
police retook most of the prison, but 1,281 convicts occupied an
exercise field called D Yard, where they held 39 prison guards and
employees hostage for four days. After negotiations stalled, state
police and prison officers launched a disastrous raid on September 13,
in which 10 hostages and 29 inmates were killed in an indiscriminate
hail of gunfire. Eighty-nine others were seriously injured.

By the summer of 1971, the state prison in Attica, New York, was ready
to explode. Inmates were frustrated with chronic overcrowding,
censorship of letters, and living conditions that limited them to one
shower per week and one roll of toilet paper each month. Some Attica
prisoners, adopting the radical spirit of the times, began to perceive
themselves as political prisoners rather than convicted criminals.

On the morning of September 9, the eruption came when inmates on the
way to breakfast overpowered their guards and stormed down a prison
gallery in a spontaneous riot. They broke through a faulty gate and
into a central area known as Times Square, which gave them access to
all the cellblocks. Many of the prison's 2,200 inmates then joined in
the rioting, and prisoners rampaged through the facility beating
guards, acquiring makeshift weapons, and burning down the prison
chapel. One guard, William Quinn, was severely beaten and thrown out a
second-story window. Two days later, he died in a hospital from his
injuries.

Using tear gas and submachine guns, state police regained control of
three of the four cellblocks held by the rioters without loss of life.
By 10:30 a.m., the inmates were only in control of D Yard, a large,
open exercise field surrounded by 35-foot walls and overlooked by gun
towers. Thirty-nine hostages, mostly guards and a few other prison
employees, were blindfolded and held in a tight circle. Inmates armed
with clubs and knives guarded the hostages closely.

Riot leaders put together a list of demands, including improved living
conditions, more religious freedom, an end to mail censorship, and
expanded phone privileges. They also called for specific individuals,
such as U.S. Representative Herman Badillo and New York Times
columnist Tom Wicker, to serve as negotiators and civilian observers.
Meanwhile, hundreds of state troopers arrived at Attica, and New York
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller called in the National Guard.

In tense negotiations, New York Correction Commissioner Russell Oswald
agreed to honor the inmates' demands for improved living conditions.
However, talks bogged down when the prisoners called for amnesty for
everyone in D Yard, along with safe passage to a "non-imperialist
country" for anyone who desired it. Observers pleaded with Governor
Rockefeller to come to Attica as a show of good faith, but he refused
and instead ordered the prison to be retaken by force.

On the rainy Monday morning of September 13, an ultimatum was read to
the inmates, calling on them to surrender. They responded by putting
knives against the hostages' throats. At 9:46 a.m., helicopters flew
over the yard, dropping tear gas as state police and correction
officers stormed in with guns blazing. The police fired 3,000 rounds
into the tear gas haze, killing 29 inmates and 10 of the hostages and
wounding 89. Most were shot in the initial indiscriminate barrage of
gunfire, but other prisoners were shot or killed after they
surrendered. An emergency medical technician recalled seeing a wounded
prisoner, lying on the ground, shot several times in the head by a
state trooper. Another prisoner was shot seven times and then ordered
to crawl along the ground. When he didn't move fast enough, an officer
kicked him. Many others were savagely beaten.

In the aftermath of the bloody raid, authorities said the inmates had
killed the slain hostages by slitting their throats. One hostage was
said to have been castrated. However, autopsies showed that these
charges were false and that all 10 hostages had been shot to death by
police. The attempted cover-up increased public condemnation of the
raid and prompted a Congressional investigation.

The Attica riot was the worst prison riot in U.S. history. A total of
43 people were killed, including the 39 killed in the raid, guard
William Quinn, and three inmates killed by other prisoners early in
the riot. In the week after its conclusion, police engaged in brutal
reprisals against the prisoners, forcing them to run a gauntlet of
nightsticks and crawl naked across broken glass, among other tortures.
The many injured inmates received substandard medical treatment, if
any.

In 1974, lawyers representing the 1,281 inmates filed a $2.8 billion
class-action lawsuit against prison and state officials. It took 18
years before the suit came to trial, and five more years to reach the
damages phase, delays that were the fault of a lower-court judge
opposed to the case. In January 2000, New York State and the former
and current inmates settled for $8 million, which was divided unevenly
among about 500 inmates, depending on the severity of their suffering
during the raid and the weeks following.

Families of the slain correction officers lost their right to sue by
accepting the modest death-benefit checks sent to them by the state.
The hostages who survived likewise lost their right to sue by cashing
their paychecks. Both groups attest that no state officials apprised
them of their legal rights, and they were denied compensation that New
York should have paid to them.

1973: Bomb blasts rock central London
Scotland Yard hunted a teenage suspect after two bombs at mainline stations injured 13 people and brought chaos to central London.
The first explosion at King's Cross - which injured five people - occurred seconds after a witness saw a youth throw a bag into a booking hall.

Fifty minutes later a second blast rocked a snack bar at Euston station, injuring a further eight people.

No group has yet said it planted the bombs, but police have said the 2-3 lb (0.9-1.4 kg) bombs were typical of IRA manufacture.

People were being thrown through the air

King's Cross witness

The King's Cross bomb - which exploded without any warning at 1224 BST - shattered glass throughout the old booking hall and hurled a baggage trolley several feet through the air.

"I saw a flash and suddenly people were being thrown through the air - it was a terrible mess, they were bleeding and screaming," a witness said.

The second explosion occurred just minutes after the Press Association received a telephoned warning from a man with an Irish accent, and the police had very little time to clear the station.

The manageress of the Euston bar targeted by the bombers said officers ran up and down the platforms with loudhailers telling everybody to get out.

"About three minutes after we heard 'bomb scare!' the blast went off," she said.

Scotland Yard said it received more than one hundred hoax telephone calls throughout the day and was forced to evacuate three other London stations.

11 Sep 2001: US rocked by day of terror