Today In History; September 16

September 16 is the 259th day of the year. There are 106 days remaining until the end of the year.


 Today's Highlight In History
1959 – The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.
A photocopier is a machine that makes paper copies of documents and other visual images quickly and cheaply, using a technology called xerography, a dry process that uses electrostatic charges on a light sensitive photoreceptor to first attract and then transfer toner particles (a powder) onto paper in the form of an image. Heat, pressure or a combination of both is then used to fuse the toner onto the paper. 

The Xerox 914 was the first successful commercial plain paper copier which in 1959 revolutionized the document-copying industry. The culmination of inventor Chester Carlson's work on the xerographic process, the 914 was fast and economical. The copier was introduced to the public on September 16, 1959, in a demonstration at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, shown on live television.



 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Harlem Heights is fought.

1795 – The first occupation by United Kingdom of Cape Colony, South Africa with the Battle of Hout Bay, after successive victories at the Battle of Muizenberg and Wynberg, after William V requested protection against revolutionary France's occupation of the Netherlands.

1812 – The Fire of Moscow begins shortly after midnight and destroys three quarters of the city days later.

1863 – Robert College of Istanbul-Turkey, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.

1880 – The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the nation's oldest, continuously-independent college daily.

1908 – The General Motors Corporation is founded.

1919 – The American Legion is incorporated.

1920 – The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 and injuring 400.

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

1959 – The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

1961 – Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.

1963 – Malaysia is formed from the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak. However, Singapore soon leaves this new country.

1970 – King Hussein of Jordan declares military rule following the hijacking of four civilian airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This results in the formation of the Black September Palestinian paramilitary unit.

1975 – Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia.

1975 – The Cape Verde Islands, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.

1978 – An earthquake measuring 7.5 to 7.9 on the Richter scale hits the city of Tabas, Iran killing about 25,000 people.

1987 – The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

2007 – One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people.

2013 – A gunman kills twelve people at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.