Important Events From Today in History – 12 September

Today in History

• 1992 First African American Woman Goes into Space

  Mae C. Jemison, a physician, was a Mission Specialist on STS-47, NASA’s Space Shuttle Program’s 50th space flight. It was the second flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. During her 190-hour stay in space, she conducted weightlessness and motion sickness experiments.

• 1974 A Coup in Ethiopia ousts Emperor Haile Selassie

  The Derg, a coalition of Ethiopian armed forces and other law enforcement agencies, led the coup. Selassie was imprisoned following the coup. He died on August 28, 2015, two years later. Selassie is also regarded as a Messiah by adherents of Rastafarianism, a religious belief that originated in Jamaica.

• 1970 The Soviet Union launched the Luna 16

  It was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return to Earth with rock samples. Luna 16 landed on Earth on September 24.

• 1953 Jacqueline Bouvier Marries John Fitzgerald Kennedy

  The season’s most talked-about wedding took place in Newport, Rhode Island. At the time of the wedding, John F. Kennedy was a Senator from Massachusetts in the United States Congress. Kennedy was elected president in 1960 after defeating Republican candidate Richard Nixon.

• 1943 The German paratroopers conduct the Gran Sasso Raid at the behest of Hitler

  The goal of the airborne operation, also known as Operation Eiche, was to free Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a ski resort where he was being held on the orders of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. German troops used gliders to enter the ski resort and successfully rescue Mussolini.