Today is Wednesday, Sept. 24, the 268th day of 2008. There are 98 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Sept. 24, 1789, Congress passed a Judiciary Act that provided for an Attorney General and a Supreme Court.

On this date

In 1869, thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic known as “Black Friday” after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market.

In 1929, Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY-2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.

In 1955, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver.

In 1958, “The Donna Reed Show” premiered on ABC-TV.

In 1960, the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Va.

In 1963, the U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.

In 1968, the TV news magazine “60 Minutes” premiered on CBS; the undercover police drama “The Mod Squad” premiered on ABC.

In 1976, Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery in San Francisco carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (She was released after 22 months, having received clemency from President Carter.)

In 1988, Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the men’s 100-meter dash at the Seoul Summer Olympics — but he was disqualified three days later for using anabolic steroids.

In 1988, members of the eastern Massachusetts Episcopal diocese elected Barbara Harris the first female bishop in the church’s history.

10 years ago

Hurricane Georges was charging toward the Florida Keys, after killing hundreds of people in the Caribbean. The government began releasing the new, harder-to-counterfeit $20 bill.

Five years ago

After four turbulent months, three special legislative sessions and two Democratic walkouts, both houses of the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature adopted redistricting plans favoring the GOP. The top candidates vying to replace California Gov. Gray Davis joined in a lively debate.

One year ago

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance at Columbia University in New York. United Auto Workers walked off the job at GM plants in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976; a tentative pact ended the walkout two days later. Two kidnapped Italian intelligence operatives were rescued in a NATO-led combat operation in western Afghanistan, two days after they went missing. As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by Buddhist monks marched in Yangon, Myanmar.

Today’s Birthdays

Actor-singer Herb Jeffries is 97. Actress Sheila MacRae is 84. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sonny Turner (The Platters) is 69. Singer Barbara Allbut (The Angels) is 68. Singer Phyllis “Jiggs” Allbut (The Angels) is 66. Singer Gerry Marsden (Gerry and the Pacemakers) is 66. Actor Gordon Clapp is 60. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass., is 56. Actor Kevin Sorbo is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer Cedric Dent (Take 6) is 46. Actress-writer Nia Vardalos is 46. Country musician Marty Mitchell is 39. Actress Megan Ward is 39. Singer-musician Marty Cintron (No Mercy) is 37. Contemporary Christian musician Juan DeVevo (Casting Crowns) is 33. Actor Kyle Sullivan is 20.

Thought for Today

“The easiest way to get a reputation is go outside the fold, shout around for a few years as a violent atheist or a dangerous radical, and then crawl back to the shelter.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)