Moments in Time – August 22, 2023

#MiddleburyCT

• On Sept. 4, 1925, laws were enacted to ensure that farm wagons would be equipped with lights for traveling at night, due to an increase in the number of accidents the wagons were involved in during peak corn-packing season.
• On Sept. 5, 1969, U.S. Army platoon leader Lt. William Calley was charged with premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, where Calley had led his men in a massacre that included women and children. Though hushed up at first, the event was made public a year later.
• On Sept. 6, 1997, an estimated 2.5 billion people around the world watched the four-mile funeral procession of England’s beloved Princess Diana as her coffin was carried to Westminster Abbey. After the formal service there, a private ceremony was held in which she was laid to rest on an island in the heart of her family’s estate at Althorp.
• On Sept. 7, 1907, the RMS Lusitania set sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, setting a new trans-Atlantic record when she arrived in New York City a mere five days later.
• On Sept. 8, 2006, only a week after permission was granted for helicopter flights over the ancient Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, the country’s government declared the area a no-fly zone following protests by environmentalists who claimed such flights would adversely affect rare plants and animals in the area.
• On Sept. 9, 2007, the NFL discovered that the New England Patriots were illegally videotaping coaching signals from the New York Jets at an unauthorized location in a Week 1 game in East Rutherford, New Jersey. News media quickly dubbed the scandal “Spygate.”
• On Sept. 10, 1897, 25-year-old London taxi driver George Smith had the dubious honor of becoming the first person ever arrested for “being drunk when in charge of a motor car” after he slammed his cab into a building, breaking a water pipe and window. Smith later pleaded guilty and was fined 25 shillings.

© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.