Updated September 19, 2013, 2:28 pm

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On Sept. 19, 1881, the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by an assassin.

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On Sept. 19, 1911, Sir William Golding, author of the novel "Lord of the Flies", was born. Following his death on June 19, 1993, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On Sept. 19, 1982, emoticons were born when Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman proposed using a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis – :–) – to depict a horizontal smiley face.

1777	American soldiers won the first Battle of Saratoga during the Revolutionary War.
1881	President James A. Garfield died of wounds inflicted by an assassin more than two months earlier.
1934	Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnap-murder of the Lindbergh baby.
1955	President Juan Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the military.
1957	The United States conducted its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada desert.
1970	"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" debuted on CBS.
1985	The Mexico City area was struck by the first of two devastating earthquakes that claimed some 6,000 lives.
1994	U.S. troops entered Haiti to enforce the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
1995	The New York Times and The Washington Post published the Unabomber's manifesto.
2001	The Pentagon ordered combat aircraft to the Persian Gulf in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
2002	President George W. Bush asked Congress for authority to use military force if necessary to disarm and overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he did not abandon weapons of mass destruction.
2004	Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China with the departure of former President Jiang Zemin from his top military post.
2008	Struggling to stave off financial catastrophe, the Bush administration asked Congress for $700 billion to buy up troubled mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions.
2008	AMC's "Mad Men" became the first basic-cable show to win a top series Emmy award.
2010	The BP oil well that had spilled hundred of millions of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was sealed with a permanent cement plug.

Historic Birthdays

78	Augustin Pajou 9/19/1730 - 5/8/1809 French sculptor and decorator
95	Charles Carroll 9/19/1737 - 11/14/1832 American patriot leader; signer of the Declaration of Independence
83	George Cadbury 9/19/1839 - 10/24/1922 English social reformer and chocolate manufacturer
73	William Hesketh Lever 9/19/1851 - 5/7/1925 English entrepreneur; built the Lever Brothers firm
79	Charles Mauguin 9/19/1878 - 4/25/1958 French mineralogist and crystallographer
73	Bergen Evans 9/19/1904 - 2/4/1978 English lexicographer and educator
77	Leon Jaworski 9/19/1905 - 12/9/1982 American lawyer; Watergate special prosecutor
90	Lewis F. Powell Jr. 9/19/1907 - 8/25/1998 American associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court (1972 -1987)
64	Elizabeth Stern 9/19/1915 - 8/18/1980 Canadian-born American pathologist