Today in History....September 12

On this day in …

* 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name

* 1914, during World War I, the First Battle of the Marne ended in an Allied victory against Germany

* 1938, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, demanded the right of self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia

* 1943, German paratroopers took Benito Mussolini from the hotel where he was being held by the Italian government

* 1944, the Second Quebec Conference opened with President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in attendance

* 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by Ethiopia's military, after ruling for 58 years

* 1992, the space shuttle Endeavour blasted off, carrying with it Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space; Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space; and Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly on a U.S. spaceship

* 2002, raising the specter of war, President Bush told skeptical world leaders at the United Nations to confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Saddam Hussein's Iraq --- or to stand aside as the U.S. acted. ALSO: Three former Tyco International executives were charged with looting the conglomerate of hundreds of millions of dollars; all three pleaded innocent at their arraignment in New York. (Former CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski and former CFO Mark Swartz were later convicted of grand larceny and securities fraud. Tyco's former top lawyer, Mark A. Belnick, was acquitted.)