Today is Sunday, Sept. 9, the 253rd day of 2012. There are 113 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Sept. 9, 1543, Mary Stuart was crowned Queen of Scots at Stirling Castle, nine months after she was born.

On this date:

In 1776, the second Continental Congress made the term "United States" official, replacing "United Colonies."

In 1830, Charles Durant flew a balloon from New York City across the Hudson River to Perth Amboy, N.J.

In 1850, California became the 31st state of the union.

In 1919, some 1,100 members of Boston's 1,500-man police force went on strike. (The strike was broken by Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge with replacement officers.)

In 1926, the National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) was incorporated by the Radio Corp. of America.

In 1932, the steamboat Observation exploded in New York's East River, killing 72 people.

In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was declared.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since Reconstruction.

In 1971, prisoners seized control of the maximum-security Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, N.Y., beginning a siege that ended up claiming 43 lives.

In 1976, Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong died in Beijing at age 82.

In 1986, Frank Reed, director of a private school in Lebanon, was taken hostage; he was released 44 months later.

In 1997, Sinn Fein (shin fayn), the IRA's political ally, formally renounced violence as it took its place in talks on Northern Ireland's future. Actor Burgess Meredith died in Malibu, Calif., at age 89.

Ten years ago: Former Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was confronted outside the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., by conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel, who demanded that Aldrin swear on a Bible that he'd actually been to the moon; Aldrin ended up punching Sibrel in the jaw. Iraq challenged the United States to produce "one piece of evidence" that it was producing weapons of mass destruction. An express train traveling from Calcutta to New Delhi, India, derailed, killing at least 130 people.

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