September 18th, 1850:
In Washington, America's divide between North and South over slavery deepened.
Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, allowing slave owners to reclaim slaves who fled to other states.
The law contributed to the outbreak of the civil war a decade later.
2001:
Letters postmarked Trenton, New Jersey, that were later confirmed to be anthrax-tainted, were sent to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw and the New York Post.
The letters were part of the anthrax scare that killed 5 people and infected dozen others weeks after the September 11th terror attacks.
1975:
In San Francisco, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured more than a year and a half after her kidnapping.
Despite having said her kidnappers, known as the Symbionese Liberation Army, brainwashed her into joining them and at least 2 robberies, she spent prison time for bank robbery. But her sentence was later commuted.
1961:
In Africa, U.N. secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold was killed when his plane crashed in what's now Zambia.
Hammarskjold, who was on a peace mission in what's now the Democratic Republic of Congo, was 56 years old.
1970:
In London, guitarist Jimi Hendrix, the music icon of the 60s' counterculture, died of a drug overdose. He was 27 years old.
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