Random News and Notes 16 September

On this date:

• 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from England on the Mayflower.
• 1668 – King John Casimer V of Poland abdicates the throne.
• 1774 – The French capture Bergen-op-Zoom, consolidating their occupation of Austrian Flanders in the Netherlands.
• 1810 – The Mexican War of Independence breaks out. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla—“the father of Mexican independence”—was defeated at Calderón in January 1811, he fled north but was captured and executed. He was followed by other peasant leaders, however, such as José María Morelos y Pavón, Mariano Matamoros, and Vicente Guerrero, who all led armies of native and racially mixed revolutionaries against the Spanish and the Royalists.
• 1864 – Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest leads 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
• 1889 – Robert Younger, in Minnesota’s Stillwater Penitentiary for life, dies of tuberculosis. Brothers Cole and Bob remain in the prison.
• 1893 – Some 50,000 “Sooners” claim land in the Cherokee Strip during the first day of the Oklahoma land rush.
• 1908 – Buick Motor Company head William Crapo Durant incorporates General Motors in New Jersey.
• 1920 – Thirty people are killed in a terrorist bombing in New York’s Wall Street financial district.
• 1940 – Congress passes the Selective Service Act, which calls for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
• 1942 – The Japanese base at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands is raided by American bombers.
• 1945 – Japan surrenders Hong Kong to Britain.
• 1950 – The U.S. 8th Army breaks out of the Pusan Perimeter in South Korea and begins heading north to meet MacArthur’s troops heading south from Inchon.
• 1972 – South Vietnamese troops recapture Quang Tri province in South Vietnam from the North Vietnamese Army.
• 1974 – Limited amnesty is offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.
• 1978 – An earthquake estimated to be as strong as 7.9 on the Richter scale kills 25,000 people in Iran.
• 1991 – The trial of Manuel Noriega, deposed dictator of Panama, begins in the United States.
• 2013 – Shortly after 8 a.m., a 34-year-old man goes on a rampage at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., killing 12 people and wounding several others over the course of an hour before he is fatally shot by police.

We start today’s news in Los Angeles where a news chopper crashed while filming a bus crash. The KNBC-TV NewsChopper4 went down around 7 p.m. Tuesday near 9151 North Mason Avenue, killing veteran pilot George Marciniw with over 14,000 flight hours and reporter Eliana Moreno plus one person on the ground. It was covering an earlier Metro bus crash on Nordhoff Street that had already claimed at least two lives. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported three dead and one hospitalized from the crash.

NewsChopper 4 was operated by Angel City Air for KNBC and Telemundo 52. The NTSB and FAA are investigating the cause.

Your editor has hundreds of hours in the back (and side skids) of various military helos and frankly, I expected to crash every time I did so.

Anyone remember Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, the haitian illegal that shouted “F*ck Trump” and “I’m not going back to Haiti”? Guess where he is today? Back in Haiti. Charles, who was identified as a Back Block Money Gang member, entered the U.S. in 2013 with Temporary Protected Status that was revoked in 2022. He was arrested in Boston on January 22, 2025, where he faced charges like assault, drug trafficking, and weapons violations. An immigration judge ordered his removal in November 2025; after 19 months in custody, ICE deported him from Louisiana to Haiti.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Our next story is a prime example of why you should Always Be Carrrying and have your head on a swivel. Around 9 a.m. yesterday, at a Shell station near 151st Street and Harlem Avenue in Orland Park, Illinois, a concealed carry license holder shot a masked suspect who approached with a gun while he fueled up. Surveillance video shows the customer drawing his firearm and firing two shots, hitting the robber who then dropped his weapon and fled on foot.

The suspect was located shortly after the shooting (he had fled while limping), taken to a hospital for treatment, and is in police custody. Police have not released the suspect’s name or further details on potential charges.

For God’s sake, pay attention out there.

This one is a couple of days old. On September 14 in Lisbon, Ohio, 20-year-old Timothy J. Reaggle from Wellsville broke free from front handcuffs while being escorted out of court. He punched one deputy in the throat or face, knocking him down, then collided with a second deputy before sprinting down stairs toward the exit. Deputies chased and subdued him with a Taser near the doors; both suffered broken bones but were treated and released from the hospital.

Reaggle, already sentenced on reduced charges from a 2025 assault case, now faces felony assault on officers and escape charges, and remains in Columbiana County Jail.

Y’all thought it was the black guy dinnit ya? I really question why the clip starts there and not 3 seconds later when the chubby white guy manages to break the cuffs.

19. And what about y’all? Let us know in the comments.