On this date in history:

In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, allowing slave owners to reclaim slaves who escaped into another state.

In 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System was born. Originally known as the Tiffany Network, its first program was an opera, The King's Henchman.

In 1928, a hurricane that lashed Florida and the West Indies for five days left an estimated 4,000 people dead and $30 million in damage.

In 1961, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold died when his plane crashed under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia.

In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27 following a drug overdose in London.

In 1975, FBI agents in San Francisco captured former hostage Patricia Hearst along with two members of a group called the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was convicted in an SLA bank robbery and served 22 months in prison before her sentence was commuted. She later was granted a full pardon by U.S. President Bill Clinton.)

In 1983, British adventurer George Meegan finished a 19,021-mile, six-year walk from the tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

In 1996, the shuttle Atlantis docked with the Mir space station to pick up U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid, who had set a U.S. record for time spent in space.

In 2003, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the North Carolina coast, causing a reported 40 deaths and inflicting property damage estimated at $5 billion.

In 2005, Afghanistan had its first free election in 25 years, drawing millions of voters despite Taliban threats.

In 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in approving a civil rights bill that broadens the definition of disability to include epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses.

In 2009, the final episode of The Guiding Light was broadcast. The soap opera had run on radio and television for 72 years.

In 2010, violence and threats of violence during Afghanistan's parliamentary elections kept 60 percent of eligible voters from polls and left at least 14 people dead. A total of 2,514 candidates vied for seats in the 249-member Parliament.

In 2012, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said his comment about 47 percent of Americans who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it was not elegantly stated. A day earlier, the 47 percent comment, secretly recorded at a GOP fundraiser in May, was released on the Internet.

In 2013, Ken Norton, who shocked the boxing world with an upset of Muhammad Ali in 1973 and later became heavyweight champion, died in Arizona. The 70-year-old Norton had been in failing health for several years.

Copyright 2014 by United Press International