On This Day: Saturday September 24, 2005 This is the 267th day of the year, with 98 days remaining in 2005. Fact of the Day: elephant Elephants are the biggest living land animals. The two types, African and Asian/Indian elephants, live in herds and can hear and smell well, but have poor eyesight. They have huge ears, a long trunk, and great tusks. The African elephant has larger ears and tusks and a differently shaped back. It is also more fierce and difficult to tame. As babies they are no larger than big dogs but grow twice the height of man and weight up to 16,500 pounds (7,500 kg). African elephants are generally bigger and heavier than Asian/Indian elephants. The trunk is needed for breathing, smelling, touching, carrying, feeding, and drinking. The tusks, which contain ivory, are extremely long teeth that elephants use to dig up food and fight enemies. Elephants eat huge amounts of food. An adult elephant eats about 300 pounds (150 kg) of plants and fruit each day. Many elephants have been killed for the ivory of their tusks and the animals is becoming rare in the wild. Elephants are on the list of endangered species. Holidays Guinea-Bissau: Independence Day. South Africa: National Heritage Day. Islam: Awwal Muharram. Dominican Republic: Feast of Our Lady Mary. Ghana: Third Republic Day. New Caledonia: Territorial Day. Peru: Feast of Our Lady Mary. Trinidad and Tobago: Republic Day. Venezuela: Day of the Public Functionary. Rwanda: Government Day/National Assembly Day/Referendum Day/Kamarampaka Day. Events 622 - Mohammed and his followers commenced the Hegira, or "flight," to Medina, where he founded Islam. 1742 - Faneuil Hall opened in Boston. 1788 - French Parliament of Paris reassembled after having been dissolved. 1789 - Congress passed the first Judiciary Act, which provided for an attorney general and a Supreme Court. 1852 - French engineer Henri Giffard made the first flight in an airship that was powered by a steam engine. 1869 - Wall Street panic took place when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market. 1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill designating Devils Tower, a natural rock formation in the Black Hills of Wyoming, as the country's first National Monument. 1914 - German army captured St. Mihiel. 1929 - First all-instrument flight took place; it was piloted by U.S. Army Lieutenant James H. Doolittle. 1930 - Noel Coward's comedy "Private Lives" opened in London. 1960 - USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Virginia. 1962 - University of Mississippi agreed to admit James Meredith as the first black university student. 1963 - U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing and development. 1964 - "The Munsters" premiered on TV. 1969 - Trial of the so-called "Chicago Eight" (or "Chicago Seven") began for the political radicals accused of conspiring to incite the riots that occurred during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 1969 - "60 Minutes" debuted. 1975 - Brits Dougal Huston and Doug Scott became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest via the southwest face. 1976 - Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. She is later released after 22 months, having received clemency. 1988 - The first female Episcopal assistant bishop was ordained (Barbara Harris). 1993 - Imelda Marcos, wife of the late Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of the Philippines, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for corruption. 1993 - Sihanouk was reinstalled as king of Cambodia. 1998 - New, harder-to-counterfeit US $20 bill was introduced. Births 1501 - Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician. 1717 - Horace Walpole, British creator of the Gothic novel genre 1755 - John Marshall, fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 1896 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author. 1921 - Jim McKay (McManus), American sportscaster. 1936 - Jim Henson, American creator of the Muppets. Deaths 1991 - Theodor "Dr. Suess" Geisel, American children's book author.