Track and field athlete Shericka Williams

Events in 1985 and 17-9

Events in the world in the birth year of Shericka Williams

• Soviet leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11). Under the slogans of glasnost and Perestroika, Gorbachev initiates a broad program of reform and liberalization. Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).
• PLO terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7); American, Leon Klinghoffer, killed (Oct. 8); Italian government toppled by political crisis over hijacking (Oct. 16).
• Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). Background: nuclear disarmament
• Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24).

Birthday Shericka Williams (17-9) in history

• Day 17-9 year 1787: The Constitution was completed and signed by most delegates to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Day 17-9 year 1862: The bloodiest day in U.S. military history occurred at the Battle of Antietam when more than 23,000 were killed or wounded.
• Day 17-9 year 1908: Lt. Thomas Selfridge, a passenger in a plane piloted by Orville Wright, became the first airplane fatality when the craft crashed.
• Day 17-9 year 1920: The American Professional Football Association—a precursor of the NFL—was formed in Canton, Ohio.
• Day 17-9 year 1980: Anastasio Somoza Debayle, former president of Nicaragua, was assassinated in Paraguay.
• Day 17-9 year 1994: Heather Whitestone of Alabama became the first deaf Miss America.
• Day 17-9 year 2004: Barry Bonds became the third baseball player to hit 700 career home runs, joining Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth.