Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Sept. 23. The USS Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones and actually sinking at the time, defeated the British frigate HMS Serapis in a battle off the coast of Scotland on this day in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War. During the battle, the British commander called on Jones to surrender and Jones replied with his now-famous quote: "I have not yet begun to fight." Advertisement It was in 1806 that, amid much public excitement, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark returned to St. Louis, Mo., completing the first recorded overland journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast and back. It was on this day in 1950 that Congress adopted the Internal Security Act, which provided for the registration of communists. The Supreme Court later ruled it unconstitutional. After 18 years in exile, Juan Peron was again elected president of Argentina on this date in 1973. His second wife, Isabel, became vice president and succeeded him when he died 10 months later. By the way, Isabel tried calling herself "Eva" to capitalize on the popularity of the first Mrs. Peron. Advertisement Among the terms ending the 1991 Gulf War was Iraqi cooperation in U.N. attempts to determine if Saddam Hussein had or was trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction. It was on this date in 1991 that 44 U.N. inspectors were detained in Baghdad after they tried to remove secret Iraqi plans for building nuclear weapons. They were freed five days later. In 2001, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, the FAA grounded all crop dusting activity for fear some one might use such a plane to drop toxic substances. We now return you to the present, already in progress. -
