TODAY IN HISTORY(AP) — Today is Monday, September 18, the 261st day of 2006. There are 104 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1544, Sweden’s King Gustavus I forms alliance with France to counter Denmark’s alliance with the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1759, the French formally surrender Quebec to the British.

In 1793, George Washington lays the US Capitol Building’s cornerstone in Washington D.C.

In 1850, the US Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, which allows slave owners to reclaim slaves who escaped to other states.

In 1916, the Greek army surrenders to Germans at Kavalla, Greece, in the First World War.

In 1931, Japan begins siege of Mukden, using bomber seaplanes, and occupies strategic points in Manchuria.

In 1932, King Ibn Saud unifies the dual kingdom of the Hejaz and Najd under the name Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In 1975, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after being kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and then becoming one of its members.

In 1983, British adventurer George Meegan finishes a six-year long walk from the southernmost tip of South America to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska; covering 19,021 miles.

In 1994, US President Bill Clinton announces Haiti’s strongman Raoul Cedras has agreed to leave power by October 15 and permit US troops to enter the country.

In 1996, in Lagos, Nigeria, anti-riot police clash with thousands of Muslims and ten people are killed.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow — Chinese proverb.