Today is Thursday, Sept. 16, the 259th day of 2021. There are 106 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlights in History:

On Sept. 16, 1974, President Gerald R. Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft-evaders.

On this date:

In 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

In 2001, President George W. Bush, speaking on the South Lawn of the White House, said there was “no question” Osama bin Laden and his followers were the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks; Bush pledged the government would “find them, get them running and hunt them down.”

In 2007, contractors for the U.S. security firm Blackwater USA guarding a U.S. State Department convoy in Baghdad opened fire on civilian vehicles, mistakenly believing they were under attack; 14 Iraqis died. O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017.)

In 2012, in appearances on Sunday news shows, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said there was no evidence that the attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, was premeditated. But Libya’s interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, told CBS he had no doubt attackers spent months planning the assault and purposely chose the date, September 11.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Janis Paige is 99. Actor George Chakiris is 89. Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 72. Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 71. Actor Mickey Rourke is 69. Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount is 66. Magician David Copperfield is 65. Actor Jennifer Tilly is 63. Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser is 63. Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 62. Singer Richard Marx is 58. Singer Marc Anthony is 53. Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is 50. Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 29.