MOMENTS IN TIME - Sept. 3, 2009

• On Sept. 17, 1903, Lester L. Whitman and Eugene I. Hammond complete their coast-to-coast expedition, the third trans-U.S. automobile trip in history. Their journey was memorable because it contained a small detour. Whitman and Hammond’s decided to include a side trip to Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, in order to dub their trek “international.”

• On Sept. 18, 1917, 23-year-old Aldous Huxley, future author of “Brave New World” is hired as a schoolmaster at Eton. One of his pupils will be Eric Blair, who will later use the pen name George Orwell. Barely able to read due to a medical condition, Huxley nevertheless graduated from Oxford in 1916, the same year his first book appeared.

• On Sept. 14, 1927, Isadora Duncan, the controversial but highly influential American dancer, is instantly strangled to death in Nice, France, when her trademark long scarf is caught in the rear wheel of a Bugatti driven by factory mechanic Benoit Falchetto. Duncan was 49.

• On Sept. 16, 1949, Warner Bros. introduces the Road Runner in the cartoon short “Fast and Furry-ous.” Like the sounds of countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, the Road Runner’s cheerful “beep, beep!” was provided by Mel Blanc.

• On Sept. 19, 1957, the United States detonates a 1.7 kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at a research center in Nevada. The test, known as Rainier, was the first fully contained underground detonation and produced no radioactive fallout. A total of 928 tests took place at the site between 1951 and 1992.

• On Sept. 15, 1978, boxer Muhammad Ali defeats Leon Spinks at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans to win the world heavyweight boxing title for the third time in his career, the first fighter ever to do so.

• On Sept. 20, 1984, Marvin Gay Sr. agrees to a plea bargain agreement that will keep him out of jail for shooting his son, singer Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye, who added the “e” to his name when he broke into show business, was one of Motown’s biggest stars with massive hits such as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”