"One may see, in the light of flares, carefully hidden under canvas, human beings, looking like broken castaway dust-covered dolls, being lifted with careful hands out of a tunnel, driven through to the basement of a bombed house."1997Mobutu Sese Seko, the former central African dictator dies in Morocco at age 66. It happens months after Mobutu is forced into exile following his disastrous rule of Zaire now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

1977In Washington, the Panama Canal Treaties are signed. The agreement calls on the United States to eventually turn control of the waterway over to Panama during the next two decades.

1996Rapper Tupac Shakur is fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting on his car in the Las Vegas strip. Shakur dies from his injuries days later. His murder remains unsolved.

1979Attention, Sports Center fans, ESPN debuts on cable, the birth of a TV sports powerhouse.

1963The Pro Football Hall of Fame is dedicated in Canton, Ohio where what's now the NFL was formed more than four decades earlier.

And 1936"I'll be through, well that'll be the day, when you say goodbye, that'll be the day..."Buddy Holly, one of the early stars of rock'n'roll is born in Lubbock, Texas.

Today in History, September 7th, Tim Maguire, the Associated Press.