PORTLAND, Ore. — Neka, the oldest member of the
Oregon Zoo’s African lion pride, had a seizure and 
died Friday night at age 16.

Zoo officials stated that wild female lions rarely live
past 16  years old.

Neka with one of her cubs.

On September 30, 1822, Joseph Marion Hernández (1788-1857) 
became the first Hispanic to be elected to the United States
Congress.

Born a Spanish citizen, Hernández would die in Cuba, but in
between he became the first Hispanic American to serve at
the highest levels of any of three branches of the American
federal government.

At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, 24-year-old actor James
Dean was killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche
he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection.

Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released
at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”
opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom—and the crash made him a legend.

James Dean loved racing cars, and in fact he and his brand-
new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way
to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco.

Gene Autry, perhaps the greatest singing cowboy of all time, 
was born on September 29, 1907, in Tioga, Texas.

While still a boy, Autry moved with his family to a ranch in
Oklahoma where he learned to play the guitar and sing.

The young Autry was quickly attracted to a new style of music
that was becoming popular at the time, which combined the
traditional cowboy music popular in Texas and Oklahoma and
the folk songs, ballads, and hymns of southern-style country
music. Known as country-western.

The Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, the decisive battle in
America’s shocking triumph over the mighty British
Empire in its War of Independence, began on this day
in history, Sept. 28, 1781.

The siege ended three weeks later, on Oct. 19, with the
surrender of the British garrison led by Lord Charles
Cornwallis. 

Painting depicts the surrender of the British at Yorktown.