Today is Wednesday, Sept. 17, the 260th day of 2025. There are 105 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 17, 1908, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps became the first person to die in the crash of a powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer, at Fort Myer, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The pilot, Orville Wright, was seriously injured but survived.

Also on this date:

In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was completed and signed by a majority of delegates attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

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In 1862, more than 3,600 men were killed in the Civil War Battle of Antietam (an-TEE’-tum) in Maryland.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied paratroopers launched Operation Market Garden, landing behind German lines in the Netherlands.

In 1978, after 12 days of meetings at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (men-AH’-kem BAY’-gihn) signed the Camp David Accords, a framework for a peace treaty.

In 1980, former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza was assassinated in Paraguay.

In 2001, six days after 9/11, stock prices nosedived but stopped short of collapse in an emotional, flag-waving reopening of Wall Street.

In 2011, a demonstration calling itself Occupy Wall Street began in New York, prompting similar protests around the U.S. and the world.

In 2021, a Los Angeles jury convicted New York real estate heir Robert Durst of killing his best friend 20 years earlier. (Durst, who was sentenced to life in prison, died in 2022.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is 92.
Mountaineer-explorer Reinhold Messner is 81.
Basketball Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson is 80.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 75.
Actor Cassandra Peterson (“Elvira, Mistress of the Dark”) is 74.
Director-actor Paul Feig is 63.
Film director Baz Luhrmann is 63.
Singer BeBe Winans is 63.
Actor Kyle Chandler is 60.
Rapper Doug E. Fresh is 59.
Author Cheryl Strayed is 57.
Actor Matthew Settle is 56.
Designer-TV personality Nate Berkus is 54.
NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson is 50.
NHL forward Alexander Ovechkin (oh-VECH’-kin) is 40.
Actor Danielle Brooks is 36.
NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes is 30.

For the first half of Tuesday night’s game, it looked destined to be a blowout, an uncompetitive ballgame between two teams that have historically played many of those. The New York Yankees had chased Twins starting pitcher Zebby Matthews  early and built up a nine-run lead by the time the fifth inning came around.

But the Twins wouldn’t roll over.

Though their comeback attempt fell just short, the Twins managed to make a game out of it before falling 10-9 to the Yankees in the second game of the series at Target Field.

“We’ve got some guys that just, they refused to stop playing hard and want to win at all costs,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You want the win at the back end of this, for sure. But I fully enjoyed watching our guys compete out there and do what they did. That was fantastic.”

The Twins (66-85), who scored a run in the first inning, added three more in the fifth, two of which came from James Outman’s fifth home run of the season.

Right after that, Byron Buxton went to work with his legs, stealing second base after taking a walk. Buxton, who is attempting to become the first Twin with 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, took off for third during Austin Martin’s at-bat.

He would have had it stolen, too, if not for Martin getting a piece of the ball, fouling it off.

He then tried again later in the inning, stealing third base successfully for the second time in his career. Prior to this season, Buxton had only attempted to swipe third one time in his career, in 2016. That brought Buxton, who already has accomplished the home run piece of the feat, up to 24 stolen bases.

“Try something different,” Buxton said. “A little more stuff on the line. Just trying to go for it a little bit.”

From there, he scored the team’s third run of the inning on a wild pitch.

In the sixth, the Twins added another four runs, using five hits to do so, including a Ryan Fitzgerald two-run home run. Trevor Larnach’s long fly ball to right later in the inning traveled 362 feet and excited the crowd before dying on the warning track, just a few feet short of tying the game. Buxton scored on the sacrifice fly.

Larnach would get his home run after all, but it was a solo shot in the ninth inning, and the Twins fell by one run to the Yankees (84-67).

Matthews allowed singles to the first two batters of the game, both of whom scored. In one of his shortest starts of the season, Matthews lasted just three innings, giving up a season-high nine runs on 11 hits.

“Hats off to the offense and the bullpen. They really picked up the team and me especially with the rough start,” Matthews said. “They kept fighting and kept swinging. You love to see that out of them.”

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – SEPTEMBER 16: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees hits a single against the Minnesota Twins in the first inning at Target Field on September 16, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
New York Yankees’ Cody Bellinger (35) steals second base against Minnesota Twins third baseman Ryan Fitzgerald (53) in the first inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

DFL candidate Xp Lee has won the special election for the Minnesota House district left vacant after the assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, restoring the balance of power in the chamber to a 67-67 tie between Democrats and Republicans.

Unofficial results Tuesday night showed Lee had a decisive lead, with 61% of the vote to Republican Ruth Bittner’s 39% with all District 34B precincts reporting results. Polls closed at 8 p.m. and final returns were in a short while later.

SMALL FILE — MAX. WIDTH FOR PRINT: 3.75 INCHES — Undated courtesy photo, circa July 2025, of Xp Lee, Democratic candidate for Minnesota House District 34B. Lee faces Republican candidate Ruth Bittner in a special election on Sept. 16, 2025. Bittner, a real estate agent seeking her first elected office and Lee, a former Brooklyn Park City Council member, are vying to replace Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic state House speaker who was slain along with her husband at their home in June 2025. District 34B includes the communities of Brooklyn Park and Champlin in Hennepin County and Coon Rapids in Anoka County. (Courtesy of the candidate)

“I am honored to have been elected to represent my neighbors in Brooklyn Park, Champlin, and Coon Rapids,” Lee said in a statement. “I have never lost sight of the situation that brought us to this moment, and I will work hard every day to carry forward Speaker Melissa Hortman’s legacy.”

Lee is a former member of the Brooklyn Park City Council. It was widely expected that the district would remain in DFL hands. Bittner is a real estate agent who had not served in elected office before.

Hortman was first elected to the House in 2004 and was in her 11th term in the Legislature. She was elected speaker of the House in 2019, when the DFL took a majority in the House and continued to lead her party in the House after it lost the majority in 2025.

Hortman handily won reelection in District 34B and past districts that covered a similar footprint. In 2024, she won reelection with 63% of the vote.

The House seat has been vacant for three months since Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed by a gunman at their home in Brooklyn Park on June 14. Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot at their home in Champlin but survived.

Vance Boelter, 57, faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges in the attacks.

Hortman’s death left the House split 67-66 between Republicans and DFLers. With Lee’s win, a power-sharing agreement the parties reached earlier this year after the 2024 election delivered a tied House will remain in place.

Undated courtesy photo, circa Sept. 2025, of Ruth Bittner, candidate for state House District 34B in a special election on Sept. 16, 2025. Bittner, a Republican real estate agent seeking her first elected office, faces Democrat Xp Lee, a former Brooklyn Park City Council member, in a special election to replace Melissa Hortman, the former Democratic state House speaker who was slain along with her husband at their home in June 2025. District 34B includes the communities of Brooklyn Park and Champlin in Hennepin County and Coon Rapids in Anoka County. (Courtesy of the candidate)

The Legislature has not been in session, so the balance of seats hasn’t had any immediate effect on the state, and the House can’t pass any bills without Democratic-Farmer-Labor support because the threshold to do so is 68 votes.

The state Senate is in a similar situation. DFLers have 33 seats to Republicans’ 32 in that chamber, but 34 votes are needed to pass legislation.

Before two vacancies this summer due to the unexpected death of Sen. Bruce Anderson, R-Buffalo, and the felony conviction of another member, Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, the DFL had a 34-33 advantage. Special elections to fill the two seats are scheduled for Nov. 4.

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Minnesota United vs. Austin FC

What: U.S. Open Cup semifinal
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Allianz Field
Stream: CBS Sports Network; Paramount+
Weather: 75 degrees, mostly sunny, 5 mph east wind

Form: Minnesota is unbeaten in four, including a 3-1 victory at first-place San Diego on Saturday. Austin had won two straight before a 2-0 loss to Texas rival FC Dallas last weekend.

Recent matchups: Minnesota beat Austin 3-0 in Texas on May 3 and the two teams played to a 1-1 draw in St. Paul on May 24.

Quote: Players “are probably sick of hearing me describe games as finals because I think I’ve been doing it for a while and it gets the desired response,” head coach Eric Ramsay said. “But I feel like we have been in that position where we’ve been in the hunt for lots of things for a lot of this season.”

Stat: Forward Kelvin Yeboah has not scored in seven straight matches, but he was dealing with another lull in May before scoring in an Open Cup round of 16 match against St. Louis. He also converted on two penalty kicks in the USOC quarterfinal win over Chicago.

Context: The Loons are expecting at least 14,000 fans for Wednesday’s match, which is well short of the stadium’s capacity of 19,600, but way more than they have had in previous rounds.

Absences: MF/CB Carlos Harvey is out with a knee injury that Ramsay said is not considered serious. CF Momo Dieng is ineligible after already playing in the tournament for Hartford Athletic.

Prediction: With only 31 goals in 29 games, Austin has struggled to score, especially without injured forward Brandon Vazquez, and Minnesota’s success is built on a suffocating defense. Loons move onto their first Open Cup final since 2019 with a 2-0 victory.