On this date in history

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Today is Sunday, Sept. 30, the 273rd day of 2007 with 92 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(Steve-ts4ms) German physicist Hans Geiger, co-inventor of the Geiger counter, in 1882; film director Lewis Milestone ("All Quiet on the Western Front") in 1895; singer Kenny Baker in 1912; former Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox in 1915; drummer Buddy Rich in 1917; novelist Truman Capote in 1924; actresses Deborah Kerr in 1921 (age 86) and Angie Dickinson in 1931 (age 76); singers Johnny Mathis in 1935 (age 72) and Marilyn McCoo in 1943 (age 64); singer Frankie Lymon in 1942; actress Victoria Tennant in 1950 (age 57); actor Eric Stoltz in 1961 (age 46); actress/singer Crystal Bernard in 1961 (age 46); and actresses Fran Drescher ("The Nanny") in 1957 (age 50) and Jenna Elfman ("Dharma and Greg") in 1971 (age 36), and tennis star Martina Hingis in 1980 (age 27).



On this date in history:

In 1452, the first section of the Guttenberg Bible, the first book printed from movable type, was published in Germany.

In 1630, John Billington, one of the first pilgrims to land in America was hanged for murder -- becoming the first criminal to be executed in the American colonies.

In 1846, a dentist in Charleston, Mass., extracted a tooth with the aid of an anesthetic -- ether. It was the first time an anesthetic had been used.

In 1938, Germany, France, Britain and Italy met in Munich, Germany, for a conference after which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain predicted "peace for our time." But, World War II began less than one year later.

In 1946, the verdicts were handed down in the Nuremberg war crimes trial. Twelve Nazi leaders were sentenced to death by hanging.

In 1954, the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear submarine, was commissioned by the Navy.

In 1955, movie idol James Dean died in a car crash at age 24.

In 1962, James H. Meredith, an African-American, was escorted onto the University of Mississippi campus by U.S. marshals, setting off a riot during which two men were killed before the racial violence was quelled by more than 3,000 soldiers. Meredith enrolled the next day.

In 1991, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in a military coup.

In 1992, the United States returned most of the Subic Bay Naval Base to the Philippine government after more than a century of use.

Also in 1992, The U.S. Congress approved a bill requiring the release of nearly all government files concerning the assassination of U.S. President John Kennedy.

In 1999, an accident at a nuclear power plant 70 miles northeast of Tokyo released high levels of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident.

Also in 1999, Russia sent troops into the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

By this date in 2001, about 500 people in the United States and elsewhere had been arrested or detained in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2003, the U.S. Justice Department opened an investigation into the leaking of the name of a CIA operative to the media in an alleged effort to discredit a critic of the president’s Iraq policy.

Also in 2003, three people working at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, including a Muslim chaplain, were arrested on espionage charges.

In 2004, more than 40 people were killed, including about 35 children, when three bombs exploded in Iraq as U.S. soldiers were handing out candy.

Also in 2004, Merck & Co. announced a voluntary worldwide withdrawal of the arthritis and pain medication drug Vioxx. Clinical trials showed an increased risk of heart attack and stroke after 18 months of use.

In 2005, amid joy, sadness and speculation about the future, thousands of New Orleans residents returned home to a hobbled city, one month after Hurricane Katrina dealt them a devastating blow.

Also in 2005, a U.N. health official warned bird flu could spread to humans at any time with deadly results.

In 2006, Brazilian authorities said they found the wreckage of a missing airliner in the dense rain forest. Searchers said it was unlikely anyone had survived the crash.

Also in 2006, Congress ordered construction of a 700-mile, $1.2 billion fence along the U.S.-Mexican border in a move to control immigration. Mexico said the barrier will hurt relations between the two countries.

A thought for the day: Spanish nun, mystic and reformer St. Theresa said, "Whenever conscience commands anything, there is only one thing to fear, and that is fear."

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Today is Monday, Oct. 1, the 274th day of 2007 with 91 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(LynneM-ts4ms); Navy Capt. James Lawrence, hero of the War of 1812, in 1781; novelist Faith Baldwin in 1893; pianist Vladimir Horowitz in 1903; Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States, in 1924 (age 83); U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, also in 1924; former major league batting champion Rod Carew in 1945 (age 62); actors Walter Matthau in 1920, James Whitmore in 1921 (age 86), Tom Bosley in 1927 (age 80), George Peppard in 1928, Laurence Harvey in 1928, Richard Harris in 1930, Julie Andrews in 1935 (age 72), Stella Stevens in 1936 (age 71), Stephen Collins in 1947 (age 60) and Randy Quaid in 1950 (age 57); and former home run champ Mark McGwire in 1963 (age 44)




On this date in history:

In 1903, the first World Series opened in Boston. The Boston Pilgrims of the American League closed out the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League in the eighth game of a best-of-nine series.

In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model-T automobile.

In 1949, Mao Zedong and other communist leaders formally proclaimed establishment of the People's Republic of China.

In 1974, former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell and four other Nixon administration officials went on trial on Watergate cover-up charges.

In 1991, the United States suspended economic aid to Haiti and refused to recognize the military junta that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In 1992, Dallas billionaire Ross Perot formally announced his candidacy for the presidency. He called his group the Reform Party.

Also in 1992, a missile accidentally fired by the U.S.S. Saratoga struck a Turkish destroyer in the Aegean Sea, killing nine Turkish sailors.

In 1995, 10 Muslims were convicted of conspiring to conduct a terrorist campaign in the New York City area aimed at forcing the United States to drop its support of Egypt and Israel.

In 2001, about 40 people were killed when a militant Muslim group attacked the legislative assembly building in the Indian province of Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2003, a report said hostility to the United States "has reached shocking levels" among Muslims and Arabs.

In 2004, the U.S. army said it killed 109 Sunni insurgents in a major offensive with Iraqi national guards against the city of Samara.

In 2005, a reported 36 people, mostly foreign tourists, died in explosions at two resort restaurants on the island of Bali. More than 100 others were reported injured.

In 2006, Brazilians voted for president following a campaign rife with corruption allegations against incumbent and favored Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.


A thought for the day: the dying words of American naval hero Capt. James Lawrence -- "Don't give up the ship" -- became an honored naval motto.

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Today is Tuesday, Oct. 2, the 275th day of 2007 with 90 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(Jim-BocaBum99-ts4ms);( joborch-ts4ms); England's King Richard III in 1452; Nat Turner, a black slave and leader of the only effective and sustained U.S. slave revolt, in 1800; German statesman Paul von Hindenburg in 1847; French World War I military commander Ferdinand Foch in 1851; Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1869; comedians Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx in 1890 and Bud Abbott in 1895; child actor George "Spanky" McFarland of "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" fame, in 1928; movie critic Rex Reed in 1938 (age 69); pop singer Don McLean in 1945 (age 62); fashion designer Donna Karan in 1948 (age 59); rock singer Sting (Gordon Sumner) in 1951 (age 56); and actress Lorraine Bracco in 1955 (age 52).




On this date in history:

In 1780, British spy Maj. John Andre was convicted in connection with Benedict Arnold's treason and was hanged in Tappan, N.Y.

In 1950, the "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Schulz was published for the first time.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1969, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned after admitting he had made a financial deal with the Louis Wolfson Foundation.

In 1984, Richard Miller became the first FBI agent to be charged with espionage. He was convicted two years later of passing government secrets to the Soviet Union through his Russian lover.

In 1985, actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS. He was 59 years old.

In 1991, the Organization of American States resolved to isolate Haiti's military junta and restore Aristide's government to power.

In 1992, the U.S. of Representatives House failed to override U.S. President George H.W. Bush's veto of a bill that would have reversed the administration's "gag rule" on abortion information.

In 1993, ousted Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi called for people to take to the streets against President Boris Yeltsin's "dictatorship."

In 2001, NATO said that the United States had shown evidence, sufficient to justify NATO military action, that Osama bin Laden and his organization were responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2002, the first in a series of apparent random sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area for three weeks occurred on this date with the slaying of a 55-year-old Maryland man.

In 2003, David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, told Congress his team had yet to find conclusive evidence of weapons of mass destruction in that country.

Also in 2003, a federal judge barred prosecutors of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui from seeking the death penalty or linking him with the Sept. 11 attacks because he hadn't been allowed to interview al-Qaida operatives who might help his case.

In 2004, at least 48 people were killed in a series of attacks across the Indian states of Nagaland and Assam.

In 2005, former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, indicted for allegedly violating Texas state campaign finance laws, said he would continue to press the Republican agenda in Congress and raise millions of dollars despite the indictment.

Also in 2005, 21 older people died after a tour boat flipped over on Lake George in New York's Adirondacks.

And, in 2005, Connecticut issued its first licenses for "civil unions," becoming the third state to offer same-sex couples a legal way to unite.

In 2006, five Amish girls were fatally wounded in a series of shootings in a rural, one-room schoolhouse in Nickle Mines, Pa. The suspect, a milk truck driver who also killed himself, had told his wife that he needed to avenge something that had happened 20 years ago, officers said.

A thought for the day: Queen Elizabeth I of England said, "A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past."

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Today is Wednesday, Oct. 3, the 276th day of 2007 with 89 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include Cherokee Chief John Ross, who led opposition to the forced move of his people to what is now Oklahoma, in 1790; historian George Bancroft in 1800; political cartoonist; novelists Thomas Wolfe in 1900 and Gore Vidal in 1925 (age 82); rock 'n' roll singer Chubby Checker in 1941 (age 66); singer/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham in 1949 (age 58); actor/singer Jack Wagner in 1959 (age 48); and actress Neve Campbell in 1973 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1922, Rebecca Felton, a Georgia Democrat, became the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

In 1932, Iraq won its independence after Britain ended its mandate over the Arab nation following 17 years of British rule.

In 1952, Britain successfully tested its first atomic bomb.

In 1955, the children's TV show "Captain Kangaroo" with Bob Keeshan in the title role was broadcast for the first time.

In 1967, folksinger and songwriter Woody Guthrie died at the age of 55.

In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko signed strategic arms limitation agreements, putting the first restrictions on the two countries' nuclear weapons.

In 1981, IRA prisoners at Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended a seven-month hunger strike in which 10 men died.

In 1989, troops loyal to Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega crushed a coup attempt by rebel mid-level officers. Noriega was held briefly by coup plotters but escaped unharmed.

In 1990, formerly communist East Germany merged with West Germany, ending 45 years of post-war division.

In 1992, William Gates III, the college-dropout founder of Microsoft Corp., headed the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans with a net worth of $6.3 billion.

In 1993, fighting erupted in the streets of Moscow between pro- and anti-Yeltsin forces. Sixty-two people died in the violence that ended two days later when the rebel vice president and speaker of parliament surrendered.

In 1995, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of charges that he killed his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

Also in 1995, a bomb nearly killed the president of Macedonia, a relatively peaceful part of the former Yugoslavia.

In 2001, amid rising concerns about the use of lethal substances by terrorists, Tommy Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services, told a U.S. Senate committee that the government was planning to stockpile 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine.

In 2002, fear escalated in the Washington area as five people were killed over a 16-hour period in apparent random sniper shootings.

In 2004, church congregations in India had special services after weekend bomb blasts and gun attacks killed at least 56 people and injured 100 others.

In 2005, Harriet Miers, the White House counsel, was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by U.S. President George Bush to succeed the retiring Sandra Day O'Connor. Meanwhile, the high court opened a new term with a new chief justice, John Roberts.

Also in 2005, a Texas grand jury indicted U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the former House majority leader, for money laundering. The new indictment was aimed at correcting problems with an earlier charge against him.

And, in 2005, U.N. monitors said Afghanistan's parliamentary elections were marred by significant fraud and voter intimidation.

In 2006, a hijacked Turkish Airlines jetliner with 113 aboard landed safely in Brindisi, Italy, after Italian military jets escorted it down. The Italian civil aviation agency said the two alleged hijackers were unarmed and only wanted to get a message to Pope Benedict XVI.


A thought for the day: American poet Emily Dickinson wrote,

"Behold this little Bane –

"The Boon of all alive --

"As common as it is known

"The name of it is Love."

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Today is Thursday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2007 with 88 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(Ann-Marie-ts4ms) Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States, in 1822; Frederic Remington, painter of the American West, in 1861; journalist/author Damon Runyan in 1884; pioneer movie comedian Buster Keaton in 1895; actors Charlton Heston in 1924 (age 83), Clifton Davis in 1945 (age 62), Susan Sarandon in 1946 (age 61), Armand Assante in 1949 (age 58) and Liev Schreiber in 1967 (age 40); authors Jackie Collins and Anne Rice, both in 1941 (age 66); and actresses Alicia Silverstone in 1976 (age 31) and Rachel Leigh Cook in 1979 (age 28).



On this date in history:

In 1777, American forces under Gen. George Washington were defeated by the British in a battle at Germantown, Pa.

In 1890, Mormons in Utah renounced polygamy.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made space satellite, Sputnik-1.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York on the first visit by a reigning pope to the United States.

In 1976, Earl Butz resigned as U.S. agriculture secretary with an apology for what he called the "gross indiscretion" of uttering a racist remark.

In 1989, Art Shell was hired by the Oakland Raiders as the first black head coach in the modern NFL.

In 1991, the United States and 23 other countries signed an agreement banning mineral and oil exploration in Antarctica for 50 years.

In 1992, as many as 250 people were killed when an El Al 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building on the outskirts of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Also in 1992, the Mozambique government and RENAMO rebels signed a historic peace accord, ending 16 years of civil war in the southeast African nation.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered several hundred more U.S. troops to Somalia one day after the deaths of three Marines in Mogadishu.

In 1997, hundreds of thousands of Christian men gathered on the Mall in Washington to reaffirm their faith and to pledge to preserve the structure of the family.

In 2001, a Siberian Airlines jetliner exploded and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 64 passengers and 12 crew members. The United States said evidence showed the plane had been hit by a missile fired during a Ukrainian military training exercise.

And in 2001 sports, Rickey Henderson of the San Diego Padres scored his 2,246th run, breaking Ty Cobb's Major League Baseball record.

In 2002, the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, pleaded guilty to charges against him stemming from his alleged effort to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers during a 2001 Paris-to-Miami flight.

In 2003, a suicide bomber killed herself and 19 others in an attack on a crowded restaurant in the northern Israeli port of Haifa.

In 2004, SpaceShipOne, the first, privately funded rocket to reach the edge of space, flew to an altitude above 62 miles over the California desert.

Also in 2004, Gordon Cooper, one of the first U.S. astronauts, who logged more than 225 hours in space, died at his California home. He was 77.

In 2005, a landslide in eastern China triggered by Typhoon Longwang swept away a building housing 80 people, many of them police recruits.

In 2006, U.S. President George Bush signed into law a bill allocating funds for a 700-mile bridge on the United States-Mexico border to help control immigration.

Also in 2006, Iraq suspended a brigade of 800 Baghdad policemen and arrested their commander on charges of aiding sectarian death squads, U.S. officials said.


A thought for the day: author Damon Runyan wrote, "... always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you."

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Today is Friday, Oct. 5, the 278th day of 2007 with 87 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(Katie-ts4ms); French philosopher Denis Diderot in 1713; Chester A. Arthur, 21st president of the United States, in 1829; rocket pioneer Robert Goddard in 1882; restaurant entrepreneur Ray Kroc (McDonald's) and comic Larry Fine of The Three Stooges (the one with the wild wavy hair) in 1902; actor Donald Pleasence in 1919; political activist and defrocked priest Philip Berrigan in 1923; actress Glynis Johns in 1923 (age 84); actor/comedian Bill Dana in 1924 (age 83); Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic, in 1936 (age 71); rock singer/songwriter Steve Miller in 1943 (age 64); actress Karen Allen in 1951 (age 56); Irish rock musician Bob Geldof, organizer of the 1985 Live Aid famine relief concert, in 1951 (age 56); race car driver Michael Andretti in 1962 (age 45) and actress Kate Winslet in 1975 (age 32).




On this date in history:

In 1813, the Shawnee Indian Chief Tecumseh was killed while fighting on the side of the British during the War of 1812.

In 1918, Germany's Hindenburg Line was broken as World War I neared an end.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI made an unprecedented 14-hour visit to New York to plead for world peace before the United Nations.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria, hoping to win back territory lost to Israel during the third Arab-Israeli war, launched a coordinated attack against Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

In 1975, U.S. Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, charged that the CIA tried to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro during the administrations of three U.S. presidents.

In 1986, former U.S. Marine Eugene Hasenfus was captured after a plane carrying arms for the Nicaraguan rebels was shot down over Nicaragua. Nicaragua's Sandinista government later convicted him but then granted a pardon.

In 1989, TV evangelist Jim Bakker was convicted on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy for fleecing his PTL flock.

Also in 1989, the Dalai Lama, exiled god-king of Tibet, won the Nobel Peace Prize for nonviolent efforts to free his homeland from China.

In 1991, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, responding to unilateral U.S. action, announced cuts in nuclear weapons that would reduce the number of strategic warheads to 5,000 in seven years.

In 1992, the last of the three pathologists who conducted the autopsy on U.S. President John Kennedy broke his silence and dismissed the conspiracy theories.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered the resumption in nuclear testing after China broke the informal moratorium and exploded a nuclear device beneath its western desert.

In 1994, South African President Nelson Mandela ended two days of talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton at the White House.

Also in 1994, 53 members of a secretive religious cult were found dead -- the victims of murder or suicide -- over a two-day period in Switzerland and in Quebec, Canada.

In 1995, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the warring parties in Bosnia had agreed to a cease-fire.

In 1999, MCI WorldCom Inc. announced that it had agreed to buy the Sprint Corp. in a $129 billion deal that would be the largest corporate acquisition ever.

In 2000, hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavians overthrew the Belgrade government, causing Slobodan Milosevic, the defeated presidential incumbent, to resign, ending 13 years of rule.

In 2001, 1,000 U.S. troops were sent to Uzbekistan, a part of the former Soviet Union.

Also in 2001, Robert Stevens, photo editor for America media Inc. of Boca Raton Fla., publisher of the National Enquirer and other tabloids, died after being infected with anthrax.

And in 2001 sports, Barry Bonds hit his 71st home run, most by a player in one season, breaking Mark McGwire's 1998 Major League Baseball record. The San Francisco Giants slugger finished the season with 73 homers.

In 2003, in retaliation to a suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant the previous day, Israeli planes struck a suspected terrorist training camp in Syria near Damascus.

In 2004, British regulators suspended production of flu vaccine at the Liverpool plant of Chiron, a U.S. company, because of contamination. The action resulted in about a 50-percent reduction in vaccine available for the United States.

In 2005, scientists announced that a form of bird flu that jumped directly to humans was the real cause of a 1918 pandemic that killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

In 2006, the U.S. House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into the conduct of former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned after reports of sexually explicit e-mail exchanges with an underage male page surfaced.


A thought for the day: Samuel Longhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) said, "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

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Today is Saturday, Oct. 6, the 279th day of 2007 with 86 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," in 1820; inventor and manufacturer George Westinghouse in 1846; tennis champion Helen Wills Moody in 1905; actresses Janet Gaynor in 1906 and Carole Lombard in 1908; Norwegian ethnologist, archaeologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in 1914; former "60 Minutes" journalist Shana Alexander in 1925; and actresses Britt Eklund in 1942 (age 65) and Elisabeth Shue in 1963 (age 44).


On this date in history:

In 1853, Antioch College opened in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was the first non-sectarian school to offer equal opportunity for both men and women.

In 1921, sports writer Grantland Rice was at the microphone as the World Series was broadcast on radio for the first time.

In 1927, the movies began learning to talk. "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, Hollywood's legendary "first talkie," premiered in New York, ushering in the era of sound to great moviegoer enthusiasm and heralded the end of the silents.

In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated as he reviewed a military parade in Cairo.

In 1985, England's worst post-war race rioting, which began almost a month earlier in Birmingham, spread to the Tottenham section of London. One officer died and 125 people were injured.

In 1989, Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Bette Davis died of cancer in a suburb of Paris. She was 81.

In 1991, Anita Hill, a former personal assistant to Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas, accused Thomas of sexual harassment.

In 1992, a study said two-thirds of adults have oral herpes and one-third have genital herpes.

In 1994, South African President Nelson Mandela addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton used his new line-item veto power to eliminate 38 military spending projects.

In 2001, Cal Ripkin Jr. retired after a spectacular baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles that included playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games.

In 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States faced the possibility of a futile war in Iraq, which he said "could become a new center, a new magnet for all destructive elements."

In 2004, a U.S. weapons inspector said that Iraq began destroying its illicit weapons in 1991 and had none by 1996, seven years before the United States invaded.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush said the United States and allied forces had foiled at least three al-Qaida U.S. attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

Also in 2005, Canadian health officials said an additional six older people died in Toronto from a mysterious respiratory virus, but the toll of 16 dead wasn't considered a threat to the city.

In 2006, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R.-Ill., refused to resign over his handling of the Mark Foley scandal.

Also in 2006, reports said most of the nearly 20,000 residents of Apex, North Carolina, fled their homes after a large toxic chemical fire broke out in the area.

And, the Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board issued a new ruling on the definition of supervisor that reportedly could block millions of workers from joining a union.


A thought for the day: Tansu Ciller, the first woman prime minister of Turkey, said, "Nobody can resist a ripe idea. The idea today is change."

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Today is Sunday, Oct. 7, the 280th day of 2007 with 85 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include poet James Whitcomb Riley in 1849; Grand Ole Opry star Uncle Dave Macon in 1870; Danish atomic physicist Niels Bohr in 1885; actor Andy Devine in 1905; singer/bandleader Vaughn Monroe in 1911; actress June Allyson in 1917; actor/singer Al Martino in 1927 (age 79); South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu in 1931 (age 76); Oliver North, the former White House aide who became the center of the Iran-Contra controversy, in 1943 (age 64); rock singer John Mellencamp in 1951 (age 56); classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1955 (age 52); and singer Toni Braxton in 1967 (age 40).


On this date in history:

In 1913, for the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park automobile factory was run on a continuously moving assembly line.

In 1916, in the most lopsided football game on record, Georgia Tech humbled Cumberland University, 222-0.

In 1949, less than five months after Britain, the United States and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany) was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone.

In 1968, the U.S. movie industry adopted a film ratings system for the first time: G (for general audiences), M (for mature audiences), R (no one under 16 admitted without an adult) and X (no one under 16 admitted).

In 1985, four Palestinian terrorists commandeered the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro with 511 passengers and crew off Egypt and threatened to blow it up unless Israel freed Palestinian prisoners. The hijackers, who surrendered in Port Said two days later, killed an American passenger.

Also in 1985, a mudslide in Ponce, Puerto Rico, killed an estimated 500 people in the island's worst disaster of the 20th century.

In 1989, the Hungarian Communist Party ditched its name and adopted the label of Socialist.

Also in 1989, East Germany celebrated its 40th anniversary as a communist state amid pro-reform demonstrations.

In 1991, Iran freed U.S. telecommunications engineer John Pattis, ending five years of captivity on charges of spying for the CIA.

Also in 1991, U.N. inspectors discovered an Iraqi nuclear weapons research center intact.

And in 1991, Slovenia and Croatia formally declared secession from Yugoslavia.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and the leaders of Mexico and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. The pact would create the world's largest trading bloc.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced he was sending the Navy and Marines in response to an Iraqi military build-up along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border.

In 1997, scientists announced they had found one of the most massive stars known, behind a dense dust cloud in the Milky Way that had previously concealed it. The star was 25,000 light-years from Earth.

In 1999, American Home Products, the makers of the diet drug combination known as "fen-phen," agreed to a $3.75 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit stemming from the drugs' use, which was linked to heart valve problems.

In 2000, Vojislav Kostunica was sworn in as Yugoslavia's new president.

In 2001, in the war on terror, the United States and Britain began a series of nightly attacks on targets in Afghanistan.

In a pre-recorded tape played on this date, 2001, Osama bin Laden warned, "America will not live in peace" until peace came to "Palestine" and "until the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammed."

In 2002, the sniper terrorizing the Washington area struck again, this time critically wounding a 13-year-old boy as he was being dropped off at school in Bowie, Md.

Also in 2002, President George W. Bush said in a speech that only the removal of Saddam Hussein from power will end the U.S. confrontation with Iraq.

In 2003, Californians voted to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as their new governor.

In 2004, at least 56 people were killed and about 100 others injured when three bombs exploded at Egyptian resort areas near the Israeli border.

In 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency, known as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, were awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2006, three more former congressional pages joined two others in accusing former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., of making "sexual approaches" over the Internet. Foley resigned a week earlier when the first of the reports surfaced.


A thought for the day: in "Don Quixote," Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes wrote, "Valor lies just half way between rashness and cowheartedness."

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This is Tuesday, Oct. 9, the 282nd day of 2007 with 83 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.




On this date in history:

In 1934, King Alexander of Yugoslavia was assassinated by a Croatian terrorist during a state visit to France.

In 1974, Oskar Schindler, the German businessman credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, died at the age of 66.

In 1975, Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, became the first Soviet citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1983, James Watt, facing Senate condemnation for a racially insensitive remark, resigned as U.S. President Ronald Reagan's Interior secretary.

In 1986, the Senate convicted imprisoned U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne of tax cheating, making him the fifth U.S. judge to be impeached and removed from office.

In 1989, the Soviet news agency Tass, under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of increasing openness in society, reported a flying saucer visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1992, NASA announced that the unmanned Pioneer spacecraft was apparently lost after orbiting Venus for 14 years.

In 1995, an Amtrak passenger train derailed in a remote area of Arizona southwest of Phoenix, killing one person and injuring about 100 others in apparent track sabotage.

In 1997, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned after Communist members of Parliament withdrew their support for his coalition government.

In 2001, the Pentagon reported the destruction of seven terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and, claiming control of the skies over Afghanistan, launched heavy airstrikes against Taliban garrisons and troop encampments.

In 2002, the Washington-area sniper claimed a seventh victim with the slaying of a man at a gas station near Manassas, Va.

Also in 2002, as stock prices continued to fluctuate wildly, the Dow Jones industrials closed at 7,286.27, a five-year low.

In 2004, the death toll in the double bombings in the central Pakistani city of Multan reached 40 with 100 others injured. The explosions caught a crowd of Sunni Muslims leaving an anniversary gathering.

Also in 2004, John Howard, Australia's prime minister, won a fourth term as his nation's leader. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election, nearly all the candidates, concerned over reported irregularities, boycotted the process even as voters went to the polls.

In 2005, as the 7.6-magnitude earthquake death toll soared near the reported 40,000 mark in Pakistan, a massive relief effort was under way in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. India reported 650 dead and Afghanistan four.

In 2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, prompting a flurry of diplomatic reaction in Washington and around the world. The U.N. Security Council, in an emergency session, condemned the act. U.S. President Bush called it "a threat to international peace and security" and urged immediate U.N. action.

Also in 2006, the U.N. Security Council approved South Korean Foreign Secretary Ban Ki-moon as the next secretary-general to succeed Kofi Annan at the end of the year.

A thought for the day: in "The Taming of the Shrew," William Shakespeare wrote, "Do as adversaries do in law. Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends."

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Today is Wednesday, Oct. 10, the 283rd day of 2006 with 82 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(sjanis-ts4ms);( dtug61-ts4ms); lcw-ts4ms); English chemist-physicist Henry Cavendish, discoverer of hydrogen, in 1731; composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1813; actress Helen Hayes in 1900; playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter in 1930 (age 77); entertainer Ben Vereen in 1946 (age 61); actress Jessica Harper in 1949 (age 58); rocker David Lee Roth in 1954 (age 53); country singer Tanya Tucker in 1958 (age 49); and pro football star Brett Favre in 1969 (age 38).




On this date in history:

In 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was formally opened at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Md., with 50 midshipmen in the first class.

In 1886, Griswold Lorillard of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., fashioned the first tuxedo for men.

In 1963, a dam burst in northern Italy, drowning an estimated 3,000 people.

In 1973, Spiro Agnew became the first U.S. vice president to resign in disgrace after pleading no contest to income tax evasion.

In 1985, movie legend Orson Welles, whose remarkably innovative "Citizen Kane" of 1941 was named the best American-made picture of all time in a 1998 American Film Institute poll, died of a heart attack at the age of 70.

In 1993, Greek voters returned to power former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and his Pan-Hellenic socialist movement.

In 1994, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, commander in chief of the Haitian armed forces, resigned to make way for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In 1995, Israel freed some 900 Palestinian prisoners and pulled its troops out of four towns as the second phase of the peace plan was implemented on the West Bank.

In 1997, the major tobacco companies agreed to a settlement in the class-action suit brought against them by 60,000 present and former flight attendants. They had claimed second-hand smoke in airplanes had caused them to get cancer and other diseases.

Also in 1997, it was announced that the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator, Jody Williams of Putney, Vt.

In 2001, representatives of 56 Islamic nations, in an emergency meeting on Qatar, condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In 2002, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was cited for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and his commitment to human rights and democratic values around the world.

In 2003, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Iranian lawyer Shurin Ebadi for her work in promoting democracy and human rights in Iran and beyond. She was the first Muslim woman, and third Muslim, to win the award.

In 2004, a videotape of the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley in Iraq was shown on an Islamic Web site.

Also in 2004, more than 100 people died in flash floods in northeastern India.

In 2005, Angela Merkel became the first woman chancellor of Germany after her Christian Democrats won the parliamentary election. The incumbent, Gerhard Schroeder, said he would play no role in the new governing coalition.

In 2006, Russian military experts backed North Korea’s claim that it had carried out a test of a nuclear weapon. There had been initial doubt that an actual nuclear device was used. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that diplomacy must be the response.


A thought for the day: Queen Elizabeth I said, "I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything."

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Today is Thursday, Oct. 11, the 284th day of 2007 with 81 to follow.

The moon is new. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include clergyman Mason Locke Weems, who invented the story of George Washington and the cherry tree, in 1759; Englishman George Williams, founder of the YMCA, in 1821; food industry pioneer Henry John Heinz in 1844; former first lady and author Eleanor Roosevelt in 1884; choreographer Jerome Robbins in 1918; country singer Dottie West in 1932; actor/singer Ron Leibman in 1937 (age 70); singer Daryl Hall in 1946 (age 61); and actors David Morse in 1953 (age 54), Joan Cusack in 1962 (age 45) and Luke Perry in 1965 (age 42).



On this date in history:

In 1811, the first steam-powered ferry in the world started its run between New York City and Hoboken, N.J.

In 1868, Thomas Alva Edison filed papers for his first invention: an electrical vote recorder to rapidly tabulate floor votes in the U.S. Congress. Members of Congress rejected it.

In 1950, the Federal Communications Commission issued to CBS the first license to broadcast color television.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In 1984, financier Marc Rich agreed to pay the U.S. government nearly $200 million, biggest tax fraud penalty in U.S. history.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution barring Iraq from pursuing atomic programs.

In 1993, armed demonstrators in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, prevented U.S and Canadian troops from landing.

In 1994, the Pentagon reported that Iraqi troops were withdrawing from the Iraq-Kuwait border. Their deployment had brought the U.S. Navy and Marines to the Persian Gulf less than a week earlier.

Also in 1994, the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a law that barred local governments from enacting laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination in employment and housing.

In 1996, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Jose Ramos-Harta and Carlos Ximenes Belo, who worked for freedom for Timor Leste, where famine and repression had killed one-third of the entire population.

In 2002, Congress gave U.S. President George W. Bush its backing for using military force against Iraq.

In 2003, officials in India arrested more than 1,500 Hindu activists in an effort to ward off violence during a protest planned later this week.

In 2004, actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in the movies and strenuously pushed spinal cord research after he was paralyzed in an accident, died at the age of 52.

Also in 2004, six men were charged in the bombing of a Philippines ferry in which more than 100 people died.

In 2005, desperate Pakistani earthquake survivors ambushed army trucks carrying relief supplies as the reported death toll in Pakistan and India topped 42,000. An Islamic Relief spokesman predicted the number eventually would reach 80,000.

Also in 2005, nine insurgent attacks killed at least 55 people in Iraq, including one suicide bomber who drove into a crowded market in Talafar.

In 2006, as many as 655,000 Iraqis reportedly had died since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, a study by Iraqi and U.S. researchers said. U.S. President Bush, who figured the civilian death toll was far less, discounted the report.

Also in 2006, Cory Lidle, a 34-year-old right-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees, was killed when the light plane he was flying crashed into a 50-story residential building in New York.



A thought for the day: in her diary, Anne Frank wrote: "If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done. I shall not remain insignificant. I shall work in the world and for mankind!"

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Today is Friday, Oct. 12, the 285th day of 2007 with 80 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(sandesurf-ts4ms) Elmer Sperry, who devised practical uses for the gyroscope, in 1860; English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1872; comedian and activist Dick Gregory in 1932 (age 75); opera singer Luciano Pavarotti in 1935; TV correspondent Chris Wallace in 1947 (age 60); singer/actress Susan Anton in 1950 (age 57); actors Adam Rich in 1968 (age 39) and Kirk Cameron in 1970 (age 37); and track star Marion Jones in 1975 (age 32).




On this date in history:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus reached America, making his first landing in the New World on one of the Bahamas Islands. Columbus believed he had reached India.

In 1899, the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State in southern Africa declared war on the British. The Boer War was ended May 31, 1902, by the Treaty of Vereeniging.

In 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell, 49, was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev removed one of his shoes and pounded it on his desk during a speech before the United Nations.

In 1964, the Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 into orbit around Earth, with three cosmonauts aboard. It was the first spacecraft to carry a multi-person crew and the two-day mission was also the first flight performed without space suits.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon nominated House Minority Leader Gerald Ford for the vice presidency to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned two days earlier.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped injury in the bombing of a hotel in Brighton, England. Four people were killed in the attack, blamed on the Irish Republican Army.

In 1991, Iran agreed to withdraw its 1,500 Revolutionary Guards from Lebanon.

In 1992, more than 500 people were killed and thousands injured when an earthquake rocked Cairo, Egypt.

In 1993, New Delhi announced that more than 9,700 people had died in an earthquake the previous month in southern India.

In 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard died, five days after the 21-year-old gay man was beaten, robbed and left tied to a fence.

In 1999, the elected government of Pakistan was overthrown in an apparently bloodless military coup. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and several other leaders were arrested.

In 2000, 17 sailors were killed when an explosion rocked the U.S.S. Cole as it refueled in Yemen. U.S. President Bill Clinton blamed the attack on accused terrorist Osama bin Laden.

In 2002, the terror continued for Washington area residents as the weeklong death toll from a mysterious sniper reached eight.

Also in 2002, a bomb exploded near two crowded discos on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people.

In 2003, 2-year-old Egyptian twins joined at the head were successfully separated at Dallas Children's Medical Center.

Also in 2003, Uganda said its army rescued more than 400 children held captive by rebels in a remote village north of Kampala.

In 2004, a report of the CIA's top weapons investigator said Saddam Hussein thought U.S. officials knew he had no weapons of mass destruction before the invasion.

In 2005, newly released documents charged that the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles allegedly shielded priests accused of sexual abuse by moving them from one parish to another.

Also in 2005, a lynch mob of about 500 Indonesians -- on the third anniversary of the Bali terror bombings -- stormed the Denpasar prison where three convicted bombers were held but were turned back by police.

In 2006, a London man admitted helping plan terrorist attacks in Britain and the United States, including at the New York Stock Exchange.


A thought for the day: Chinese educator, writer and diplomat Tehyi Hsieh said, "The key to success isn't much good until one discovers the right lock to insert it in."

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Today is Saturday, Oct. 13, the 286th day of 2007 with 79 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include American Revolutionary War heroine Molly Pitcher in 1754; actress Lillie Langtry in 1853; actor Cornel Wilde in 1915; puppeteer Burr Tillstrom in 1917; actor/singer Yves Montand in 1921; former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1925 (age 82); comedian Lenny Bruce also in 1925; Jesse L. Brown, the first black American naval aviator, in 1926; actress Melinda Dillon in 1939 (age 68); singer/songwriter Paul Simon in 1941 (age 66); rocker Sammy Hagar in 1947 (age 60); Chris Carter, creator of "The X-Files," in 1956 (age 51); entertainer Marie Osmond in 1959 (age 48); actress Kelly Preston in 1962 (age 45); and figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1969 (age 38).


On this date in history:

In 54, the Roman Emperor Claudius was poisoned by his fourth wife, Agrippina.

In 1775, the Continental Congress ordered construction of America's first naval fleet.

In 1792, the cornerstone to the White House was laid. It would be November 1800 before the first presidential family (that of John Adams) moved in.

In 1903, the Boston Red Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the first World Series, five games to three.

In 1943, conquered by the Allies, Italy declared war on Germany, its former partner.

In 1972, more than 170 people were killed when a Soviet airliner crashed near the Moscow airport.

In 1977, four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa airliner in an unsuccessful attempt to force release of 11 imprisoned members of German terrorists called the Red Army Faction.

In 1987, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize -- the first winner from Central America.

In 1990, Lebanese Christian military leader Michel Aoun ended his 2-year mutiny, ordered his forces to surrender, and sought refuge in the French Embassy in Beirut after Syrian-backed Lebanese government troops attacked his headquarters.

In 1991, the Group of Seven industrialized democracies agreed to formulate a Soviet economic reform program with Moscow.

In 1992, the first pig liver transplant patient died in a Los Angeles hospital 30 hours after surgery and just hours before she was to get a human organ.

In 1993, the U.N. Security Council voted to reinstate an oil and arms embargo against Haiti after its military leaders refused to step down as promised.

In 1994, two months after the Irish Republican Army announced a cease-fire. Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland did the same.

In 1999, the Senate rejected a treaty signed by the United States that banned all underground nuclear testing. Despite that, U.S. President Bill Clinton pledged to abide by the treaty's provisions.

In 2002, historian Stephen Ambrose, author of numerous books on World War II, American presidents and America's early westward expansion, died of lung cancer. He was 66.

In 2003, jockey Bill Shoemaker, one of horse racing's most renowned figures who won nearly 9,000 races, died at his home in San Marino, Calif. He was 72.

In 2004, investigators reported unearthing a mass grave in northern Iraq containing hundreds of bodies of women and children believed killed in the 1980s.

In 2005, about 128 people were killed in clashes between Islamic militants and law enforcement officers in the southern Russian town of Nalchik.

Also in 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a subpoena ordering U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to hand over records and documents.

In 2006, Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus, dubbed the “banker to the poor,” won the Nobel Peace Prize for grassroots efforts to lift millions out of poverty.

Also in 2006, U.S. Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, the only congressman charged in the Washington lobbying scandal, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a deal calling for a 27-month prison sentence.


A thought for the day: French playwright Pierre Corneille said, "To win without risk is to triumph without glory."

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Today is Sunday, Oct. 14, the 287th day of 2007 with 78 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include William Penn, the English Quaker who founded Pennsylvania, in 1644; Irish political leader Eamon de Valera in 1882; Dwight D. Eisenhower, World War II military leader and 34th president of the United States, in 1890; poet e.e. cummings in 1894; actress Lillian Gish in 1893; singer Allan Jones in 1907; former basketball Coach John Wooden in 1910 (age 97); former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop in 1916 (age 91); actor Roger Moore in 1927 (age 80); Watergate figure John Dean in 1938 (age 69); designer Ralph Lauren in 1939 (age 68); British pop singer Cliff Richard in 1940 (age 67); and actors Harry Anderson in 1952 (age 55) and Greg Evigan in 1953 (age 54).


On this date in history:

In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, better known as William the Conqueror, led his invading army to victory over England's King Harold at Hastings.

In 1912, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for a return to office, was shot in Milwaukee. He refused to have the wound treated until he finished his speech.

In 1944, British and Greek troops liberated Athens, ending three years of World War II occupation by German troops.

In 1947, Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager, 24, flying a Bell X-1, became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1977, Bing Crosby, one of the most popular singers of his day and winner of the best actor Academy Award for his role in "Going My Way," died of a heart attack while playing golf in Madrid. He was 74.

In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland A's, 4 games to 2, to win the American League pennant and become first Canadian team to go to the World Series.

In 1993, gunmen killed Haitian Justice Minister Guy Malary, who'd been appointed by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in an apparent attempt to scuttle the agreement to return Aristide to power.

In 1994, the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian extremists ended with the soldier and four others being killed in a shootout. The same day, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

In 1996, the Dow cracked 6,000, closing at a record 6,010.

In 2000, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to meet with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Egypt to seek a truce and possibly a way back to the peace table.

In 2004, Saudi Arabians viewed the United States as responsible for the rise in terror in their country, The New York Times reported.

In 2005, the U.S. Commerce Department announced the consumer index leaped 1.2 percent in September, biggest increase since 1980.

Also in 2005, on the eve of the Iraqi constitutional referendum, insurgents focused attacks on Iraq's largest Sunni Party and disrupted much of Baghdad's electrical services with an attack on the city's main power line.

In 2006, the U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed to impose sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test.


A thought for the day: American author Margaret Sangster said, "Creative genius is a divinely bestowed gift which is the coronation of the few."

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Today is Monday, Oct. 15, the 288th day of 2007 with 77 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Venus, Mars and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include(Sharp-ts4ms);
Roman poet Virgil in 70 B.C.; German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche in 1844; boxing champion John L. Sullivan in 1858; English writer and humorist P.G. Wodehouse in 1881; film producer Mervyn LeRoy, in 1900; picture archivist Otto Bettmann in 1903; writer and historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 1917; author Mario Puzo (“The Godfather”) in 1920; former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca in 1924 (age 83); actress Linda Lavin in 1937 (age 70); actress/director Penny Marshall in 1942 (age 65); Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer in 1945 (age 62); pop singers Richard Carpenter in 1946 (age 61) and Tito Jackson in 1953 (age 54); and Sarah, Duchess of York, in 1959 (age 48}





On this date in history:

In 1917, the most famous spy of World War I, Gertrude Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, was executed by a firing squad outside Paris.

In 1946, Nazi Reichsmarshal Herman Goering, sentenced to death as a war criminal, committed suicide in his prison cell on the eve of his execution.

In 1951, "I Love Lucy," TV's first long-running sitcom and still seen regularly in syndication, made its debut.

In 1964, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was ousted and replaced by Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev.

In 1984, astronomers in Pasadena, Calif., displayed the first photographic evidence of another solar system 293 trillion miles from Earth.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1991, the Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, the closest confirmation vote in court history.

In 1992, a man who terrorized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don for more than a decade with a series of more than 50 grisly killings was sentenced to death.

In 1993, South Africa's President F.W. de Klerk and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Also in 1993, the Pentagon censured three U.S. Navy admirals who'd organized the Tailhook Association convention in 1991 during which scores of women had been subjected to abuse and indignities by junior officers.

And in 1993, Russia's ousted vice president, Alekandr Rutskoi, and the speaker of the parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, were charged with ordering mass disorders in the bloody street fighting between supporters and opponents of President Boris Yeltsin that left almost 200 people dead.

In 1994, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti three years after being driven into exile by a military coup.

In 1998, talks that would lead to an agreement to revive the stalled Middle East peace process began at the Wye Conference Center in Queenstown, Md.

In 1999, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the international group Doctors Without Borders.

In 2001, a package containing a substance believed to be anthrax was opened in the personal office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

In 2002, the Washington-area sniper claimed his ninth fatality, a female FBI analyst, as the massive manhunt continued.

Also in 2002, former ImClone Chief Executive Officer Samuel Waksal pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of an ongoing investigation into the trading of shares from his biotech company, which also involved home decor diva and Waksal friend Martha Stewart.

In 2003, 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a New York ferry, transporting passengers from Manhattan, slammed into a pier on Staten Island.

Also in 2003, China became the third nation, joining the United States and Russia, to launch a man into space. He landed safely the next day after orbiting the Earth 14 times.

In 2004, the United Nations said it was getting reports of attacks against internally displaced people in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region where tens of thousands had been killed and 1.6 million others displaced.

In 2005, millions of Iraqis went to the polls to vote on a new constitution. There were incidents of violence but they were not widespread.

Also in 2005, Russian officials refused to join the international effort to convince Iran to end its nuclear program.

In 2006, two earthquakes, one of them 6.6 on the Richter scale, and 53 aftershocks struck Hawaii, inflicting considerable damage and scores of injuries.


A thought for the day: Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself but talent instantly recognizes genius."