On This Day in History
Today is Monday, Oct. 7, the 281st day of 2024 with 85 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include signer of the Declaration of Independence Caesar Rodney in 1728; scientist Niels Bohr in 1885; Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in 1897; actor June Allyson in 1917; South African archbishop/Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu in 1931; TV personality Joy Behar in 1942 (age 82); Oliver North, the former White House aide who became the center of the Iran-Contra controversy, in 1943 (age 81); actor Jill Larson in 1947 (age 77); musician John Mellencamp in 1951 (age 73); Russian President Vladimir Putin in 1952 (age 72); musician Ricky Phillips (Styx) in 1952 (age 72); musician Hector "Tico" Torres (Bon Jovi) in 1953 (age 71); musician Yo-Yo Ma in 1955 (age 69); recording executive/TV personality Simon Cowell in 1959 (age 65); actor Dylan Baker in 1959 (age 65); musician Toni Braxton in 1967 (age 57); musician Thom Yorke (Radiohead) in 1968 (age 56); actor Nicole Ari Parker in 1970 (age 54); actor Allison Munn in 1974 (age 50); musician Damian Kulash (OK Go) in 1975 (age 49); musician Taylor Hicks in 1976 (age 48); actor Omar Miller in 1978 (age 46); actor Aaron Ashmore in 1979 (age 45); actor Shawn Ashmore in 1979 (age 45); actor Holland Roden in 1986 (age 38); musician Lewis Capaldi in 1996 (age 28); actor Nicole Maines in 1997 (age 27); actor Lulu Wilson in 2005 (age 19).
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, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.
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 1958, the U.S. manned space-flight project, originally called Project Astronaut, was officially approved, and renamed Project Mercury.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty . Signed by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the treaty was developed to slow the nuclear arms race and reduce the amount of nuclear fallout in the earth's atmosphere.
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, a mudslide in Ponce, Puerto Rico, killed an estimated 500 people in the island's worst disaster of the 20th century.
In 1985, Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro after it left Alexandria, Egypt, killing one American.
In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia formally declared secession from Yugoslavia.
In 2003, Californians voted to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as their new governor.
In 2004, Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated the throne .
In 2009, a statue of blind and deaf 7-year-old Helen Keller at the moment she got a sense of language was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol . She is shown at a pump with water running into one hand while alphabet motions on her other hand (by teacher Anne Sullivan) spell "w-a-t-e-r." Keller went on to become a world-famous speaker and author of a dozen books.
In 2023, the Israel Defense Forces declared the country at war and launched large-scale military operations against Gaza after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israeli land. During the attack, Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took some 250 people hostages. A year later, the Israel-Hamas war is ongoing.
A thought for the day: "Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up. - American writer James Baldwin
