Today is Sunday, Oct. 9, the 282nd day of 2005. There are 83 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 9, 1888, the public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.
On this date:
In 1635, religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1701, the Collegiate School of Connecticut — later Yale University — was chartered.
In 1776, a group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.
In 1930, Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to Glendale, Calif.
In 1936, the first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
In 1958, Pope Pius the XII died. (He was succeeded by Pope John XXIII.)
In 1962, Uganda won autonomy from British rule.
In 1967, Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed while attempting to incite revolution in Bolivia.
In 1975, Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1985, the hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner surrendered after the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt.
Ten years ago: Saboteurs pulled 29 spikes from a stretch of railroad track, causing an Amtrak train to derail in Arizona; one person was killed and about 100 were injured. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 shook the west coast of Mexico, killing 51 people. Americans Edward B. Lewis and Eric F. Wieschaus and German Christiane Nuesslein-Volhard won the Nobel Prize for medicine for studies of how genes control early embryo development.
Five years ago: Arvid Carlsson of Sweden, and Americans Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel won the Nobel Prize in medicine.
One year ago: A tour bus from the Chicago area flipped in Arkansas, killing 15 people headed to a Mississippi casino. Afghanistan’s first direct presidential election began. Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard won a historic fourth term in national elections.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Fyvush Finkel is 83. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., is 64. Singer Jackson Browne is 57. Actor Gary Frank is 55. Actor Richard Chaves is 54. Actor Robert Wuhl is 54. Actress-TV personality Sharon Osbourne is 53. Actor Tony Shalhoub is 52. Actor Scott Bakula is 51. Musician James Fearnley (The Pogues) is 51. Actor John O’Hurley is 51. Actor Michael Pare is 46. Rock singer-musician Kurt Neumann (The BoDeans) is 44. Country singer Gary Bennett is 41. Singer P.J. Harvey is 36. Country singer Tommy Shane Steiner is 32. Actor Steve Burns is 32. Sean Lennon is 30. Actor Randy Spelling is 27. Actor Brandon Routh is 26. Actor Zachery Ty Bryan is 24. Actor Tyler James Williams (“Everybody Hates Chris”) is 13.
Thought for Today: “The world is divided into people who think they are right.” — Anonymous.