TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, OCT. 7, the 280th day of 2018. There are 85 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill’s allegations.
In 1777, the second Battle of Saratoga began during the American Revolution. (British forces under General John Burgoyne surrendered ten days later.)
In 1858, the fifth debate between Illinois senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place in Galesburg.
In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
In 1982, the Andrew Lloyd WebberTim Rice musical “Cats” opened on Broadway. (The show ended its original run on Sept. 10, 2000, after a thenrecord 7,485 performances.)
In 1992, trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in the presence of President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten and left tied to a wooden fencepost outside of Laramie, Wyo.; he died five days later. (Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Retired South African Archbishop and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu is 87. Author Thomas Keneally is 83. Former National Security Council aide Lt. Col. Oliver North (ret.) is 75. Rock musician Kevin Godley (10cc) is 73. Actress Jill Larson is 71. Country singer Kieran Kane is 69. Singer John Mellencamp and rock musician Ricky Phillips are 67. Russian President Vladimir Putin and actress Mary Badham (Film: “To Kill a Mockingbird”) are 66. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is
63. Gospel singer Michael W. Smith and Olympic gold medal ice dancer Jayne Torvill are 61. Actor Dylan Baker is 60. Recording executive and TV personality Simon Cowell, and rock musician Charlie Marinkovich (Iron Butterfly) are
59. Pop singer Ann Curless (Expose) is 55. Rhythm-and-blues singer Toni Braxton is 51. Actor Omar Benson Miller and neo-soul singer Nathaniel Rateliff (Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats) are 40. Actress Lulu Wilson is 13.