TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, OCT. 8, the 281st day of 2018. There are 84 days left in the year. Today is Columbus Day in the United States and Thanksgiving in Canada.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1998, the House triggered an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton in a momentous 258-176 vote; 31 Democrats joined majority Republicans in opening the way for nationally televised impeachment hearings.
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; fires also broke out in Peshtigo, Wis., and in several communities in Michigan.
In 1918, U.S. Army Cpl. Alvin C. York led an attack that killed 25 German soldiers and resulted in the capture of 132 others in the Argonne Forest in France.
In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for murder in the death of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
In 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0.
In 1970, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.
In 2001, The United States pounded terrorist targets in Afghanistan from the air for a second night.
In 2002, A federal judge approved President George W. Bush’s request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 to $2 billion a day.
In 2005, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake flattened villages on the Pakistan-India border, killing an estimated 86,000 people.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Entertainment reporter Rona Barrett is 82. Actor Paul Hogan is 79. Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson is 77. Comedian Chevy Chase and author R.L. Stine are 75. Rhythm-and-blues singer Airrion Love (The Stylistics) and actress Sigourney Weaver are 69. Rhythm-and-blues singer Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang) is 68. Producer-director Edward Zwick is 66. Country singer-musician Ricky Lee Phelps is 65. Actor Michael Dudikoff is 64. Comedian Darrell Hammond is 63. Actress Stephanie Zimbalist is 62. Actor Ian Hart and gospel/rhythm-andblues singer CeCe Winans are 54. Rock musician C.J. Ramone (The Ramones) is 53. Actor-screenwriter Matt Damon, actor-comedian Robert Kelly and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, are 48. Actress Kristanna Loken and rock-soul singer-musician Noelle Scaggs (Fitz and the Tantrums) are 39. Actor Nick Cannon is 38. Actor Max Crumm and singersongwriter-producer Bruno Mars are 33. Actress/singer Bella Thorne is 21.