TODAY IN HISTORY
the 284th day of 2018. There are 81 days left in the year. On this date in 1991, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her. Thomas re-appeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a “hightech lynching.”
In 1809, just over three years after the famous Lewis and Clark expedition ended, Meriwether Lewis was found dead in a Tennessee inn, an apparent suicide; he was 35.
In 1884, American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City.
In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt became the first former U.S. president to fly in an airplane during a visit to St. Louis.
In 1958, the lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far out as planned, fell back to Earth, and burned up in the atmosphere.
In 1961, actor-comedian Leonard “Chico” Marx, 74, died in Hollywood, Calif.
In 1962, Pope John XXIII convened the first session of the Roman Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council, also known as “Vatican 2.”
In 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. The government of Panama was overthrown in a military coup.
In 1983, the last full-fledged handcranked telephone system in the United States went out of service when 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched over to direct-dial service.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks concerning arms control and human rights in Reykjavik, Iceland.
In 1992, in the first of three presidential debates, three candidates faced off against one another in St. Louis: President George H.W. Bush, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and businessman Ross Perot.
In 2001, in his first prime-time news conference since taking office, President George W. Bush said “it may take a year or two” to track down Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network in Afghanistan, but he asserted that, after a five-day aerial bombardment, “we’ve got them on the run.”
In 2002, former President Jimmy Carter was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry is 91. Actor Ron Leibman is 81. Actor Amitabh Bachchan is 76. Country singer Gene Watson is 75. Singer Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates) is 72. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., rhythm-and-blues musician Andrew Woolfolk and actress-director Catlin Adams are 68. Country singer Paulette Carlson is 67. Actor David Morse is 65. Actor Stephen Spinella is 62. Actresswriter-comedian Dawn French is 61. Pro and College Football Hall-of-Famer Steve Young is 57. Actress Joan Cusack and rock musician Scott Johnson (Gin Blossoms) are 56. Comedy writer and TV host Michael J. Nelson is 54. Actors Sean Patrick Flanery and Lennie James, and College Football Hall-of-Famer and former NFL player Chris Spielman are 53. Actor Luke Perry and country singer-songwriter Todd Snider are 52. Actor-comedian Artie Lange is 51. Actress Jane Krakowski is 50. Actress Constance Zimmer is 48. Bluegrass musician Leigh Gibson (The Gibson Brothers) is 47. Figure skater Kyoko Ina is 46. Actor Darien SillsEvans is 44. Actor/writer Nat Faxon and singer NeeNa Lee are 43. Actress Emily Deschanel is 42. Actor Matt Bomer is 41. Actor Trevor Donovan is 40. Actor Robert Christopher Riley is 38. Actress Lucy Griffiths is 32. Golfer Michelle Wie is 29.