TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Oct. 11, the 284th day of 2021. There are 81 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
On Oct. 11, 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
1779 — Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski, fighting for American independence, died two days after being wounded during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Georgia.
1884 — American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City.
1906 — The San Francisco Board of Education ordered the city’s Asian students segregated in a purely “Oriental” school. (The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States.)
1968 — The government of Panama was overthrown in a military coup.
1986 — President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks in Reykjavik, Iceland, concerning arms control and human rights.
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.”
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.”
2002 — Former President Jimmy Carter was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
2005 — The US Army Corps of Engineers said it had finished pumping out the New Orleans metropolitan area, which was flooded by Hurricane Katrina six weeks earlier and then was swamped again by Hurricane Rita.
2006 — The charge of treason was used for the first time in the US war on terrorism, filed against Adam Yehiye Gadahn, also known as “Azzam the American,” who had appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaida. (Gadahn was killed by a US drone strike in Pakistan in Jan. 2015.)
Ten years ago — Presidential challenger Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of failing to lead in a time of economic peril but sounded less conservative than his Republican rivals in their debate in Hanover, New Hampshire, defending the 2008-2009 Wall Street bailout and declaring he could work with “good” Democrats.
One year ago — President Donald Trump declared he was healthy enough to return to the campaign trail after treatment for the Coronavirus. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 106-93 to win the NBA finals in six games; LeBron James scored 28 points as the NBA wrapped up a season that sent players to a “bubble” at Walt Disney World in Florida for three months because of the pandemic.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Former US Defense Secretary William Perry is 94. Actor Amitabh Bachchan is 79. Country singer Gene Watson is 78. Singer Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates) is 75. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is 71. R&B musician Andrew Woolfolk is 71. Actor-director Catlin Adams is 71. Country singer Paulette Carlson is 70. Original MTV VJ Mark Goodman is 69. Actor David Morse is 68. Actor Stephen Spinella is
65. Actor-writer-comedian Dawn French is 64. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Steve Young is 60. Actor Joan Cusack is 59. Rock musician Scott Johnson (Gin Blossoms) is 59. Comedy writer and TV host Michael J. Nelson is 57. Actor Sean Patrick Flanery is 56. Actor Lennie James is 56. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Chris Spielman is 56. Country singer-songwriter Todd Snider is 55. Actor-comedian Artie Lange is 54. Actor Jane Krakowski is 53. Actor Andrea Navedo is 52. Actor Constance Zimmer is 51. Rapper MC Lyte is 51. Bluegrass musician Leigh Gibson (The Gibson Brothers) is 50. Figure skater Kyoko Ina is 49. Actor Darien Sills-Evans is
47. Actor/writer Nat Faxon is 46. Actor Emily Deschanel is 45. Actor Matt Bomer is 44. Actor Trevor Donovan is 43. Actor Robert Christopher Riley is 41. Actor Michelle Trachtenberg is 36. Actor Lucy Griffiths is 35. Golfer Michelle Wie is 32. Rapper Cardi B is 29.