Today in History
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 13, the 287th day of 2020. There are 79 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 13, 1775, the United States Navy had its origins as the Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.
On this date:
In A.D. 54, Roman Emperor Claudius I died, poisoned apparently at the behest of his wife, Agrippina (ag-rih-PEE’-nuh).
In 1792, the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid by President George Washington during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.
In 1932, President Herbert Hoover and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington.
In 1943, Italy declared war on Germany, its onetime Axis partner.
In 1944, during World War II, American troops entered Aachen (AH’-kehn), Germany.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon held the third televised debate of their presidential campaign (Nixon was in Los Angeles, Kennedy in New York).
In 1972, a Uruguayan chartered flight carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes; survivors resorted to feeding off the remains of some of the dead in order to stay alive until they were rescued more than two months later.
In 1974, longtime television host Ed Sullivan died in New York City at age 73.
In 1999, the Senate rejected the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, with 48 senators voting in favor and 51 against, far short of the 67 needed for ratification.
In 2000, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Longtime American communist Gus Hall died in New York at age 90.
In 2003, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution expanding the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
In 2016, Donald Trump heatedly rejected the growing list of sexual assault allegations against him as “pure fiction,” hammering his female accusers as “horrible, horrible liars.” Bob Dylan was named winner of the Nobel prize in literature.
Ten years ago: Rescuers in Chile using a missile-like escape capsule pulled 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed mine a halfmile underground. U.S. authorities announced the arrests of 73 people accused of being part of a vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates who allegedly used phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat Medicare out of $163 million.
Five years ago: Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders clashed over U.S. involvement in the Middle East, gun control and economic policy in the first Democratic presidential debate held in Las Vegas, but in a moment of political unity, Sanders leapt to Clinton’s defense on the issue of her controversial email practices as secretary of state. Twitter announced it was laying off up to 336 employees. Playboy announced it would no longer run photos of completely naked women in its magazine. Former NBA and reality TV star Lamar Odom was hospitalized after he was found unconscious at a Nevada brothel.
One year ago: Defense Secretary Mark Esper said President Donald Trump had directed U.S. troops in northern Syria to begin pulling out “as safely and quickly as possible.” Brigid Kosgei of Kenya was the first woman across the finish line in the Chicago Marathon; her time of 2 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds broke a women’s world record. Dolly Parton performed on the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville as she marked her 50th anniversary as an Opry member. Helicopters, boats and thousands of troops were deployed across Japan to rescue people stranded in flooded homes, as the death toll from a ferocious typhoon climbed past 30.