Today’s highlight in history
On Oct. 17, 1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
On this date
In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
In 1807, Britain declared it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of whether they held U.S. citizenship.
In 1907, Guglielmo Marconi began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland.
In 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted in Chicago of income tax evasion. (Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone was released in 1939.)
In 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
In 1973, Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.
In 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck northern California, killing 63 people and causing $6 billion worth of damage.
Ten years ago: Pakistani soldiers attacked militant bases in the main al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border.
Five years ago: Riot police cleared an offshoot Hong Kong pro-democracy protest zone in a dawn raid, taking down barricades, tents and canopies that had blocked key streets for more than two weeks, but leaving the city’s main thoroughfare still in the hands of the activists.
One year ago: Canada became the world’s largest legal marijuana marketplace; customers stood in long lines for hours and then lit up and celebrated on sidewalks.