HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY
Today’s highlight:
On Oct. 15, 1991, despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, the Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, 52-48.
On this date:
1860: 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, N.Y., wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard.
1914: The Clayton Antitrust Act, which expanded on the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson.
1928: The German dirigible Graf Zeppelin landed in Lakehurst, N.J., completing its first commercial flight across the Atlantic.
1945: The former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, was executed for treason.
1946: Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering fatally poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.
1976: In the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.
1989: South African officials released eight prominent political prisoners, including Walter Sisulu.
1997: British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green twice drove a jet-powered car in the Nevada desert faster than the speed of sound, officially shattering the world’s land-speed record. NASA’s plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft rocketed flawlessly toward Saturn.
2003: Eleven people were killed when a Staten Island ferry slammed into a maintenance pier. The ferry’s pilot, who’d blacked out at the controls, later pleaded guilty to eleven counts of manslaughter.
Ten years ago: Republican John McCain repeatedly assailed Democrat Barack Obama’s character and campaign positions on taxes, abortion and more in a debate at Hofstra University; Obama parried each accusation, and leveled a few of his own, saying “100 percent” of McCain’s campaign ads were negative. The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 to win the NL championship series 4-1 for its first pennant since 1993.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to William D. Swenson, a former Army captain whose heroic actions in a deadly Afghan battle were captured on video. The Boston Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the AL championship series as they defeated the Detroit Tigers 1-0. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 for a 3-1 lead in the NL Championship series. Hans Riegel,
90, who turned little gold bears into a global candy juggernaut — Haribo’s gummi bears — over a career than spanned seven decades, died in Bonn, Germany.
One year ago: Actress and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that women who had been sexually harassed or assaulted should write “Me too” as a status; within hours, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag using a phrase that had been introduced 10 years earlier by social activist Tarana Burke.
Police in London investigated three new allegations of sexual assault against producer Harvey Weinstein, all made by the same woman. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin
Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL, alleging that he was still unsigned because of collusion by owners resulting from his protests during the national anthem.