Today in History
Today’s highlight:
On Oct. 2, 1944, German troops crushed the two-monthold Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter of a million people had been killed.
On this date:
1869: Political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India.
1890: Comedian Groucho Marx was born Julius Marx in New York.
1941: During World War II, German armies launched an all-out drive against Moscow; Soviet forces succeeded in holding onto their capital.
1950: The comic strip “Peanuts,” created by Charles M. Schulz, was syndicated to seven newspapers.
1958: The former French colony of Guinea in West Africa proclaimed its independence.
1967: Thurgood Marshall was sworn as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court as the court opened its new term.
1970: One of two chartered twin-engine planes flying the Wichita State University football team to Utah crashed into a mountain near Silver Plume, Colorado, killing 31 of the 40 people on board.
1984: Richard W. Miller became the first FBI agent to be arrested and charged with espionage. Miller was tried three times; he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was released after nine years.
2002: The Washington, D.c.-area sniper attacks began, setting off a frantic manhunt lasting three weeks. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were finally arrested for killing 10 people and wounding three others; Muhammad was executed in 2009; Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.
2005: A tour boat, the Ethan Allen, capsized on New York’s Lake George, killing 20 elderly passengers. Playwright August Wilson died in Seattle at age 60. Actor-comedian Nipsey Russell died in New York at age 87.
2017: Rock superstar Tom Petty died at a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 66, a day after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu, California.
2018: President Donald Trump ignited a crowd at a campaign rally in Mississippi by mocking Christine Blasey Ford over her claim that she had been sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh decades ago; Trump also said it’s a “very scary time for young men in America” who could be considered guilty based on an accusation.
Ten years ago: A coalition of progressive and civil rights groups marched by the thousands on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., pledging to support Democrats struggling to keep power on Capitol Hill.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama said he wouldn’t sign another temporary government funding bill after the current one expired Dec. 11, insisting that congressional Republicans and Democrats work out a long-term budget deal with the White House.
One year ago: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders canceled campaign events “until further notice,” a day after being treated for what his campaign later confirmed was a heart attack.