Today in history

On Oct. 9, 1002, Leif Ericson, the Norse mariner and adventurer, landed in what is now North America.

In 1514, Mary Tudor became Queen consort of France upon her marriage to 52-year-old King Louis XII, who died less than three months later.

In 1701 the Collegiate School of Connecticut, now known as Yale University, was chartered in New Haven, Conn.

In 1888 Washington Monument was opened to the public.

In 1930 Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States when she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, Calif.

In 1936 the first generator at Boulder (now Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.

In 1940 Beatles co-founder John Lennon was born in Liverpool, England.

In 1946 the first electric blanket was manufactured in Petersburg, Va.

In 1958 Pope Pius XII died after 19 years as Roman Catholic pontiff.

In 1967 Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentine doctor who became a Cuban guerrilla leader, was executed while attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.

In 1974 Czech-born German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving about 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, died in Frankfurt, West Germany. (He would be buried in Jerusalem.)

In 1986 the U.S. Senate convicted U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” making him the fifth federal official in history to be removed from office through impeachment.

In 1987 author, politician and diplomat Clare Boothe Luce died; she was 84.

In 1995 an Amtrak train derailed in Arizona after saboteurs pulled 29 spikes from a stretch of track. One person was killed and 100 injured.

In 1997 more than 200 people died when Hurricane Pauline ravaged Mexico’s southwestern coast, including Acapulco, the nation’s most popular resort.

In 2001 letters postmarked in Trenton, N.J., and sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy later tested positive for anthrax.

In 2006 North Korea successfully tested its first nuclear device, drawing widespread worldwide condemnation.

In 2009, President Barack Obama, who pledged to place diplomacy ahead of confrontation in world affairs, won the Nobel Peace Prize after nine months in office.

In 2012 retired Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for child sexual abuse.

Also in 2012 Taliban gunmen cited Malala Yousufzai’s advocacy for education rights for girls in shooting the Pakistani teenager in the head. (She underwent surgery and survived.)