TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Friday, Oct. 6, the 279th day of 2017. There are 86 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 6, 1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson, a feature containing both silent and sound-synchronized sequences.

On this date:

In 1683, thirteen families from Krefeld, Germany, arrived in Philadelphia to begin Germantown, one of America’s oldest settlements.

In 1884, the Naval War College was established in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1939, in a speech to the Reichstag, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke of his plans to reorder the ethnic layout of Europe—a plan which would entail settling the “Jewish problem.”

In 1949, U.S.-born Iva Toguri D’Aquino, convicted of treason for being Japanese wartime broadcaster “Tokyo Rose,” was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison (she ended up serving more than six).

In 1958, the nuclear submarine USS Seawolf surfaced after spending 60 days submerged.

In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford, in his second presidential debate with Democrat Jimmy Carter, asserted that there was “no Soviet domination of eastern Europe.” (Ford later conceded such was not the case.)

In 1979, Pope John Paul II, on a week-long U.S. tour, became the first pontiff to visit the White House, where he was received by President Jimmy Carter.

Ten years ago: British adventurer Jason Lewis finally returned home, completing a 13-year, 46,000-mile human-powered circumnavigation of the globe at Greenwich, England.

Thought for Today :“Sometimes the heart sees what’ s invisible to the eye .”— Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892).