TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Oct. 1, the 274th day of 2018. There are 91 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Oct. 1, 1908, Henry Ford introduced his Model T automobile to the market.
On this date:
■ In 1890, Congress passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs to a record level.
■ In 1910, the offices of the Los Angeles Times were destroyed by a bomb explosion and fire; 21 Times employees were killed.
■ In 1937, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black delivered a radio address in which he acknowledged being a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, but said he had dropped out of the organization before becoming a U.S. senator.
■ In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing. A 42-day strike by the United Steelworkers of America began over the issue of retirement benefits.
■ In 1957, the motto “In God We Trust” began appearing on U.S. paper currency.
■ In 1964, the Free Speech Movement began at the University of California, Berkeley. Japan’s first highspeed “bullet train,” the Tokaido Shinkansen, went into operation between Tokyo and Osaka.
■ In 1971, Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida.
■ In 1982, Sony began selling the first commercial compact disc player, the CDP-101, in Japan.
■ In 1987, eight people were killed when an earthquake measuring magnitude 5.9 struck the Los Angeles area.
■ In 1994, National Hockey League team owners began a 103-day lockout of their players.
■ In 1996, a federal grand jury indicted Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski in the 1994 mail bomb slaying of advertising executive Thomas Mosser. (Kaczynski was later sentenced to four life terms plus 30 years.) The federal minimum wage rose 50 cents to four dollars, 75 cents an hour.
Ten years ago: After one spectacular failure in the House, the $700 billion financial industry bailout won lopsided passage in the Senate, 74-25, after it was loaded with tax breaks and other sweeteners. Nick Reynolds, a founding member of the Kingston Trio, died in San Diego at age 75. TV actor House Peters Jr., the original “Mr. Clean,” died in Los Angeles at age 92.
Five years ago: The federal government partially shut down because of a budget impasse in Congress, the same day Americans got their first chance to shop for health insurance using the online marketplaces that were at the heart of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul (however, government websites designed to sell the policies struggled to handle the traffic, with many frustrated users reporting trouble setting up accounts).
One year ago: A gunman opened fire from a room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at a concert below, leaving 58 people dead and more than 800 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history; the gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock, killed himself before officers arrived. O.J. Simpson was released from a prison in Nevada a few minutes after midnight, after serving nine years for a botched hotel-room heist in Las Vegas.
Today’s Birthdays: Former President Jimmy Carter is 94. Actress-singer Julie Andrews is 83. Actress Stella Stevens is 80. Rock musician Jerry Martini (Sly and the Family Stone) is 75. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew is 73. Jazz musician Dave Holland is 72. Actress Yvette Freeman is 68. Actor Randy Quaid is 68. Rhythm-and-blues singer Howard Hewett is 63. British Prime Minister Theresa May is 62. Alt-country-rock musician Tim O’Reagan (The Jayhawks) is 60. Singer Youssou N’Dour is 59. Actor Esai Morales is 56. Retired MLB All-Star Mark McGwire is 55. Actor Christopher Titus is 54. Actress-model Cindy Margolis is 53. Producer John Ridley is 53. Rock singer-musician Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra) is 50. Actor Zach Galifianakis is 49. Singer Keith Duffy is 44. Actress Kate Aselton is 40. Actress Sarah Drew is 38. Actor-comedian Beck Bennett is 34. Actress Jurnee Smollett Bell is 32. Actress Brie Larson is 29. Singer/songwriter Jade Bird is 21. Actor Jack Stanton is 10.
Thought for Today: “It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.”—Agnes Repplier, American essayist (1858-1950).