DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 5, the 278th day of 2021. There are 87 days left in the year.
On this date:
1931: Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon completed the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, arriving in Washington state some 41 hours after leaving Japan.
1947: President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised White House address as he spoke on the world food crisis.
1953: Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson.
1958: Racially-desegregated Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, was mostly leveled by an early morning bombing.
1969: The British TV comedy program “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” made its debut on BBC 1.
1983: Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1989: A jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, convicted former PTL evangelist Jim Bakker of using his television show to defraud followers. (Although initially sentenced to 45 years in prison, Bakker was freed in December 1994 after serving 4 years.)
2001: Tabloid photo editor Robert Stevens died from inhaled anthrax, the first of a series of anthrax cases in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington.
2005: Defying the White House, senators voted 90-9 to approve an amendment sponsored by Sen. John Mccain, R-ariz., that would prohibit the use of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” against anyone in U.S. government custody. (A reluctant President George W. Bush later signed off on the amendment.)
2015: The United States, Japan and 10 other nations in Asia and the Americas reached agreement on the landmark Trans-pacific Partnership trade deal.
2017: California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation extending protections for immigrants living in the United States illegally; police in California would be barred from asking people about their immigration status or taking part in federal immigration enforcement activities.
2018: A jury in Chicago convicted white police officer Jason Van Dyke of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of Black teenager Laquan Mcdonald.
Actor Glynis Johns (“Mary Poppins”) is 98. Actor Karen Allen is 70. Director Clive Barker is 69. Astrophysicist and “Cosmos” host Neil degrasse Tyson is 63. Actor Daniel Baldwin
(“Homicide: Life on the Streets”) is 61. Actor Guy Pearce (“Memento,” “L.A. Confidential”) is 54. Actor Josie Bissett
(“Melrose Place”) is 51. Singer-actor Heather Headley is 47. Singer Colin Meloy of The Decemberists is 47. Guitarist Brian Mashburn of Save Ferris is 46. Actor Parminder Nagra (“ER,” “Bend It Like Beckham”) is 46. Actor Scott Weinger (“Full House,” “Aladdin”) is 46. Actor Kate Winslet is 46. Guitarist James Valentine of Maroon 5 is 43. Actor Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) is 38.