Today in history
Today is Monday, Oct. 9, the 282nd day of 2017. There are 83 days left in the year. This is Columbus Day in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Oct. 9, 1967, Marxist revolutionary guerrilla leader Che Guevara, 39, was summarily executed by the Bolivian army a day after his capture.
On this date
In 1514, Mary Tudor, the 18-year-old sister of Henry VIII, became Queen consort of France upon her marriage to 52-year-old King Louis XII, who died less than three months later.
In 1776, a group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.
In 1888, the public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.
In 1914, the Belgian city of Antwerp fell to German forces during World War I.
In 1936, the first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
In 1946, the Eugene O’Neill drama “The Iceman Cometh” opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York.
In 1958, Pope Pius XII died at age 82, ending a 19year papacy. (He was succeeded by Pope John XXIII.)
In 1975, Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov (AHN’dray SAHK’-ah-rawf) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1985, the hijackers of the Achille Lauro (ah-KEE’leh LOW’-roh) cruise liner surrendered two days after seizing the vessel in the Mediterranean. (Passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed by the hijackers during the standoff.)
In 1987, author, politician and diplomat Clare Boothe Luce died in Washington at age 84.
In 1995, a sabotaged section of track caused an Amtrak train, the Sunset Limited, to derail in Arizona; one person was killed and about 80 were injured (the case remains unsolved).
In 2009, President Barack Obama was named the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Ten years ago: Nine Republican presidential hopefuls debated in Dearborn, Michigan; Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani clashed over tax and spending cuts, each claiming greater commitment than the other. Two Armenian Christian women were shot dead while riding in a car in Baghdad by security contractors working for Australian-owned Unity Resources Group. France’s Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for a discovery that let computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks. Actress Carol Bruce died in Woodland Hills, California, at age 87.
Five years ago: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced in Bellefonte (BEHL’-fahnt), Pennsylvania, to 30 to 60 years in prison following his June 2012 conviction on 45 counts of sexual abuse of boys. Future Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousufzai (mah-LAH’-lah yoo-SOOF’-zeye), a 14-yearold Pakistani girl who had dared to advocate education for girls and criticize the Taliban, was shot and seriously wounded by a militant gunman in the town of Mingora in the volatile Swat Valley.