Today in history

Today is Saturday, Oct. 5, the 278th day of 2019. There are 87 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 5, 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised White House address as he spoke on the world food crisis.

On this date:

In 1829, the 21st president of the United States, Chester Alan Arthur, was born in North Fairfield, Vermont.

In 1921, the World Series was carried on radio for the first time as Newark, New Jersey station WJZ (later WABC) relayed a telephoned play-by-play account of the first game from the Polo Grounds. (Although the New York Yankees won the opener, 3-0, the New York Giants won the series, 5 games to 3.)

In 1953, Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson.

In 1958, racially-desegregated Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, was mostly leveled by an early morning bombing.

In 1983, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1984, the space shuttle Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on an 8-day mission; the crew included Kathryn D. Sullivan, who became the first American woman to walk in space, and Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut.

In 1989, a jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, convicted former P-T-L evangelist Jim Bakker of using his television show to defraud followers.

In 1999, two packed commuter trains collided near London’s Paddington Station, killing 31 people.

In 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.