TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2019. There are 75 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 17, 1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On this date: In 1610, French King Louis XIII, age nine, was crowned at Reims, five months after the assassination of his father, Henry IV.

In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.

In 1807, Britain declared it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of whether they held U.S. citizenship.

In 1907, Guglielmo (Goolee-AH’-moh) Marconi began offering limited commercial wireless telegraph service between Nova Scotia and Ireland.

In 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted in Chicago of income tax evasion. (Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone was released in 1939.)

In 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

In 1939, Frank Capra’s comedy-drama “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” starring James Stewart as an idealistic junior U.S. senator, had its premiere in the nation’s capital.

In 1966, 12 New York City firefighters were killed while battling a blaze in lower Manhattan. The TV game show “The Hollywood Squares” premiered on NBC.

In 1967, Puyi (poo-yee), the last emperor of China, died in Beijing at age 61.

In 1973, Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.

In 1978, President Carter signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

In 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck northern California, killing 63 people and causing $6 billion worth of damage.

Ten years ago: Pakistani soldiers attacked militant bases in the main al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border. Songwriter Vic Mizzy, 93, who’d composed the catchy themes for the 1960s sit-coms “The Addams Family” and “Green Acres,” died in Bel Air, California.