Today in history
On Oct. 4, 2002, “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh received a 20-year sentence after a sobbing plea for forgiveness before a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia. In a federal court in Boston, a laughing Richard Reid pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives in his shoes (the British citizen was later sentenced to life in prison).
In 1777, Gen. George Washington’s troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania, resulting in heavy American casualties.
In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass in the Alps.
In 1951, the MGM movie musical “An American in Paris,” starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, had its U.S. premiere in New York.
In 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.
In 1970, rock singer Janis Joplin, 27, was found dead in her Hollywood hotel room.
In 1989, Triple Crown-winning racehorse Secretariat, suffering a hoof ailment, was humanely destroyed at age 19.
In 1991, 26 nations, including the United States, signed the Madrid Protocol, which imposed a 50-year ban on oil exploration and mining in Antarctica.
In 2004, the SpaceShipOne rocket plane broke through Earth’s atmosphere to the edge of space for the second time in five days, capturing the $10 million Ansari X prize aimed at opening the final frontier to tourists.
Five years ago: North Korea’s presumptive No. 2 leader, Hwang Pyong So, and other members of Pyongyang’s inner circle met with South Korean officials in the rivals’ highest level faceto-face talks in five years. Paul Revere, 76, the organist and leader of the Raiders rock band, died in Garden Vallley, Idaho.
One year ago: The Senate Judiciary Committee said it had received an FBI report on sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh; leading GOP lawmakers said there was nothing new in the report, while Democrats complained that the investigation omitted interviews with some potential witnesses and accused the White House of limiting the scope of the probe. Former rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was sentenced in Los Angeles to 28 years in prison for running down and killing a Compton businessman with a pickup truck.