TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, OCT. 8, the 282nd day of 2020. There are 84 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; fires also broke out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and in several communities in Michigan. In 1890, American aviation hero Eddie Rickenbacker was born in Columbus, Ohio. In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for murder in the death of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. In 1945, President Harry S. Truman told a press conference in Tiptonville, Tennessee, that the secret scientific knowledge behind the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada. In 1981, at the White House, President Ronald Reagan greeted former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, who were preparing to travel to Egypt for the funeral of Anwar Sadat. In 1997, scientists reported the Mars Pathfinder had yielded what could be the strongest evidence yet that Mars might once have been hospitable to life. In 1998, the House triggered an openended impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton in a momentous 258-176 vote. In 2002, a federal judge approved President George W. Bush’s request to reopen West Coast ports, ending a 10-day labor lockout that was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 to $2 billion a day. In 2005, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake flattened villages on the Pakistan-India border, killing an estimated 86,000 people. In 2014, Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas 10 days after being admitted. In 2017, Harvey Weinstein was fired from The Weinstein Company amid allegations that he was responsible for decades of sexual harassment. In 2018, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees became the NFL’s all-time leader in yards passing during a 43-19 win over Washington. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Entertainment reporter Rona Barrett is 84. Comedian Chevy Chase and author R.L. Stine are 77. Actor Dale Dye and country singer Susan Raye are 76. Rhythm-and-blues singer Airrion Love (The Stylistics) and actor Sigourney Weaver are 71. Rhythm-and-blues singer Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang) is 70. Comedian Darrell Hammond is 65. Actor Stephanie Zimbalist is 64. Rock singer Steve Perry (Cherry Poppin’ Daddies) is 57. Actor Ian Hart and gospel/rhythm-and-blues singer CeCe Winans are 56. Rock musician C.J. Ramone (The Ramones) is 55. Actor-producer Karyn Parsons and singer-producer Teddy Riley are 54. Actor Emily Procter is 52. Actor Dylan Neal is 51. Actor-screenwriter Matt Damon, actor-comedian Robert Kelly and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, are 50. Actor Martin Henderson is 46. Actors Nick Cannon and J.R. Ramirez are 40. Actor Max Crumm and singersongwriter-producer Bruno Mars are 35. Actor/singer Bella Thorne is 23.