Today In History

Today is Thursday, Oct. 15, the 289th day of 2020. There are 77 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1976: In the first debate of its kind between vice-presidential nominees, Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in Houston.

ON THIS DATE

› 1940: Charles Chaplin’s first all-talking comedy, “The Great Dictator,” a lampoon of Adolf Hitler, opened in New York.

› 1954: Hurricane Hazel made landfall on the Carolina coast as a Category 4 storm; Hazel was blamed for some 1,000 deaths in the Caribbean, 95 in the U.S. and 81 in Canada.

› 1966: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill creating the U.S. Department of Transportation. The revolutionary Black Panther Party was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California.

› 1969: Peace demonstrators staged activities across the country as part of a “moratorium” against the Vietnam War.

› 2001: Bethlehem Steel Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

› 2017: Actress and activist Alyssa Milano tweeted that women who had been sexually harassed or assaulted should write “Me too” as a status; within hours, tens of thousands had taken up the #MeToo hashtag (using a phrase that had been introduced 10 years earlier by social activist Tarana Burke.)

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Singer Barry McGuire is 85. Actor Linda Lavin is 83. Rock musician Don Stevenson (Moby Grape) is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Palmer is 75. Singer-musician Richard Carpenter is 74. Actor Victor Banerjee is 74. Former tennis player Roscoe Tanner is 69. Singer Tito Jackson is 67. Actor-comedian Larry Miller is 67. Actor Jere Burns is 66. Movie director Mira Nair is 63. Britain’s Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, is 61. Chef Emeril Lagasse is 61. Actor Tanya Roberts is 61. Rock musician Mark Reznicek is 58. Singer Eric Benet is 54. Actor Vanessa Marcil is 52. Singer-actor-TV host Paige Davis is 51. Country singer Kimberly Schlapman (Little Big Town) is 51. Actor Dominic West is 51. R&B singer Ginuwine is 50. Christian singer-actor Jaci Velasquez is 41. Actor Brandon Jay McLaren is 40. R&B singer Keyshia Cole is 39. Actor Vincent Martella is 28. Actor Bailee Madison is 21.