On this date
In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American tourist in a wheelchair, and pushed him overboard, before surrendering Oct. 9.)
In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill’s allegations.
In 1992, trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio in the presence of President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
In 1996, Fox News Channel made its
debut.
In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten and left tied to a wooden fencepost outside of Laramie, Wyo.; he died five days later. (Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.)
In 2003, California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.
Ten years ago: Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. (Born in Milwaukee, Steitz went to high school in Wauwatosa and graduated from Lawrence University.)
Five years ago: North Korea publicly acknowledged the existence of its “reform through labor” camps, a mention that appeared to come in response to a highly critical U.N. human rights report.
One year ago: The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 6-0 to sweep their National League Division Series.
Associated Press