TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, Oct. 7, the 280th day of 2023. There are 85 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight
On Oct. 7, 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill’s allegations and would go on to win Senate confirmation.
On this date
In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.
In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.
In 1949, the Republic of East Germany was formed.
In 1982, the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical “Cats” opened on Broadway, the first of what would become a record 7,485 performances in an 18-year run.
In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship
Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea. (The hijackers shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish American tourist in a wheelchair, and pushed him overboard, before surrendering on Oct. 9.)
In 1996, Fox News Channel made its debut.
In 2001, the war in Afghanistan started as the U.S. and Britain launched air attacks against military targets and Osama bin Laden’s training camps in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
In 2003, California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger
as their new governor.
Today’s birthdays
Talk-show host Joy Behar is 81. Former National Security Council aide Oliver North is 80. Singer John Mellencamp is 72. Russian President Vladimir Putin is 71. Actor Mary Badham (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) is 71. Musician Tico Torres (Bon Jovi) is 70. Musician Yo-Yo Ma is 68. Olympic gold medal ice dancer Jayne Torvill is 66. Actor Judy Landers is 65. Recording exec-TV personality Simon Cowell is 64. Singer Toni Braxton is 56. MLB player Mookie Betts is 31.