Today in history

On Oct. 4, 1777, George Washington’s troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Pa., resulting in heavy American casualties.

In 1884 writer Damon Runyon was born in Manhattan, Kan.

In 1895 the first U.S. Open golf tournament was held at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island.

In 1931 the comic strip “Dick Tracy,” created by Chester Gould, made its debut.

In 1940 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass in the Alps, where the Nazi leader sought Italy’s help in fighting the British.

In 1957 the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit.

In 1958 the first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service was begun by British Overseas Airways Corp. with flights between London and New York.

In 1965 Pope Paul VI became the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western Hemisphere as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly.

In 1970 rock singer Janis Joplin was found dead in Hollywood; she was 27.

In 1976 agriculture secretary Earl Butz resigned in the wake of a controversy over a joke he had made about blacks.

In 1978 funeral services were held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I.

In 1980 some 520 people were forced to abandon the cruise ship Prisendam in the Gulf of Alaska after the Dutch luxury liner caught fire; no deaths or serious injury resulted.