TUESDAY INHISTORY

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 4, the 278th day of 2016. There are 88 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On Oct. 4, 1976, Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz resigned in the wake of a controversy over an obscene joke he’d made that was derogatory to blacks.

On this date:

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

In 1822, the 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, was born in Delaware, Ohio.

In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass in the Alps.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.

In 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 3, a spaceprobe which transmitted images of the far side of themoon.

In 1966, the African kingdom of Lesotho gained its independence from Britain.

In 1985, Islamic Jihad issued a statement saying it had killed American hostage William Buckley.

In 1990, for the first time in nearly six decades, German lawmakers met in the Reichstag for the first meeting of reunified Germany’s parliament.

In 1991, 26 nations, including the United States, signed the Madrid Protocol, which imposed a 50-year ban on oil exploration and mining in Antarctica.

Ten years ago: The domain name wikileaks.org was registered (the website began publishing leaked classified information in Dec. 2006).

Five years ago: Three U.S.born scientists, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, won the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace.

One year ago: President Barack Obama paid tribute to firefighters who had died in the line of duty and cited the sacrifices they’d made in service toa grateful nation during an annual memorial service at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Leroy Van Dyke is 87. Actress Felicia Farr is 84. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Sam Huff is 82. Author Roy Blount Jr. is 75. Author Anne Rice is 75. Baseball Hall of Famer Tony La Russa is 72. Actress Susan Sarandon is 70. Actor Liev Schreiber is 49. Actress Alicia Silverstone is 40. NBA All-Star Derrick Rose is 28. Actress Dakota Johnson is 27.

Thought for Today: “He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid, ungenerous spirit.” — Demosthenes, Greek statesman (384 B.C.-322 B.C.).