Today in history

Today in History Today is Monday, Oct. 11, the 284th day of 2021. There are 81 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 11, 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra (shih-RAH’), Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. On this date:

In 1779, Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski, fighting for American independence, died two days after being wounded during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Georgia.

In 1884, American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City.

In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education ordered the city’s Asian students segregated in a purely “Oriental” school. (The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States.)

In 1968, the government of Panama was overthrown in a military coup.

In 1975, Bill Clinton and Hillary Diane Rodham were married in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “NBC Saturday Night” (later “Saturday Night Live”) made its debut with guest host George Carlin.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks in Reykjavik, Iceland, concerning arms control and human rights.

In 1991, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her; Thomas re-appeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a “high-tech lynching.”

In 2001, in his first prime-time news conference since taking office, President George W. Bush said “it may take a year or two” to track down Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network in Afghanistan, but he asserted that after a fiveday aerial bombardment, “we’ve got them on the run.”

In 2002, former President Jimmy Carter was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.