OCTOBER 26TH

Today is Sunday, Oct. 26, the 300th day of 2008.
There are 66 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Oct. 26, 1881, the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" took place in Tombstone, Ariz., as Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday confronted Ike Clanton's gang. Three members of Clanton's group were killed; Earp's brothers and Holliday were wounded.

On this date:

• In 1774, the First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.
• In 1825, the Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
• In 1942, Japanese planes badly damaged the USS Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands during World War II. (The Hornet sank early the next morning.)
• In 1957, the Soviet Union announced that defense minister Marshal Georgi Zhukov had been relieved of his duties.
• In 1958, Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York to Paris in 8 hours and 41 minutes.
• In 1967, the Shah of Iran crowned himself and his queen after 26 years on the Peacock Throne.
• In 1972, national security adviser Henry Kissinger declared, "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam.
• In 1979, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was shot to death by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu.
• In 1984, "Baby Fae," a newborn with a severe heart defect, was given the heart of a baboon in an experimental transplant in Loma Linda, Calif. (Baby Fae lived 21 days with the animal heart.)
• In 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.

Ten years ago:

• Russian President Boris Yeltsin was ordered by his doctors to cancel a one-day trip to Austria so he could recuperate from high blood pressure and extreme fatigue.
• The Education Department reported that the default rate on student loans had fallen into single digits for the first time.

Five years ago:

• A rocket attack on the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, where U.S. officials were residing, killed an American colonel, wounded 18 other people and sent the visiting U.S. deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, scurrying for safety.
• Thirteen deaths in Southern California were reported as wildfires fed by hot Santa Ana winds flared into gigantic waves of flame that devoured entire neighborhoods.

One year ago:

• A federal jury in Kansas City, Mo., decided that Lisa Montgomery, convicted of killing expectant mother Bobbie Jo Stinnett and cutting the baby from her womb, should receive the death penalty.
• The Georgia Supreme Court freed Genarlow Wilson, saying his 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl was cruel and unusual punishment.
• Friedman Paul Erhardt, television's "Chef Tell," died in Upper Black Eddy, Pa., at age 63.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actress Shelley Morrison ("Will and Grace") is 72.
• Actor Bob Hoskins is 66.
• Author Pat Conroy is 63.
• Actress Jaclyn Smith is 63.
• TV host Pat Sajak is 62.
• Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is 61.
• Singer Maggie Roche (The Roches) is 57.
• Musician Bootsy Collins is 57.
• Actor James Pickens Jr. ("Grey's Anatomy") is 56.
• Rock musician Keith Strickland (The B-52's) is 55.
• Actor D.W. Moffett is 54.
• Actress Rita Wilson is 52.
• Actor Dylan McDermott is 47.
• Actor Cary Elwes is 46.
• Singer Natalie Merchant is 45.
• Country singer Keith Urban is 41.
• Actor Tom Cavanagh is 40.
• Actor Anthony Rapp is 37.
• Actor Jon Heder is 31.
• Singer Mark Barry (BBMak) is 30.
• Olympic silver medal figure skater Sasha Cohen is 24.

Thought for Today:

"Each child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man."
Sir Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Nobel Prize-winning poet (1861-1941).

"Let's all be careful out there!"