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There are 88 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
- On Oct. 4, 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.
On this date:
- In 1777, George Washington's troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Pa., resulting in heavy American casualties.
- In 1822, Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio.
- In 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini conferred at Brenner Pass in the Alps.
- In 1957, Jimmy Hoffa was elected president of the Teamsters Union.
- In 1958, the first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service was begun by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) with flights between London and New York.
- In 1965, Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit the Western Hemisphere as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly.
- In 1970, rock singer Janis Joplin, 27, was found dead in her Hollywood, Calif., hotel room.
- In 1976, agriculture secretary Earl Butz resigned in the wake of a controversy over a joke he'd made about blacks.
- In 1978, a funeral mass was held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul I.
- In 1980, some 520 people were forced to abandon the cruise ship Prinsendam in the Gulf of Alaska after the Dutch luxury liner caught fire; no deaths or serious injury resulted. (The ship capsized and sank a week later.)
Ten years ago:
- Russian envoys warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that NATO might launch airstrikes unless he took "decisive measures" to end the humanitarian crisis in the southern province of Kosovo.
- Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso won re-election.
Five years ago:
- A Palestinian woman blew herself up inside a restaurant in Haifa, Israel, killing 21 bystanders.
One year ago:
- Idaho Sen. Larry Craig defiantly vowed to serve out his term in office despite losing a court attempt to rescind his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.
- Former city maintenance worker John Ashley shot five people in a law office in Alexandria, La., killing two of them; Ashley was shot and killed by police following a standoff.
- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pledged to pursue a peace treaty and end their countries' decades-long standoff.
Today's Birthdays:
- Country singer Leroy Van Dyke is 79.
- Actress Felicia Farr is 76.
- Actor Eddie Applegate is 73.
- Author Roy Blount Jr. is 67.
- Author Anne Rice is 67.
- Actress Lori Saunders ("Petticoat Junction") is 67.
- Actor Clifton Davis is 63.
- Actress Susan Sarandon is 62.
- Blues musician Duke Robillard is 60.
- Playwright Lee Blessing is 59.
- Actor Armand Assante is 59.
- Actor Alan Rosenberg is 58.
- Actor Bill Fagerbakke is 51.
- Producer Russell Simmons is 51.
- Musician Chris Lowe (The Pet Shop Boys) is 49.
- Country musician Gregg "Hobie" Hubbard (Sawyer Brown) is 48.
- Actor David W. Harper is 47.
- Singer Jon Secada is 47.
- TV personality John Melendez ("The Tonight Show") is 43.
- Actor Liev Schreiber is 41.
- Actor Abraham Benrubi is 39.
- Country singer-musician Heidi Newfield is 38.
- Rock musician Andy Parle is 38.
- Actress Alicia Silverstone is 32.
- Actor Phillip Glasser is 30.
- Rock singer-musician Marc Roberge (O.A.R.) is 30.
- Actress Rachael Leigh Cook is 29.
- Actor Jimmy Workman is 28.
- Rhythm-and-blues singer Jessica Benson (3lw) is 21.
- Actor Michael Charles Roman is 21.
- Figure skater Kimmie Meisner is 19.
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.E.-322 B.C.E.).
"Let's all be careful out there!"
