OCTOBER 9TH

Today is Thursday, Oct. 9, the 283rd day of 2008.
There are 83 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• Fifty years ago, on Oct. 9, 1958, Pope Pius XII died at age 82, ending a 19-year papacy. (He was succeeded by Pope John XXIII.)

On this date:

• In 1446, the Korean alphabet, created under the aegis of King Sejong, was first published.
• In 1701, the Collegiate School of Connecticut — later Yale University — was chartered.
• In 1776, a group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.
• In 1888, the public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.
• In 1919, the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, defeating the Chicago White Sox 10-5 at Comiskey Park. (The victory turned hollow amid charges eight of the White Sox had thrown the Series in what became known as the "Black Sox" scandal.)
• In 1930, Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field, N.Y., to Glendale, Calif.
• In 1946, the Eugene O'Neill drama "The Iceman Cometh" opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York.
• In 1967, Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed while attempting to incite revolution in Bolivia.
• In 1968, the new military government of Peru seized the country's oil fields.
• In 1975, Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ten years ago:

• Ariel Sharon returned to the center of power in Israel as the country's new foreign minister.

Five years ago:

• A suicide car bombing at a Baghdad police station killed eight people; Spanish military attache Jose Antonio Bernal Gomez was shot to death in Baghdad.

One year ago:

• Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani clashed over tax and spending cuts, each claiming greater commitment than the other in a debate in Dearborn, Mich.
• Two Armenian Christian women were shot to death in Baghdad by security contractors working for Australian-owned Unity Resources Group.
• France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for a discovery that lets computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks.
• Actress Carol Bruce died in Woodland Hills, Calif., at age 87.

Today's Birthdays:

• Actor Fyvush Finkel is 86.
• Former Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., is 67.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Nona Hendryx is 64.
• Singer Jackson Browne is 60.
• Actor Gary Frank is 58.
• Actor Richard Chaves is 57.
• Actor Robert Wuhl is 57.
• Actress-TV personality Sharon Osbourne is 56.
• Actor Tony Shalhoub is 55.
• Actor Scott Bakula is 54.
• Musician James Fearnley (The Pogues) is 54.
• Actor John O'Hurley is 54.
• Actor Michael Pare is 50.
• Jazz musician Kenny Garrett is 48.
• Rock singer-musician Kurt Neumann (The BoDeans) is 47.
• Country singer Gary Bennett is 44.
• Movie director Guillermo del Toro is 44.
• Singer P.J. Harvey is 39.
• Golfer Annika Sorenstam is 38.
• Country singer Tommy Shane Steiner is 35.
• Actor Steve Burns is 35.
• Sean Lennon is 33.
• Actor Randy Spelling is 30.
• Actor Brandon Routh is 29.
• Actor Zachery Ty Bryan is 27.
• Actor Tyler James Williams ("Everybody Hates Chris") is 16.

Thought for Today:

"All generalizations are dangerous, even this one."
Attributed to Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author (1824-1895).

"Let's all be careful out there!"