OCTOBER 10TH

Today is Friday, Oct. 10, the 284th day of 2008.
There are 82 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Oct. 10, 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Md.

On this date:

• In 1758, French fur trader, early St. Louis settler and "father of Oklahoma" Jean Pierre Chouteau was born in New Orleans.
• In 1813, composer Giuseppe Verdi was born in Le Roncole, Italy.
• In 1908, the Chicago Cubs won Game 1 of the World Series with a 10-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers at Bennett Park.
• In 1911, revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen launched their overthrow of China's Manchu dynasty.
• In 1935, George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" opened on Broadway.
• In 1938, Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
• In 1958, the private-eye series "77 Sunset Strip" premiered on ABC-TV.
• In 1967, the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, entered into force.
• In 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion and resigned from office.
• In 1978, President Carter signed a bill authorizing the Susan B. Anthony dollar.

Ten years ago:

• Former Defense Secretary and presidential adviser Clark M. Clifford died at age 91.

Five years ago:

• Iranian writer and activist Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh announced during his syndicated radio show that he was addicted to painkillers and was checking into a rehab center.

One year ago:

• A 14-year-old suspended student opened fire in a Cleveland high school, wounding two teachers and two classmates before killing himself.
• The United Auto Workers tentatively agreed on a contract with Chrysler. (UAW members ratified the accord but with significant dissent in the ranks.)
• A Russian spacecraft blasted off for the international space station, carrying Malaysia's first astronaut (Sheikh Muszaphar) and Peggy Whitson, an American who became the first woman to command the orbital outpost.
• German Gerhard Ertl won the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Today's Birthdays:

• Playwright Harold Pinter is 78.
• Former Illinois Sen. Adlai Stevenson III is 78.
• Actor Peter Coyote is 67.
• Entertainer Ben Vereen is 62.
• Singer John Prine is 62.
• Actor Charles Dance is 62.
• Rock singer-musician Cyril Neville (The Neville Brothers) is 60.
• Actress Jessica Harper is 59.
• Singer-musician Midge Ure is 55.
• Rock singer David Lee Roth is 54.
• Country singer Tanya Tucker is 50.
• Actress Julia Sweeney is 49.
• Actor Bradley Whitford is 49.
• Musician Martin Kemp is 47.
• Rock musician Jim Glennie (James) is 45.
• Actress Rebecca Pidgeon is 43.
• Rock musician Mike Malinin (Goo Goo Dolls) is 41.
• Football quarterback Brett Favre is 39.
• Actress Wendi McLendon-Covey is 39.
• Actor Mario Lopez is 35.
• Actress Jodi Lyn O'Keefe is 30.
• Singer Mya is 29.
• Singer Cherie is 24.
• Actress Aimee Teegarden is 19.

Thought for Today:

"There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up."
Rex Stout, American writer (1886-1975).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-284

"Let's all be careful out there!"

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!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-283

"Let's all be careful out there!"