Today is Monday, Oct. 26, the 299th day of 2009. There are 66 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Oct. 26, 1979, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was shot to death during a dinner party along with his chief bodyguard by the head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Jae-kyu, who was later executed.
On this date
In 1774, the First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.
In 1795, the National Convention, the assembly that governed France during a pivotal period of the Revolution, was dispersed.
In 1813, British and U.S. troops clashed in the Battle of Châteauguay during the War of 1812.
The Battle of Chauteaugay is an engagement in which the British compelled U.S. forces to abandon a projected attack on Montreal and thus exerted a decisive influence on U.S. strategy during the 1813 campaign.
In the autumn of 1813, a U.S. invading force of about 4,000 troops under General Wade Hampton marched toward Montreal through the Châteauguay River valley. A U.S. advance party of 1,500 under Colonel Robert Purdy and some 460 British troops under Colonel Charles de Salaberry met at Châteauguay on October 26. The British had taken up a good defensive position in the woods along the riverbank and, despite their inferior numbers, managed to stop Purdy’s advance. After this setback, Hampton withdrew back across the border. At least 90 percent of the British troops at Châteauguay were French Canadians.
In 1825, the Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
In 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.
In 1905, the St. Petersburg soviet (workers’ council) was formed during the Russian Revolution of 1905.
In 1909, former Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi was assassinated during a visit to Harbin, China by Korean nationalist An Jung-geun, who was later hanged.
In 1911, Mahalia Jackson, the American known as the queen of gospel singing, was born.
In 1918, Prussian General Erich Ludendorff was forced to resign by Emperor William II on Prince Maximilian’s advice, in an effort to establish an armistice agreement.
In 1942, Japanese planes badly damaged the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands during World War II. (The Hornet sank early the next morning.)
In 1951, the Conservatives defeat Labour in the general election by a small majority making Winston Churchill prime minister for the second time.
In 1955, a constitutional law of perpetual neutrality in Austria was promulgated.
In 1958, Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York to Paris in 8 hours, 41 minutes.
In 1962, in one of the most dramatic verbal confrontations of the Cold War, American U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson asked his Soviet counterpart during a Security Council debate whether the USSR had placed missiles in Cuba.
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 that “Peace is at hand” in Vietnam.
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 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty during a ceremony at the Israeli-Jordanian border attended by President Bill Clinton.
In 1996, federal prosecutors cleared Richard Jewell as a suspect in the Olympic park bombing.
In 1999, ten years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study which said the number of Americans considered obese had soared from about one in eight in 1991 to nearly one in five in 1998.
In 1999, the New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-5, to take a 3-0 lead in the World Series.
In 2001, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.
In 2002, a hostage siege by Chechen rebels at a Moscow theater ended with 129 of the 800-plus captives dead, most from a knockout gas used by Russian special forces who stormed the theater.
In 2004, five years ago, the FCC gave its approval to Cingular Wireless LLC’s $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
In 2004, Israel’s parliament approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
In 2004, the final vote count in the Afghan presidential election gave a resounding victory to interim leader Hamid Karzai.
In 2004, the Boston Red Sox won Game 3 of the World Series in St. Louis, defeating the Cardinals 4-1.
In 2005, the Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 by defeating the Houston Astros 1-0 in Game 4.
In 2008, one year ago, U.S. military helicopters launched a rare attack on Syrian territory, killing eight people in a strike Damascus condemned as “serious aggression.”
In 2008, Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels, died in Albuquerque, N.M., at age 83.
In 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies romped over the Tampa Bay Rays 10-2 to move within one win of their first World Series championship since 1980.
Today’s Birthdays
Former Sen. Edward Brooke III is 90. Actress Shelley Morrison is 73. Actor Bob Hoskins is 67. Author Pat Conroy is 64. Actress Jaclyn Smith is 64. TV host Pat Sajak is 63. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is 62. Singer Maggie Roche (The Roches) is 58. Musician Bootsy Collins is 58. Actor James Pickens Jr. (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 57. Rock musician Keith Strickland (The B-52′s) is 56. Actor D.W. Moffett is 55. Actress Rita Wilson is 53. The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is 50. Actor Dylan McDermott is 48. Actor Cary Elwes is 47. Singer Natalie Merchant is 46. Country singer Keith Urban is 42. Actor Tom Cavanagh is 41. Actress Rosemarie DeWitt is 38. Actor Anthony Rapp is 38. Writer-producer Seth MacFarlane (“Family Guy”) is 36. Actress Lennon Parham is 34. Actor Hal Ozsan is 33. Actor Jon Heder is 32. Singer Mark Barry (BBMak) is 31. Olympic silver medal figure skater Sasha Cohen is 25.
Today’s Historic Birthdays
Domenico Scarlatti
10/26/1685 – 7/23/1757
Italian composer
Georges Jacques Danton
10/26/1759 – 4/5/1794
French Revolutionary leader
Henry Deringer
10/26/1786 – 2/28/1868
American gunsmith
Charles William Post
10/26/1854 – 5/9/1914
U.S. manufacturer of breakfast cereals
Richard Dudley Sears
10/26/1861 – 4/8/1943
American tennis champion
John S. Knight
10/26/1894 – 6/16/1981
American journalist and publisher
Beryl Markham
10/26/1902 – 8/3/1986
British aviator, horse trainer and breeder, and writer
Jack Sharkey
10/26/1902 – 8/17/1994
Hall-of-fame heavyweight boxer
Primo Carnera
10/26/1906 – 6/29/1967
Italian-born U.S. heavyweight boxer
Mahalia Jackson
10/26/1911 – 1/27/1972
American gospel singer
Charlie Barnet
10/26/1913 – 9/4/1991
American musician
Jackie Coogan
10/26/1914 – 3/1/1984
American silent film actor; played “The Kid”
Francois Mitterand
10/26/1916 – 1/8/1996
French president (1981-95)
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
10/26/1919 – 7/27/1980
Iranian Shah (1941-79)
Thought for Today
“Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.” – Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman (1804-1881).
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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602815.html
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20091026.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/default.stm
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