Today in History
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 11, the 284th day of 2022. There are 81 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 11, 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks in Reykjavik, Iceland, concerning arms control and human rights.
On this date:
In 1614, the New Netherland Co. was formed by a group of merchants from Amsterdam and Hoorn to set up fur trading in North America.
In 1809, just over three years after the famous Lewis and Clark expedition ended, Meriwether Lewis was found dead in a Tennessee inn, an apparent suicide; he was 35.
In 1884, American first lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City.
In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education ordered the city’s Asian students segregated in a purely “Oriental” school. (The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States.)
In 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra (shih-RAH’), Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. The government of Panama was overthrown in a military coup.
In 1984, Challenger astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space as she and fellow Mission Specialist David C. Leestma spent 3 1/2 hours outside the shuttle.
In 1991, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her; Thomas re-appeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a “high-tech lynching.”
In 2002, former President Jimmy Carter was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it had finished pumping out the New Orleans metropolitan area, which was flooded by Hurricane Katrina six weeks earlier and then was swamped again by Hurricane Rita.
In 2006, the charge of treason was used for the first time in the U.S. war on terrorism, filed against Adam Yehiye Gadahn (ah-DAHM’ YEH’-heh-yuh guh-DAHN’), also known as “Azzam the American,” who’d appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaida. (Gadahn was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in Jan. 2015.)
In 2014, customs and health officials began taking the temperatures of passengers arriving at New York’s Kennedy International Airport from three West African countries in a stepped-up screening effort meant to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.
In 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 106-93 to win the NBA finals in six games; LeBron James scored 28 points as the NBA wrapped up a season that sent players to a “bubble” at Walt Disney World in Florida for three months because of the pandemic.
Ten years ago: Vice President Joe Biden and Republican opponent Paul Ryan squared off in their only debate of the 2012 campaign; the two repeatedly interrupted each other as they sparred over topics including the economy, taxes and Medicare.
Five years ago: The Boy Scouts of America announced that it would admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting in 2018 and establish a new program for older girls based on the Boy Scout curriculum, allowing them to aspire to the Eagle Scout rank. Strong winds fueled wildfires burning through California wine country; the confirmed death toll climbed to 23 as authorities ordered new evacuations. An American woman, Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle, and their children were freed, five years after they were seized by a terrorist network in the mountains of Afghanistan; officials said the couple and their three children – who’d been born in captivity – were rescued in a dramatic raid orchestrated by the U.S. and Pakistani governments.
One year ago: Jon Gruden resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders following reports about messages he wrote years earlier that used offensive terms to refer to Blacks, gays and women. U.S.-based economist David Card won the Nobel Prize in economics for pioneering research demonstrating that an increase in the minimum wage doesn’t hinder hiring, and immigrants don’t lower pay for native-born workers. Benson Kipruto and Diana Kipyogei completed a Kenyan sweep in the Boston Marathon, which took place after a 30-month absence; the race was moved from its traditional spring date for the first time in its 125-year history because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Today’s Birthdays: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry is 95. Actor Amitabh Bachchan is 80. Country singer Gene Watson is 79. Singer Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates) is 76. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is 72. Actor-director Catlin Adams is 72. Country singer Paulette Carlson is 71. Original MTV VJ Mark Goodman is 70. Actor David Morse is 69. Actor Stephen Spinella is 66. Actor-writer-comedian Dawn French is 65. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Steve Young is 61. Actor Joan Cusack is 60. Rock musician Scott Johnson (Gin Blossoms) is 60. Comedy writer and TV host Michael J. Nelson is 58. Actor Sean Patrick Flanery is 57. Actor Lennie James is 57. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Chris Spielman is 57. Country singer-songwriter Todd Snider is 56. Actor-comedian Artie Lange is 55. Actor Jane Krakowski is 54. Actor Andrea Navedo is 53. Actor Constance Zimmer is 52. Rapper MC Lyte is 52. Bluegrass musician Leigh Gibson (The Gibson Brothers) is 51. Figure skater Kyoko Ina is 50. Actor Darien Sills-Evans is 48. Actor/writer Nat Faxon is 47. Actor Emily Deschanel is 46. Actor Matt Bomer is 45. Actor Trevor Donovan is 44. Actor Robert Christopher Riley is 42. Actor Michelle Trachtenberg is 37. Actor Lucy Griffiths is 36. Golfer Michelle Wie is 33. Rapper Cardi B is 30.
