On Oct. 16, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of nuclear missile bases in Cuba.
Also on this date:
In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded.
In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then a part of western Virginia. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped. Brown and six followers were captured; all were executed.)
In 1934, Chinese Communists, under siege by the Nationalists, began their “long march” lasting a year from southeastern to northwestern China.
In 1964, China set off its first atomic bomb, codenamed “596,” on the Lop Nur Test Ground.
In 1968, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos sparked controversy at the Mexico City Olympics by giving “Black power” salutes during a victory ceremony after they had won gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race.
In 1978, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to be the new pope; he took the name John Paul II.
In 1984, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of non-violent struggle for racial equality in South Africa.
In 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure was pulled from an abandoned well in Midland, Texas, after being stuck there for more than two days. The efforts to rescue “Baby Jessica” captured the attention of the nation.
In 1991, a gunman opened fire at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 people before taking his own life.
In 1995, the Million Man March, a gathering of Black men meant to foster unity in the face of economic and social issues affecting African Americans, was held in Washington, D.C.
In 2017, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been captured and held by the Taliban for five years after walking away from his post in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to desertion and endangering his comrades.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Fernanda Montenegro is 95. Actor Barry Corbin is 84. Musician Bob Weir is 77. Actor-director Tim Robbins is 66. Musician Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan are 62. Actor Terri J. Vaughn is 55. Singer John Mayer is 47. Former WNBA point guard Sue Bird is 44. Actor Caterina Scorsone is 43. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper is 32. Tennis player Naomi Osaka is 27.
Rome — A documentary hit the airwaves this week in Poland alleging the former pope, Saint John Paul II, protected pedophile priests when he was Archbishop of Krakow in his native country. It has reignited a long-standing debate over whether John Paul II was made a saint too quickly.
The report aired this week by Polish broadcaster TVN24 accuses John Paul of allowing three priests to continue working in the church in the 1970s despite knowing they had been accused of abusing minors. Two of the priests eventually served prison terms for their crimes.
A Catholic man holds a portrait of the late Pope John Paul II at the pontiff’s funeral in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, in 2005.
Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis/Getty
Calls for John Paul II to be made a saint began at his funeral, on April 2, 2005, when cries of “Santo Subito” (or “sainthood immediately”) erupted from the half million pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Many held up banners calling for his sainthood.
The cries didn’t fall on deaf ears. Just days after his death, the Vatican began the process of making him a saint. He was “beatified” only six years later and then “canonized” — formally declared a saint — just three years after that. It was the fastest canonization in the history of the Catholic Church.
“Quick canonizations are problematic,” Father Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and author, told CBS News. “It is better to have a cooling off period to see if the person’s reputation stands up over time. It takes time to do the research into a person’s life and writings to make sure that his or her life matches the criteria for sainthood.”
Since 1588, when the Vatican established an official saint-making office, the average time between death and sainthood has been about 181 years. That long post-mortem period ensured that would-be saint’s lives were thoroughly scrutinized.
But the Polish pontiff made significant changes to the church’s sainthood rules during his time as pope, reducing the number of years before the process could even begin following a candidate’s death from 50 to just five.
But in John Paul’s case, his successor Pope Benedict XVI waived even that reduced period. John Paul also reduced the number of posthumous miracles required for sainthood, from four to two. Finally, he eliminated the role of the “advocatus diaboli,” or devil’s advocate, whose role it had long been to critically examine a candidate’s life and miracles, and to argue against their sainthood, though the Vatican can and does still solicit opposing testimony during the sainthood process.
“John Paul II’s fast-track to sainthood was a product of his own reforms,” John Allen, editor of Catholic website Crux and author of 11 books on Catholicism, told CBS News. “During his papacy, John Paul wanted to make the process faster, cheaper and less adversarial. As a result, he not only canonized and beatified more people than any previous pope, but more than all previous popes combined.”
The majority of these 482 new saints were figures from the 20th century, “reflecting John Paul’s conviction that the church needed role models of holiness from our own time,” Allen said.
The reforms opened up the Vatican to criticism that it was turning into a “sainthood factory,” and abandoning its long-held critical standards, Allen said, noting that critics had “warned that the waiting period, for example, was intended to prevent a rush to judgment, and that there might be cases of fast-track halos the church would end up regretting. Ironically, some are now saying that about John Paul’s own sainthood.”
Supporters of John Paul’s shortest-ever journey to sainthood say he lived a life of heroic virtue and exceptional holiness, the first requirement for sainthood. He helped bring down communism, repaired relations with Judaism and brought a new generation of worshippers into the church. But his detractors say the pope’s reputation hasn’t withstood the test of time, particularly when it comes to his record on clerical sex abuse.
John Paul II “was indeed rushed to sainthood,” in the opinion of Michael McDonnell, the head of communications for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “He was embraced globally for his travels and credited for helping to end communism in his very Catholic homeland. These achievements provided great cover for him during a time when clergy abuse revelations were steamrolling in the United States and beginning to appear globally.”
The late pope’s canonization, McDonnell said, poured more salt on the still-raw wounds of abuse victims.
Then-Pope John Paul II gives his blessing to the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of Legionaries of Christ, during a special audience the pontiff granted to about 4,000 participants of the Regnum Christi movement, at the Vatican, Nov. 30, 2004.
Plinio Lepri/AP
Accusations of failures to take action span across John Paul’s 26-year papacy. He refused to believe accusations against Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legionnaires of Christ order and one of the church’s greatest fundraisers. Those accusations started surfacing in the late 1970s and continued for decades. Maciel was eventually found to have sexually abused minors and seminarians, and to have fathered several children, who he also abused.
In 2020, in a stunning admission, the Catholic church said John Paul II had ignored warnings about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from as far back as 1999, instead raising him to the powerful position of Archbishop of Washington D.C. McCarrick has since been defrocked and is under criminal prosecution in Massachusetts for alleged sexual abuse of minors.
“Canonization does not mean that the person was perfect, that they never did anything wrong, that they never sinned,” said Reese. “They are people of their times with many of the blind spots and even prejudices of their times. Many aspects of their lives can be admired and imitated while at the same time recognizing that they made mistakes and even sinned.”
Allen said canonization was “a finding that despite whatever human failures or limitations in judgment his papacy may have reflected, there was nevertheless a genuine holiness of life about the person of the pope. Undoubtedly, supporters of John Paul II will say the same thing vis-à-vis his record on the abuse crisis.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died just days after the Vatican announced the 95-year-old was in ill health. CBS News foreign correspondent Chris Livesay looks back at his life and CBS News senior foreign correspondent Seth Doane discusses the late pontiff’s legacy.
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Today is Wednesday, Oct. 19, the 292nd day of 2022. There are 73 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 19, 2001, U.S. special forces began operations on the ground in Afghanistan, opening a significant new phase of the assault against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
On this date:
In 1781, British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, as the American Revolution neared its end.
In 1814, the first documented public performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” took place at the Holliday Street Theater in Baltimore.
In 1944, the U.S. Navy began accepting Black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).
In 1950, during the Korean Conflict, United Nations forces entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
In 1953, the Ray Bradbury novel “Fahrenheit 451,” set in a dystopian future where books are banned and burned by the government, was first published by Ballantine Books.
In 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a sit-down protest at a lunch counter in Atlanta. (Sent to prison for a parole violation over a traffic offense, King was released after three days following an appeal by Robert F. Kennedy.)
In 1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
In 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value (its biggest daily percentage loss), to close at 1,738.74 in what came to be known as “Black Monday.”
In 1990, Kevin Costner’s Western epic “Dances with Wolves” had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.
In 2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.
In 2010, the Pentagon directed the military to accept openly gay recruits for the first time in the nation’s history.
In 2016, in the third and final 2016 presidential debate, Republican Donald Trump stunned the forum in Las Vegas by refusing to say he would accept the results of the election if he were to lose; Democrat Hillary Clinton declared Trump’s resistance “horrifying.”
Ten years ago: The Dow Jones industrial average had its worst day in four months, sinking 205.43 points, or 1.5 percent, to close at 13,343.51.
Five years ago: Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House about a month after Hurricane Maria, described the situation in the island territory as “catastrophic”; Trump rated the White House response to the disaster as a “10.” Counter-demonstrators greatly outnumbered supporters of white nationalist Richard Spencer, drowning him out as he spoke at the University of Florida. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 11-1 to reach the World Series for the first time in almost three decades.
One year ago: A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted unanimously to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony. A federal grand jury indicted U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire. (Fortenberry was convicted in March 2022; he resigned two days later.) The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a vaccine requirement imposed on Maine health care workers, the latest defeat for opponents of vaccine mandates.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Tony Lo Bianco is 86. Artist Peter Max is 85. Author and critic Renata Adler is 85. Actor Michael Gambon is 82. Actor John Lithgow (LIHTH’-goh) is 77. Feminist activist Patricia Ireland is 77. Singer Jeannie C. Riley is 77. Rock singer-musician Patrick Simmons (The Doobie Brothers) is 74. Actor Annie Golden is 71. Talk show host Charlie Chase is 70. Rock singer-musician Karl Wallinger (World Party) is 65. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is 64. Singer Jennifer Holliday is 62. Retired boxer Evander Holyfield is 60. Host Ty Pennington (TV: “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”) is 58. Rock singer-musician Todd Park Mohr (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 57. Actor Jon Favreau is 56. Amy Carter is 55. “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker is 53. Comedian Chris Kattan is 52. Rock singer Pras Michel (The Fugees) is 50. Actor Omar Gooding is 46. Country singer Cyndi Thomson is 46. Writer-director Jason Reitman is 45. Actor Benjamin Salisbury is 42. Actor Gillian Jacobs is 40. Actor Rebecca Ferguson is 39. Rock singer Zac Barnett (American Authors) is 36. Singer-actor Ciara Renee (TV: “Legends of Tomorrow”) is 32. Actor Hunter King is 29.
Today is Sunday, Oct. 16, the 289th day of 2022. There are 76 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 16, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
On this date:
In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded.
In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then a part of western Virginia. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped. Brown and six followers were captured; all were executed.)
In 1934, Chinese Communists, under siege by the Nationalists, began their “long march” lasting a year from southeastern to northwestern China.
In 1964, China set off its first atomic bomb, codenamed “596,” on the Lop Nur Test Ground.
In 1968, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos sparked controversy at the Mexico City Olympics by giving “Black power” salutes during a victory ceremony after they’d won gold and bronze medals in the 200-meter race.
In 1978, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (voy-TEE’-wah) to be the new pope; he took the name John Paul II.
In 1984, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades of non-violent struggle for racial equality in South Africa.
In 1991, a deadly shooting rampage took place in Killeen, Texas, as a gunman opened fire at a Luby’s Cafeteria, killing 23 people before taking his own life.
In 1997, in the first known case in the United States, a Georgia woman gave birth after being implanted with previously frozen eggs.
In 2002, President George W. Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq. The White House announced that North Korea had disclosed it had a nuclear weapons program.
In 2009, agricultural officials said pigs in Minnesota had tested positive for the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, the first such cases in the U.S.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney met for their second debate; during the town-hall-style encounter in suburban Hempstead, New York, Obama accused Romney of favoring a “one-point plan” to help the rich at the expense of the middle class while Romney countered by saying “the middle class has been crushed over the last four years.”
Five years ago: Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had been captured and held by the Taliban for five years after walking away from his post in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to desertion and endangering his comrades. (A military judge later decided not to send him to prison.) A New Jersey man, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, was convicted of planting two pressure-cooker bombs on New York City streets, including one that injured 30 people; prosecutors said Rahimi considered himself “a soldier in a holy war against Americans.” (Rahimi was sentenced to life in prison.)
One year ago: Seventeen missionaries from a U.S.-based organization were kidnapped in Haiti; five children were among them. (Two of the hostages were released in November for medical reasons; the remaining 15 went free in December.) An 11th-hour deal was reached, averting a strike of film and television crews that would have frozen productions in Hollywood and across the U.S. Betty Lynn, the film and television actor who was best known for her role as Barney Fife’s sweetheart Thelma Lou on “The Andy Griffith Show,” died at the age of 95.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-producer Tony Anthony is 85. Actor Barry Corbin is 82. Sportscaster Tim McCarver is 81. Rock musician C.F. Turner (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is 79. Actor Suzanne Somers is 76. Rock singer-musician Bob Weir is 75. Producer-director David Zucker is 75. Record company executive Jim Ed Norman is 74. Actor Daniel Gerroll is 71. Actor Martha Smith is 70. Comedian-actor Andy Kindler is 66. Actor-director Tim Robbins is 64. Actor-musician Gary Kemp is 63. Singer-musician Bob Mould is 62. Actor Randy Vasquez is 61. Rock musician Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 60. Movie director Kenneth Lonergan is 60. Actor Christian Stolte is 60. Actor Todd Stashwick is 54. Actor Terri J. Vaughn is 53. Singer Wendy Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 53. Rock singer Chad Gray (Mudvayne) is 51. Actor Paul Sparks is 51. Actor Kellie Martin is 47. Singer John Mayer is 45. Actor Jeremy Jackson is 42. Actor Caterina Scorsone is 42. Actor Brea Grant is 41. U.S. Olympic and retired WNBA basketball star Sue Bird is 41. Actor Kyler Pettis is 30. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper is 30. Tennis star Naomi Osaka is 25.
BOSTON — Boston Common, America’s oldest public park, is getting a multimillion-dollar makeover that includes an expanded visitors’ center, more restrooms, additional sports facilities, and even a sit-down restaurant at the famed Frog Pond, city officials announced Wednesday.
The goal is to make the 50-acre (20-hectare) swath of green space in the heart of the city more welcoming, convenient, fun and accessible for both city residents and tourists.
“Boston Common’s gorgeous tree-lined paths and open spaces have hosted so many moments marked in history, from shaping our collective conscience to celebrating our communities,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement. “We’re excited to be sharing a plan that honors the Common’s history, reflects the community’s vision, and creates a space that will be more accessible, more resilient, and more inclusive for generations to come.”
The Common was founded in 1634 and draws millions of people per year. It has been used as a place for public executions, as a pasture, and a military training field, according to the nonprofit group Friends of the Public Garden, which helped develop the Boston Common Master Plan.
More recently it has hosted civil rights marches, Vietnam War protests and a 1979 Catholic Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II attended by an estimated 400,000 people during a soaking rainstorm. It was also the site of huge protests in 2020 against police brutality.
The multiyear plan also includes tripling the size of a children’s playground, a dog park, and adding wheelchair ramps to the Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment Memorial, and the Parkman Bandstand.
“With this Boston Common Master Plan, America’s first public park will have a unified vision for evolving and adapting to meet the needs of Boston’s residents and visitors to our city as well as of the park itself,” said Liz Vizza, president of the Friends of the Public Garden.
The planned changes are the result of years of public input and will be funded in part by $28 million from the 2019 sale of a city parking garage. The city has opened a 45-day public comment period for residents to share their priorities for the makeover plan.
Today is Thursday, Oct. 6, the 279th day of 2022. There are 86 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 6, 1973, war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday. (Israel, initially caught off guard, managed to push back the Arab forces before a cease-fire finally took hold in the nearly three-week conflict.)
On this date:
In 1536, English theologian and scholar William Tyndale, who was the first to translate the Bible into Early Modern English, was executed for heresy.
In 1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson, a feature containing both silent and sound-synchronized sequences.
In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek became president of China.
In 1939, in a speech to the Reichstag, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler spoke of his plans to reorder the ethnic layout of Europe — a plan that would entail settling the “Jewish problem.”
In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford, in his second presidential debate with Democrat Jimmy Carter, asserted that there was “no Soviet domination of eastern Europe.” (Ford later conceded such was not the case.)
In 1979, Pope John Paul II, on a week-long U.S. tour, became the first pontiff to visit the White House, where he was received by President Jimmy Carter.
In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade.
In 2003, American Paul Lauterbur and Briton Peter Mansfield won the Nobel Prize for medicine for discoveries that led to magnetic resonance imaging.
In 2010, social networking app Instagram was launched by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.
In 2014, the Supreme Court unexpectedly cleared the way for a dramatic expansion of gay marriage in the United States as it rejected appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans, effectively making such marriages legal in 30 states.
In 2018, in the narrowest Senate confirmation of a Supreme Court justice in nearly a century and a half, Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by a 50-48 vote; he was sworn in hours later.
In 2020, President Donald Trump, recovering from COVID-19, tweeted his eagerness to return to the campaign trail and said he still planned to attend an upcoming debate with Democrat Joe Biden in Miami; Biden said there should be no debate as long as Trump remained COVID positive. (The debate would be canceled.)
Ten years ago: Five terror suspects, including Egyptian-born preacher Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, widely known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, arrived in the United States from England and appeared in court in New York and Connecticut. (Mustafa was convicted in 2014 of supporting terrorist organizations.)
Five years ago: The board of directors of The Weinstein Co. said movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was on indefinite leave from the company he founded amid an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a grassroots effort aimed at pressuring the world’s nuclear powers to give up those weapons, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
One year ago: A federal judge ordered Texas to suspend a new law that had banned most abortions in the state since September. (An appeals court would reinstate the law two days later.) The Los Angeles City Council voted to enact one of the nation’s strictest vaccine mandates; it required the shots for everyone entering bars, restaurants, nail salons, gyms and even a Lakers game. The World Health Organization endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it would spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease; the vaccine was developed by GlaxoSmithKline in 1987.
Today’s Birthdays: Broadcaster and writer Melvyn Bragg is 83. Actor Britt Ekland is 80. The former leader of Sinn Fein (shin fayn), Gerry Adams, is 74. Singer-musician Thomas McClary is 73. Musician Sid McGinnis is 73. Rock singer Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) is 71. Rock singer-musician David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) is 68. Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy is 67. Actor Elisabeth Shue is 59. Singer Matthew Sweet is 58. Actor Jacqueline Obradors is 56. Country singer Tim Rushlow is 56. Rock musician Tommy Stinson is 56. Actor Amy Jo Johnson is 52. Actor Emily Mortimer is 51. Actor Lamman (la-MAHN’) Rucker is 51. Actor Ioan Gruffudd (YOH’-ihn GRIH’-fihth) is 49. Actor Jeremy Sisto is 48. Actor Brett Gelman is 46. R&B singer Melinda Doolittle is 45. Actor Wes Ramsey is 45. Actor Karimah Westbrook is 44. Singer-musician Will Butler is 40. Actor Stefanie Martini is 32.
