AP News, October 7th, 2007
Today is Sunday, Oct. 7, the 280th day of 2007. There are 85 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Oct. 7, 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.
On this date:
In 1571, allied Christian forces defeated an Ottoman fleet in the naval Battle of Lepanto.
In 1777, the second Battle of Saratoga began during the American Revolution. (British forces under General John Burgoyne surrendered ten days later.)
In 1849, author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore, Md., at age 40.
In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.
In 1949, the Republic of East Germany was formed.
In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard M. Nixon held their second televised debate, in Washington, D.C.
In 1982, the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical "Cats" opened on Broadway. (The show closed Sept. 10, 2000, after a record 7,485 performances.)
In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers, who killed an elderly Jewish American tourist, surrendered two days after taking the ship.)
In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill's allegations.
Ten years ago: Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigating fundraising abuses, accused the White House of "a clear pattern of delay, foot-dragging, concealing." Former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes defended using the White House to raise Democratic money, telling the committee, "We played by the rules."
Five years ago: In an address to the nation, President Bush labeled Saddam Hussein a "homicidal dictator" and said the threat from Iraq was unique and imminent. The Washington-area sniper struck again, shooting and critically wounding a 13-year-old boy as his aunt dropped him off at school in Bowie, Md. British researchers Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston and American researcher H. Robert Horvitz won the Nobel Prize in medicine. The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on a mission to the international space station.
One year ago: Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who'd chronicled Russian military abuses against civilians in Chechnya, was found shot to death in Moscow. The Bush family christened the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, named after the 41st president, in Newport News, Va.
Today's Birthdays: Singer Al Martino is 80. Retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is 76. Former National Security Council aide Oliver North is 64. Rock musician Kevin Godley (10cc) is 62. Country singer Kieran Kane is 58. Singer John Mellencamp is 56. Rock musician Ricky Phillips is 56. Actress Mary Badham is 55. Actress Christopher Norris is 54. Rock musician Tico Torres (Bon Jovi) is 54. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is 52. Gospel singer Michael W. Smith is 50. Recording executive and TV personality Simon Cowell ("American Idol") is 48. Rock musician Charlie Marinkovich (Iron Butterfly) is 48. Country singer Dale Watson is 45. Pop singer Ann Curless (Expose) is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Toni Braxton is 40. Rock singer-musician Thom Yorke (Radiohead) is 39. Rock musician-dancer Leeroy Thornhill is 38. Actress Nicole Ari Parker is 37. Rock singer-musician Damian Kulash is 32. Singer Taylor Hicks ("American Idol") is 31.
Thought for Today: "There's many a mistake made on purpose." _ Thomas Haliburton, Canadian jurist-humorist (1796-1865).
