Today is Sunday, Oct. 2, the 275th day of 2005. There are 90 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 2, 1985, actor Rock Hudson died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 59 after battling AIDS.
On this date:
In 1780, British spy John Andre was hanged in Tappan, N.Y.
In 1835, the first battle of the Texas Revolution took place as American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry near the Guadalupe River.
In 1919, President Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.
In 1941, German armies began Operation Typhoon — an all-out drive against Moscow.
In 1944, Nazi troops crushed the 2-month-old Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter of a million people were killed.
In 1950, the comic strip “Peanuts,” created by Charles M. Schulz, was first published in nine newspapers.
In 1958, the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa proclaimed its independence.
In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he was the first black appointed to the nation’s highest court.
In 1975, President Ford welcomed Japan’s Emperor Hirohito to the United States.
In 1980, U.S. Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers, D-Pa., convicted of accepting a bribe in the FBI’s ABSCAM sting operation, was expelled from the House, becoming the first congressman ousted by his colleagues since the outbreak of the Civil War.
Ten years ago: O.J. Simpson’s jurors stunned the courtroom and the nation by reaching verdicts in the sensational eight-month murder trial in less than four hours. (The decision was kept secret until the following day, when it was announced that Simpson had been acquitted.)
Five years ago: In his first public address since a disputed election, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic branded his opponents puppets of the West. (A wave of unrest aimed at driving Milosevic from power swept Yugoslavia, and the government responded by arresting dozens of strike leaders.)
One year ago: Suspected separatist rebels began four days of attacks in India’s Nagaland and Assam states that killed 73 people.
Today’s Birthdays: Country singer-musician Leon Rausch (Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys) is 78. Former Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills is 73. Movie critic Rex Reed is 67. Singer-songwriter Don McLean is 60. Cajun/country singer Jo-El Sonnier is 59. Actor Avery Brooks is 57. Photographer Annie Leibovitz is 56. Rock musician Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike & the Mechanics) is 55. Singer-actor Sting is 54. Actress Lorraine Bracco is 51. Country musician Greg Jennings (Restless Heart) is 51. Rock singer Phil Oakey (The Human League) is 50. Rhythm-and-blues singer Freddie Jackson is 47. Singer-producer Robbie Nevil is 47. Rock musician Bud Gaugh (Sublime) is 38. Folk-country singer Gillian Welch is 38. Country singer Kelly Willis is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Dion Allen (Az Yet) is 35. Actress-talk show host Kelly Ripa is 35. Singer Tiffany is 34. Rock singer Lene Nystrom is 32. Rhythm-and-blues singer LaTocha Scott (Xscape) is 32. Rapper Big Proof (D12) is 28.
Thought for Today: “I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious persons are fond of a joke, and I am suspicious of those who aren’t.” — Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher and mathematician (1861-1947).
