Today in History
Today is Thursday, Oct. 5, the 278th day of 2023. There are 87 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 5, 1953, Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson.
On this date:
In 1892, the Dalton Gang, notorious for its train robberies, was practically wiped out while attempting to rob a pair of banks in Coffeyville, Kansas.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised White House address as he spoke on the world food crisis.
In 1958, racially-desegregated Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, was nearly leveled by an early morning bombing.
In 1973, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” 7th studio album by Elton John is released.
In 1983, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa (lek vah-WEN’-sah) was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1989, a jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, convicted former P-T-L evangelist Jim Bakker of using his television show to defraud followers. (Sentenced to 45 years in prison, Bakker was freed in December 1994 after serving 4 1/2 years.)
In 1994, 48 people were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide carried out simultaneously in two Swiss villages by members of a secret religious doomsday cult known as the Order of the Solar Temple.
In 2001, tabloid photo editor Robert Stevens died from inhaled anthrax, the first of a series of anthrax cases in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington.
In 2005, defying the White House, senators voted 90-9 to approve an amendment sponsored by Republican Sen. John McCain that would prohibit the use of “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” against anyone in U.S. government custody.
In 2011, Steve Jobs the Apple founder and former chief executive who’d invented and master-marketed ever sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology from the personal computer to the iPod and iPhone, died in Palo Alto, California at age 56.
In 2015, the United States, Japan and 10 other nations in Asia and the Americas reached agreement on the landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
In 2017, Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein announced that he was taking a leave of absence from his company after a New York Times article detailed decades of alleged sexual harassment against women.
In 2018, a jury in Chicago convicted white police officer Jason Van Dyke of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of Black teenager Laquan McDonald.
In 2020, President Donald Trump made a dramatic return to the White House after leaving the military hospital where he was receiving an unprecedented level of care for COVID-19.
In 2021, a former Facebook employee, data scientist Frances Haugen, told a Senate panel that the company knew that its platform spread misinformation and content that harmed children, but that it refused to make changes that could hurt its profits.
In 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the final papers to annex four regions of Ukraine while his military struggled to control the new territory.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Glynis Johns is 100. College Football Hall of Fame coach Barry Switzer is 86 R&B singer Arlene Smith (The Chantels) is 82.
Singer-musician Steve Miller is 80. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., is 80. Rock singer Brian Johnson (AC/DC) is 76. Blues musician Rick Estrin is 74. Actor Karen Allen is 72. Writer-producer-director Clive Barker is 71. Rock musician David Bryson (Counting Crows) is 69. Astrophysicist-author Neil deGrasse Tyson is 65. Memorial designer Maya Lin is 64. Actor Daniel Baldwin is 63. Rock singer-musician Dave Dederer is 59. Hockey Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux is 58. Actor Guy Pearce is 56. Actor Josie Bissett is 53. Singer-actor Heather Headley is 49. Pop-rock singer Colin Meloy (The Decemberists) is 49. Actor Parminder Nagra (pahr-MIHN’-da NAH’-grah) is 48. Actor Scott Weinger is 48. Actor Kate Winslet is 48. Rock musician James Valentine (Maroon 5) is 45. Rock musician Paul Thomas (Good Charlotte) is 43. Actor Jesse Eisenberg is 40. TV personality Nicky Hilton is 40. Actor Azure Parsons is 39. R&B singer Brooke Valentine is 38. Actor Kevin Bigley is 37. Actor Joshua Logan Moore is 29. Actor Jacob Tremblay is 17.
