Today in History

Today in History

Today is Saturday, Oct. 8, the 282nd day of 2016. There are 84 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 8, 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0.

On this date:

In 1869, the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, died in Concord, New Hampshire.

In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; fires also broke out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and in several communities in Michigan.

In 1918, U.S. Army Cpl. Alvin C. York led an attack that killed 25 German soldiers and resulted in the capture of 132 others in the Argonne Forest in France.

In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for murder in the death of the kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman told a press conference in Tiptonville, Tennessee, that the secret scientific knowledge behind the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

In 1957, the Brooklyn Baseball Club announced it was accepting an offer to move the Dodgers from New York to Los Angeles.

In 1967, former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee died in London at age 84.

In 1970, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

In 1982, all labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned.

In 1998, the House triggered an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Bill Clinton in a momentous 258-176 vote; 31 Democrats joined majority Republicans in opening the way for nationally televised impeachment hearings.

In 2001, an SAS airliner taking off from Milan, Italy, hit a private jet, careened into an airport building and exploded; all 110 people on the MD-87, four people in the private jet and four people on the ground were killed.

In 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake flattened villages on the Pakistan-India border, killing an estimated 86,000 people.

Ten years ago: Word reached the United States of North Korea's claim that it had exploded a nuclear weapon for the first time, conducting an underground test that defied international warnings (because of the time difference, it was Oct. 9 in North Korea).

Five years ago: Scott Anderson became the first openly gay ordained Presbyterian minister during a ceremony at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin. In a rain-interrupted game that ended a few minutes past midnight, the Texas Rangers defeated the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in Game 1 of the AL championship series. Al Davis, the Hall of Fame owner of the Oakland Raiders, died at age 82. Pianist Roger Williams, 87, died in Los Angeles.

One year ago: Volkswagen's top U.S. executive, Michael Horn, offered deep apologies, yet sought to distance himself from the emissions scandal enveloping the world's largest automaker, asserting before a congressional subcommittee that top corporate officials had no knowledge of the cheating software installed in 11 million diesel cars. Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, celebrated as a hero for helping to stop a terror attack on a French train over the summer, was stabbed and seriously wounded outside a bar in his hometown of Sacramento, California, in what police said was an alcohol-related brawl. (A suspect, James Tran, is accused of attempted murder.) Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and prose writer, won the Nobel Prize in literature. Chef Paul Prudhomme, 75, who'd sparked a nationwide interest in Cajun food, died in New Orleans.

Today's Birthdays: Entertainment reporter Rona Barrett is 80. Actor Paul Hogan is 77. Rhythm-and-blues singer Fred Cash (The Impressions) is 76. Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson is 75. Comedian Chevy Chase is 73. Author R.L. Stine is 73. Actor Dale Dye is 72. Country singer Susan Raye is 72. TV personality Sarah Purcell is 68. Rhythm-and-blues singer Airrion Love (The Stylistics) is 67. Actress Sigourney Weaver is 67. Rhythm-and-blues singer Robert "Kool" Bell (Kool & the Gang) is 66. Producer-director Edward Zwick is 64. Country singer-musician Ricky Lee Phelps is 63. Actor Michael Dudikoff is 62. Comedian Darrell Hammond is 61. Actress Stephanie Zimbalist is 60. Rock musician Mitch Marine is 55. Actress Kim Wayans is 55. Rock singer Steve Perry (Cherry Poppin' Daddies) is 53. Actor Ian Hart is 52. Gospel/rhythm-and-blues singer CeCe Winans is 52. Rock musician C.J. Ramone (The Ramones) is 51. Actress-producer Karyn Parsons is 50. Singer-producer Teddy Riley is 50. Actress Emily Procter is 48. Actor Dylan Neal is 47. Actor-screenwriter Matt Damon is 46. Actor/comedian Robert Kelly is 46. Actor Martin Henderson is 42. Actress Kristanna Loken is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Byron Reeder (Mista) is 37. Rock-soul singer-musician Noelle Scaggs (Fitz and the Tantrums) is 37. Actor Nick Cannon (TV: "America's Got Talent") is 36. Actor Max Crumm is 31. Singer-songwriter-producer Bruno Mars is 31. Actor Angus T. Jones is 23. Actress Molly Quinn is 23.

Thought for Today: "There is an abiding beauty which may be appreciated by those who will see things as they are and who will ask for no reward except to see." -- Vera Brittain, British author (1893-1970).