Today in History

Today in History

Today is Thursday, Oct. 13, the 287th day of 2016. There are 79 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 13, 1792, the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

On this date:

In A.D. 54, Roman Emperor Claudius I died, poisoned apparently at the behest of his wife, Agrippina.

In 1775, the United States Navy had its origins as the Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.

In 1843, the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith was founded in New York City.

In 1932, President Herbert Hoover and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington.

In 1944, during World War II, American troops entered Aachen, Germany.

In 1957, CBS-TV broadcast "The Edsel Show," a one-hour live special starring Bing Crosby designed to promote the new, ill-fated Ford automobile. (It was the first special to use videotape technology to delay the broadcast to the West Coast.)

In 1962, Edward Albee's four-character drama "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opened on Broadway.

In 1966, actor-singer-dancer Clifton Webb, 76, died in Los Angeles.

In 1972, a Uruguayan chartered flight carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes; survivors resorted to feeding off the remains of some of the dead in order to stay alive until they were rescued more than two months later.

In 1981, voters in Egypt participated in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

In 1999, the Senate rejected the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, with 48 senators voting in favor and 51 against, far short of the 67 needed for ratification. In Boulder, Colorado, the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months of work with prosecutors saying there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old beauty queen's 1996 slaying.

In 2010, rescuers in Chile using a missile-like escape capsule pulled 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed mine a half-mile underground.

Ten years ago: The United Nations General Assembly appointed South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon the next U.N. secretary-general. Banker Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh won the Nobel Peace Prize for using microcredit to lift people out of poverty. U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty in an influence-peddling investigation of Congress. (Ney served nearly a year and a-half of his original 2 1/2-year prison sentence.) Arnold Palmer tearfully said it was time to stop playing competitive golf after withdrawing from a Champions Tour event in Spring, Texas, early in the first round.

Five years ago: Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire at the center of one of the biggest insider-trading cases in U.S. history, was sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 11 years behind bars. The Detroit Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the AL championship series, defeating the Texas Rangers 7-5. The Milwaukee Brewers tied the NL championship series at two games apiece with a 4-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. American Jordyn Wieber won another gold medal, beating Russia's Viktoria Komova for the all-around title at the world gymnastics championships in Tokyo.

One year ago: Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders clashed over U.S. involvement in the Middle East, gun control and economic policy in the first Democratic presidential debate held in Las Vegas, but in a moment of political unity, Sanders leapt to Clinton's defense on the issue of her controversial email practices as secretary of state. Twitter announced it was laying off up to 336 employees. Playboy announced it would no longer run photos of completely naked women in its magazine. Former NBA and reality TV star Lamar Odom was hospitalized after he was found unconscious at a Nevada brothel.

Today's Birthdays: Gospel singer Shirley Caesar is 79. Actress Melinda Dillon is 77. Singer-musician Paul Simon is 75. Actress Pamela Tiffin is 74. Musician Robert Lamm (Chicago) is 72. Country singer Lacy J. Dalton is 70. Actor Demond Wilson is 70. Singer-musician Sammy Hagar is 69. Pop singer John Ford Coley is 68. Actor John Lone is 64. Model Beverly Johnson is 64. Producer-writer Chris Carter is 60. Actor Reggie Theus is 59. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is 58. Singer Marie Osmond is 57. Rock singer Joey Belladonna is 56. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is 56. NBA coach Doc Rivers is 55. Actress T'Keyah Crystal Keymah is 54. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice is 54. Actress Kelly Preston is 54. Country singer John Wiggins is 54. Actor Christopher Judge is 52. Actor Matt Walsh is 52. Actor Reginald Ballard is 51. Actress Kate Walsh is 49. Rhythm-and-blues musician Jeff Allen (Mint Condition) is 48. Actress Tisha Campbell-Martin is 48. Classical singer Carlos Marin (Il Divo) is 48. Olympic silver-medal figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is 47. Country singer Rhett Akins is 47. Classical crossover singer Paul Potts is 46. TV personality Billy Bush is 45. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen is 45. Rock musician Jan Van Sichem Jr. (K's Choice) is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singers Brian and Brandon Casey (Jagged Edge) are 41. Actress Kiele Sanchez is 40. NBA All-Star Paul Pierce is 39. DJ Vice is 38. Singer Ashanti is 36. Christian rock singer Jon Micah Sumrall (Kutless) is 36. Olympic gold medal swimmer Ian Thorpe is 34.

Thought for Today: "There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. One has to go abroad in order to find the home one has lost." -- Franz Kafka, author (1883-1924).