Today in History

Today is Sunday, Oct. 11, the 285th day of 2020. There are 81 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Oct. 11, 1991, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her; Thomas re-appeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a "high-tech lynching."

On this date:

In 1779, Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski, fighting for American independence, died two days after being wounded during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Georgia.

In 1809, just over three years after the famous Lewis and Clark expedition ended, Meriwether Lewis was found dead in a Tennessee inn, an apparent suicide; he was 35.

In 1905, the Juilliard School was founded as the Institute of Musical Art in New York.

In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education ordered the city's Asian students segregated in a purely "Oriental" school. (The order was later rescinded at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who promised to curb future Japanese immigration to the United States.)

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt became the first former U.S. president to fly in an airplane during a visit to St. Louis.

In 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. The government of Panama was overthrown in a military coup.

In 1983, the last full-fledged hand-cranked telephone system in the United States went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched over to direct-dial service.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks in Reykjavik, Iceland, concerning arms control and human rights.

In 2001, in his first prime-time news conference since taking office, President George W. Bush said "it may take a year or two" to track down Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network in Afghanistan, but he asserted that after a five-day aerial bombardment, "we've got them on the run."

In 2002, former President Jimmy Carter was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2006, the charge of treason was used for the first time in the U.S. war on terrorism, filed against Adam Yehiye Gadahn, also known as "Azzam the American," who'd appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaida. (Gadahn was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in Jan. 2015.)

In 2014, customs and health officials began taking the temperatures of passengers arriving at New York's Kennedy International Airport from three West African countries in a stepped-up screening effort meant to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.

Ten years ago: Rescuers in Chile finished reinforcing a hole drilled to bring 33 trapped miners to safety and sent a rescue capsule nearly all the way to where the men were trapped, proving the escape route worked. Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides won the Nobel Prize in economics for their work in explaining why unemployment can remain high despite large numbers of job openings.

Five years ago: In an interview that aired on CBS' "60 Minutes," President Barack Obama said that Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct government business when she served as secretary of state was a mistake but didn't endanger national security. A spokesman for Iran's judiciary said that Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, detained for more than a year on charges including espionage, had been convicted. (Rezaian was released in January 2016.) In Incheon, South Korea, the United States rallied to win the Presidents Cup for the sixth straight time.

One year ago: Testifying in defiance of a White House ban, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House impeachment investigators that President Donald Trump had pressured the State Department to oust her from her post and get her out of the country; she'd been recalled from Ukraine as Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed Ukrainian officials to investigate corruption allegations against the Bidens. Fox news anchor Shepard Smith, who had angered many of the network's conservative viewers by frequently giving tough reports debunking statements made by Trump and his supporters, abruptly quit after signing off his final newscast. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to end his country's long-running border conflict with neighbor and bitter rival Eritrea. Character actor Robert Forster, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a bail bondsman in "Jackie Brown," died of brain cancer at the age of 78.

Today's Birthdays: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry is 93. Actor Amitabh Bachchan is 78. Country singer Gene Watson is 77. Singer Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates) is 74. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is 70. Rhythm-and-blues musician Andrew Woolfolk is 70. Actor-director Catlin Adams is 70. Country singer Paulette Carlson is 69. Original MTV VJ Mark Goodman is 68. Actor David Morse is 67. Actor Stephen Spinella is 64. Actor-writer-comedian Dawn French is 63. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Steve Young is 59. Actor Joan Cusack is 58. Rock musician Scott Johnson (Gin Blossoms) is 58. Comedy writer and TV host Michael J. Nelson is 56. Actor Sean Patrick Flanery is 55. Actor Lennie James is 55. College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Chris Spielman is 55. Country singer-songwriter Todd Snider is 54. Actor-comedian Artie Lange is 53. Actor Jane Krakowski is 52. Actor Andrea Navedo is 51. Actor Constance Zimmer is 50. Bluegrass musician Leigh Gibson (The Gibson Brothers) is 49. Rapper MC Lyte is 49. Figure skater Kyoko Ina is 48. Actor Darien Sills-Evans is 46. Actor/writer Nat Faxon is 45. Singer NeeNa Lee is 45. Actor Emily Deschanel is 44. Actor Matt Bomer is 43. Actor Trevor Donovan is 42. Actor Robert Christopher Riley is 40. Actor Michelle Trachtenberg is 35. Actor Lucy Griffiths is 34. Golfer Michelle Wie is 31. Rapper Cardi B is 28.