Today in History
Today is Saturday, Oct. 14, the 287th day of 2023. There are 78 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 14, 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
On this date:
In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.
In 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I. (Mary was beheaded in February 1587.)
In 1933, Nazi Germany announced it was withdrawing from the League of Nations.
In 1939, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the HMS Royal Oak, a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.
In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
In 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.
In 1964, Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was toppled from power; he was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier.
In 1981, the new president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak (HOHS’-nee moo-BAH’-rahk), was sworn in to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat. Mubarak pledged loyalty to Sadat’s policies.
In 1986, Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel (EL’-ee vee-ZEHL’) was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1990, composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein died in New York at age 72.
In 2008, a grand jury in Orlando, Fla. returned charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter against Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. (She was acquitted in July 2011.)
In 2012, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, at the age of 89, marked the 65th anniversary of his supersonic flight by smashing through the sound barrier again, this time in the backseat of an F-15 which took off from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
In 2016, a judge in Connecticut dismissed a wrongful-death lawsuit by Newtown families against the maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre, citing a federal law that shielded gun manufacturers from most lawsuits over criminal use of their products.
In 2017, a truck bombing in Somalia’s capital killed more than 500 people in one of the world’s deadliest attacks in years.
In 2018, Saudi Arabia threatened to retaliate for any sanctions imposed on it over the disappearance and suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, 78-year-old New York real estate heir Robert Durst was sentenced in Los Angeles to life in prison without a chance of parole for the murder of a friend, Susan Berman, more than two decades earlier. (Durst died in prison two months later.)
Today’s Birthdays: Classical pianist Gary Graffman is 95. Movie director Carroll Ballard is 86. Country singer Melba Montgomery is 86. Former White House counsel John W. Dean III is 85. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren is 84. Singer Sir Cliff Richard is 83. Singer-musician Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues) is 77. Actor Greg Evigan is 70. World Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel is 67. Singer-musician Thomas Dolby is 65. Actor Lori Petty is 60. Former MLB player and manager Joe Girardi is 59. Actor Steve Coogan is 58. Singer Karyn White is 58. Actor Edward Kerr is 57. Actor Jon Seda is 53. Country singer Natalie Maines (The Chicks) is 49. Actor-singer Shaznay Lewis (All Saints) is 48. Actor Stephen Hill is 47. Singer Usher is 45. TV personality Stacy Keibler is 44. Actor Ben Whishaw is 43. Actor Jordan Brower is 42. Director Benh Zeitlin is 41. Actor Skyler Shaye is 37. Actor-comedian Jay Pharoah is 36. Actor Max Thieriot is 35.
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