Today is Monday, October 7, the 281st day of 2024. There are 85 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants launched air and ground attacks on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. The attacks, followed hours later by Israeli counterattacks, marked the start of the current war between Israel and Hamas.
Also on this date:
In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress met in New York to formulate colonial grievances against England.
In 1913, the first moving assembly line went into service at the Ford Motor Company plant in Highland Park, Michigan.
In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.
In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro (ah-KEE’-leh LOW’-roh) in the Mediterranean Sea. The hijackers shot Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American tourist in a wheelchair, and pushed him overboard before he surrendered on October 9.
In 1992, trade representatives from the United States, Canada, and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement at a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in the presence of President George H. W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. .
In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay student, was beaten and tied to a wooden fence post outside Laramie, Wyoming; he died five days later. Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard’s murder.
In 2001, the war in Afghanistan began when the United States and Britain launched air strikes on military targets and Osama bin Laden’s training camps in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
In 2003, California voters recalled Governor Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as their new governor.
Birthdays today: Author Thomas Keneally is 89. Comedian and host Joy Behar is 82. Singer John Mellencamp is 73. Rock musician Tico Torres (Bon Jovi) is 71. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is 69. Recording manager and TV personality Simon Cowell is 65 . Singer-actor Toni Braxton is 57. Rock singer-musician Thom Yorke (Radiohead) is 56. Actor Nicole Ari Parker is 54. Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson is 48. Singer Taylor Hicks is 48. Actor Omar Miller is 46. MLB- outfielder Mookie Betts is 32.
