On Oct. 7, 1929, former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall, one of the main figures of the Teapot Dome scandal, went on trial in Washington, D.C., charged with accepting a bribe from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny. (Fall was convicted and sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000; he ended up serving nine months. Ironically, Doheny was acquitted at trial of offering the bribe that Fall was convicted of accepting.)
On this date:
In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.
In 1777, the second Battle of Saratoga began during the American Revolution. (British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered 10 days later.)
In 1849, author Edgar Allan Poe died at age 40.
In 1858, the fifth debate between Illinois senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place in Galesburg.
In 1868, Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, N.Y.
In 1879, Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein in Yanovka, Ukraine.
In 1913, for the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park automobile factory was run on a continuously moving assembly line.
In 1916, in the most lopsided football game on record, Georgia Tech humbled Cumberland University, 222-0. [We've been led to understand that our late father was on the losing team in a 104-0 football game in Texas in the '30s. Coulda been that eight-man football they play down there 'cause they're nuts. Either way: Loser. — Ed.]
In 1949, the Republic of East Germany was formed.
In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard M. Nixon held their second televised debate, in Washington, D.C.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.
Thirty years ago, in 1979, Pope John Paul II concluded his weeklong tour of the United States with a Mass on the Washington Mall.
In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers, who killed an elderly Jewish American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, surrendered two days after taking over the ship.)
Twenty years ago, in 1989, Hungary's Communist Party renounced Marxism in favor of democratic socialism during a party congress in Budapest.
In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill's allegations.
In 1996, Fox News Channel made its debut.
In 1997, scientists announced they had found one of the most massive stars known, behind a dense dust cloud in the Milky Way that had previously concealed it. The star was 25,000 light-years from Earth.
In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay college student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie; he died five days later. (Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard's murder.)
AP Highlight in [Alternate] History:
On Oct. 7, 2001, the United States and Britain launched air strikes against Taliban positions and Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan; bin Laden praised God for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a videotaped statement aired on the Arabic satellite station Al-Jazeera. [If Bush hadn't been such a moron on 6 August 2001 ("You've covered your ass.") we could have been bombing them 12 or 13 September 2001, depending on the dateline. — Ed.] In a pre-recorded tape Osama bin Laden warned, "America will not live in peace" until peace came to "Palestine" and "until the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammed."
In 2001, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd homer, while San Diego's Rickey Henderson became the 25th player with 3,000 career hits. [Barry sucks, but Rickey's cool. — Ed.]
In 2002, the sniper terrorizing the Washington area struck again, critically wounding a 13-year-old boy as he was being dropped off at school in Bowie, Md.
In 2003, California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him. [Smooth move, you fucking shitheels. Are you happy now, cretins? — Ed.]
Five years ago: President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney conceded that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction as they tried to shift the Iraq war debate to a new issue — whether the invasion was justified because Saddam was abusing a U.N. oil-for-food program. [Oh, why even bother? — Ed.] Two bombs exploded at a gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in Multan, Pakistan, killing some three dozen people. Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated because of poor health. [Perhaps Ah-node will abdicate because he's a groping jerk-off. — Ed.] Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize in literature.
In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who had chronicled Russian military abuses against civilians in Chechnya, was found shot to death in Moscow. Until this is a regular occurence in the United Snakes, fascist right-wing ass-wipes are cordially invited the shut the fuck up about being "silenced" when they are called on their lies & condemned as lying scum. — Ed.] Three former congressional pages joined two others in accusing former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., of making "sexual approaches" over the Internet. Foley had resigned a week earlier when the first of the reports surfaced.
One year ago: The misery worsened on Wall Street, as the Dow lost more than 500 points and all the major indexes slid more than 5 percent. In their second presidential debate, held at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain clashed repeatedly over the causes and cures for the economic crisis. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan and Yoichiro Nambu of the United States won the Nobel Prize in physics.
Today's Birthdays: Singer Al Martino is 82. Retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is 78. Comedian Joy Behar ("The View") is 67. Former National Security Council aide Oliver North is 66. Rock musician Kevin Godley (10cc) is 64. Actress Jill Larson ("All My Children") is 62. Country singer Kieran Kane is 60. Singer John Mellencamp is 58. Rock musician Ricky Phillips is 58. Actress Mary Badham is 57. Actress Christopher Norris is 56. Rock musician Tico Torres (Bon Jovi) is 56. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is 54. Gospel singer Michael W. Smith is 52. Actor Dylan Baker is 51. Recording executive and TV personality Simon Cowell ("American Idol") is 50. Rock musician Charlie Marinkovich (Iron Butterfly) is 50. Country singer Dale Watson is 47. Pop singer Ann Curless (Expose) is 46. R&B singer Toni Braxton is 42. Rock singer-musician Thom Yorke (Radiohead) is 41. Rock musician-dancer Leeroy Thornhill is 40. Actress Nicole Ari Parker is 39. Rock singer-musician Damian Kulash is 34. Singer Taylor Hicks ("American Idol") is 33. Actor Omar Benson Miller is 31.
Today In Entertainment History October 7
In 1940, Artie Shaw and his Orchestra recorded Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" for RCA Victor.
In 1950, "Your Hit Parade" was first broadcast on NBC. It started as a radio program in 1935.
In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
In 1959, singer-actor Mario Lanza died in Rome at age 38.
In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America adopted its film-rating system, ranging from "G" for general audiences to "X" for adult patrons only.
In 1975, John Lennon won his battle against US immigration authorities when a federal appeals court overturned an order to deport him. Officials had wanted to kick Lennon out of the country because of a drug arrest in Britain.
In 1977, guitarist Steve Hackett left Genesis.
In 1982, the musical "Cats" opened on Broadway, beginning its record run of 7,485 performances. [No one has ever gone broke underestimating the "taste" of the American public. — Ed.]
In 1995, actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen were married on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Rapper Tone Loc was arrested for allegedly taking $80 from a pizza parlor in Los Angeles, arguing with the owner over a pizza, and demanding his money back. He pleaded no contest to the charges.
In 1996, an alleged shoplifter surrendered to actors Richard Belzer and Clark Johnson after mistaking them for real cops. Belzer and Johnson were filming an episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street."
In 2000, Phish performed its last show before going on hiatus.
Thought for Today:"An egotist is a person of low taste — more interested in himself than in me." — Ambrose Bierce, American author-journalist (1842-1914?).
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