more events on October 2
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2001
NATO backs US military strikes in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
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1990
Flight 8301 of China’s Xiamen Airlines is hijacked and crashed into Baiyun International Airport, hitting two other aircraft and killing 128 people.
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1980
Congressional Representative Mike Myers is expelled from the US House for taking a bribe in the Abscam scandal, the first member to be expelled since 1861.
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1970
Kelly Ripa, actress, producer, co-host of Live! with Kelly and Michael TV talk show.
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A plane carrying the Wichita State University football team, staff, and supporters crashes in Colorado; 31 of the 40 people aboard die.
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1967
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court justice, is sworn in. Marshall had previously been the solicitor general, the head of the legal staff of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a leading American civil rights lawyer.
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1964
Scientists announce findings that smoking can cause cancer.
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1959
The groundbreaking TV series The Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling, premiers on CBS.
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1951
Sting (Gordon M.T. Sumner), singer, songwriter, musician, actor; lead singer and bass player for the band The Police before launching a successful solo career.
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1950
The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schultz, makes its first appearance in newspapers.
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1949
Annie Leibovitz, photographer whose subjects include John Lennon and the Rolling Stones.
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1945
Martin Hellman, cryptologist, co-inventor of public key cryptography.
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Don McLean, singer, songwriter guitarist, best known for “American Pie,” his tribute to Buddy Holly and early rock ‘n’ roll.
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1941
The German army launches Operation Typhoon, the drive towards Moscow.
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1938
Rex Reed, actor and film critic; co-hosted the At the Movies TV show.
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1937
Johnnie Cochran, high-profile African American lawyer whose many famous clients included O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson.
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1933
John Bertrand Gurdon, English developmental biologist who shared Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (2012) for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells.
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1931
Aerial circus star Clyde Pangborn and playboy Hugh Herndon, Jr. set off to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Misawa City, Japan.
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1909
Orville Wright sets an altitude record, flying at 1,600 feet. This exceeded Hubert Latham’s previous record of 508 feet.
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1907
Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish biochemist who won Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1957) for his work on nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes.
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1904
Graham Greene, novelist (The Power and The Glory, The Heart of the Matter).
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1901
Roy Campbell, poet (The Flaming Terrapin).
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1900
William A. ‘Bud’ Abbot, comedian, the straight man to Lou Costello.
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1890
Julius Henry ‘Groucho’ Marx, comedian, one of the five Marx brothers (the others being Chico, Harpo, Zeppo and Gummo).
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1879
Wallace Stevens, poet.
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A dual alliance is formed between Austria and Germany, in which the two countries agree to come to the other’s aid in the event of aggression.
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1871
Cordell Hull, Secretary of State for President Franklin Roosevelt.
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Morman leader Brigham Young, 70, is arrested for polygamy. He was later convicted, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
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1870
The papal states vote in favor of union with Italy. The capital is moved from Florence to Rome.
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1869
Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi, political leader of India and pioneer of nonviolent activism.
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1862
An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrives in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga. Chattanooga’s Lookout Mountain provides a dramatic setting for the Civil War’s battle above the clouds.
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1847
Paul von Hindenburg, German Field Marshall during World War I and second president of the Weimar Republic.
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1535
Having landed in Quebec a month ago, Jacques Cartier reaches a town, which he names Montreal.
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1263
At Largs, King Alexander III of Scotland repels an amphibious invasion by King Haakon IV of Norway.