Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Thursday, Oct. 6, the 279th day of 2010 with 86 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune, Uranus, Venus and Saturn. The evening stars are Jupiter and Mars. Advertisement Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," in 1820; inventor and manufacturer George Westinghouse in 1846; French aviator Roland Garros in 1888; tennis champion Helen Wills Moody in 1905; actors Janet Gaynor in 1906 and Carole Lombard in 1908; Norwegian ethnologist, archaeologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in 1914; former "60 Minutes" journalist Shana Alexander in 1925; actors Britt Ekland in 1942 (age 69); Northern Ireland politician Gerry Adams in 1948 (age 63); writer David Brin in 1950 (age 61); and actor Elisabeth Shue in 1963 (age 48). Advertisement On this date in history: In 1853, Antioch College opened in Yellow Springs, Ohio, as the first non-sectarian school to offer equal opportunity for both men and women. In 1921, sports writer Grantland Rice was at the microphone as baseball's World Series was broadcast on radio for the first time. In 1927, "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, Hollywood's legendary "first talkie," premiered in New York, ushering in the era of sound and a subsequent end of the silents. In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated as he reviewed a military parade in Cairo. In 1985, England's worst post-war race rioting, which began almost a month earlier in Birmingham, spread to the Tottenham section of London. In 1989, Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Bette Davis died of cancer in a suburb of Paris. She was 81. In 1991, Anita Hill, a former personal assistant to U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas, accused Thomas of sexual harassment. In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton used his new line-item veto power to eliminate 38 military spending projects. In 2001, Cal Ripkin Jr. retired after a spectacular baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles that included playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games. Advertisement In 2004, a U.S. weapons inspector said that Iraq began destroying its illicit weapons in 1991 and had none by 1996, seven years before the United States invaded. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States and allied forces had foiled at least three al-Qaida U.S. attacks since Sept. 11, 2001. In 2007, Pervez Musharraf breezed to re-election to a third term as president of Pakistan. But, opposition continued to challenge legality of his serving as both president and army chief. In 2008, stock markets around the world lost ground on the first day of trading after the U.S. bailout bill became law with American stocks overcoming record declines and an 800-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average. Also in 2008, suicide bombers killed 27 people in central Sri Lanka and 20 in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province. And, at least 60 people died in southern Kyrgyzstan when an earthquake rattled the central Asian country. In 2010, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP, which authorized controversial bailout funds for financial institutions, came to an end after spending an estimated $388 billion though that figure was expected to grow when all reports are in. Advertisement Also in 2010, floods inundated more than 200 villages on the Chinese island of Hainan and trapped at least 6,000 people. A thought for the day: Tansu Ciller, the first woman prime minister of Turkey, said: "Nobody can resist a ripe idea. The idea today is change."
