On This Day in History - October 4th - Almanac

Today is Thursday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2018 with 88 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States, in 1822; Frederic Remington, painter of the American West, in 1861; pioneer movie comedian Buster Keaton in 1895; actor Charlton Heston in 1923; football Hall of Fame member Sam Huff in 1934 (age 84); author Jackie Collins in 1937; author Anne Rice in 1941 (age 77); author author Roy Blount Jr., both in 1941 (age 77); civil rights activist H. Rap Brown in 1943 (age 75); baseball Hall of Fame member Tony La Russa in 1944 (age 74); actor Clifton Davis in 1945 (age 73); actor Susan Sarandon in 1946 (age 72); actor Armand Assante in 1949 (age 69); actor Christoph Waltz in 1956 (age 62); actor Bill Fagerbakke in 1957 (age 61); recording executive/businessman Russell Simmons in 1957 (age 61); singer Jon Secada in 1961 (age 57); actor Liev Schreiber in 1967 (age 51); actor Alicia Silverstone in 1976 (age 42); actor Rachael Leigh Cook in 1979 (age 39); actor Caitriona Balfe in 1979 (age 39); actor Melissa Benoist in 1988 (age 30); actor Dakota Johnson in 1989 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1876, the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, now Texas A&M, opened. It was the first public higher education institution in Texas.

In 1883, the Orient Express train made its first run, originating in Paris, at Gare de l'Est, and ending in Giurgiu, Romania, with stops in Munich and Vienna.

In 1895, the U.S. Open men's golf tournament was first contested. It was won by Horace Rawlins.

In 1927, artist Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore. It would take 14 years to complete, with work on the monument finishing in 1941. Despite the difficult nature of the project, there were no worker fatalities.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made space satellite, Sputnik 1. The Soviet's successful launch caught America by surprise and was the spark which ignited the Space Race.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York on the first visit by a pope to the United States.

In 1976, Earl Butz resigned as U.S. agriculture secretary, with an apology for what he called the "gross indiscretion" of uttering a racist remark.

In 1989, Art Shell was hired by the Oakland Raiders as the first black head coach in the modern National Football League.

In 1991, the United States and 23 other countries signed an agreement banning mineral and oil exploration in Antarctica for 50 years.

In 1992, up to 250 people were killed when an El Al 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered several hundred more U.S. troops to Somalia on the second day the Battle of Mogadishu.

In 2001, a Siberian Airlines jetliner exploded and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 64 passengers and 12 crew members. The United States said evidence indicated the plane had been hit by a missile fired during a Ukrainian military training exercise.

In 2002, the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his alleged effort to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers during a 2001 Paris-to-Miami flight. Reid was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2004, SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded rocket to reach the edge of space, flew to an altitude above 62 miles over the California desert.

In 2006, WikiLeaks.org was created by Julian Assange as a depository for leaked documents and other classified materials.

In 2009, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement scored a landslide victory in the Greek elections. U.S.-born George Papandreou became prime minister, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He was sworn in two days later.

In 2010, a sludge reservoir burst in Hungary, sending 200 million gallons of toxic mud onto the roads of three villages, killing seven people, injuring 150 others and driving hundreds from their homes.

In 2013, Vietnamese Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, whose forces drove France (in 1954) and the United States (in 1975) out of Vietnam, died in Hanoi at the age of 102.

In 2017, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson for developments in simplifying and improving the imaging of biomolecules.

A thought for the day: "You can become a winner only if you are willing to walk over the edge." -- Damon Runyon