On This Day in History - October 2nd - Almanac

Today is Monday, Oct. 2, the 275th day of 2023 with 90 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include England's King Richard III in 1452; Nat Turner, a black slave and leader of the only effective and sustained U.S. slave revolt, in 1800; German statesman Paul von Hindenburg in 1847; Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1869; comedian Julius "Groucho" Marx in 1890; comedian Bud Abbott in 1895; child actor George "Spanky" McFarland in 1928; movie critic Rex Reed in 1938 (age 85); pop singer Don McLean in 1945 (age 78); actor Avery Brooks in 1948 (age 75); fashion designer Donna Karan in 1948 (age 75); photographer Annie Leibovitz in 1949 (age 74); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Sting, born Gordon Sumner, in 1951 (age 72); actor Lorraine Bracco in 1954 (age 69); TV personality Kelly Ripa in 1970 (age 53); actor Camilla Belle in 1986 (age 37); actor Samantha Barks in 1990 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird performed the first test of a working television system.

In 1950, the "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Schulz was published for the first time. The comic ran for 50 years until Schulz's death in 2000 from cancer.

In 1959, The Twilight Zone, with host Rod Serling, premiered on U.S. television. CBS revived the sci-fi anthology show in 2018 with Jordan Peele as host.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1970, a plane crash in Colorado killed 31 people, including members of the Wichita State University football team.

In 1984, Richard Miller became the first FBI agent to be charged with espionage. He was convicted of passing government secrets to the Soviet Union through his Russian lover.

In 1985, actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS. He was 59. The first celebrity to publicly acknowledge he suffered from AIDS, Hudson's final days were marked by visits from screen legends.

In 2001, NATO said the United States had shown evidence, sufficient to justify military action, that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2002, a 55-year-old Maryland man was slain in the first in a series of apparent random sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area for three weeks. John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were both convicted of capital murder for the killings, which numbered 17 in total. Muhammad was executed Nov. 10, 2009. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 2006, five Amish girls were fatally shot in a rural, one-room schoolhouse in Nickle Mines, Pa. The suspect, a milk truck driver who also killed himself, had told his wife he needed to avenge something that had happened 20 years earlier.

In 2020, President Donald Trump announced he and first lady Melania Trump were diagnosed with COVID-19. The president would go on to be hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment.

A thought for the day: "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." -- Indian politician Mahatma Gandhi