On This Day in History - October 11th - Almanac

Today is Friday, Oct. 11, the 285th day of 2024 with 81 follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include George Williams, founder of the YMCA, in 1821; food industry pioneer Henry John Heinz in 1844; former first lady/writer Eleanor Roosevelt in 1884; writer Elmore Leonard in 1925; Football Hall of Fame Coach LaVell Edwards in 1930; actor/musician Ron Leibman in 1937; musician Daryl Hall in 1946 (age 78); sports writer Thomas Boswell in 1947 (age 77); actor David Morse in 1953 (age 71); Omani Prime Minister/Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said in 1954 (age 70); actor Dawn French in 1957 (age 67); Football Hall of Fame member Steve Young in 1961 (age 63); actor Joan Cusack in 1962 (age 62); musician Scott Johnson (Gin Blossoms) in 1962 (age 62); actor Sean Patrick Flanery in 1965 (age 59); actor Lennie James in 1965 (age 59); actor Luke Perry in 1966; actor Jane Krakowski in 1968 (age 56); actor Constance Zimmer in 1970 (age 54); actor Emily Deschanel in 1976 (age 48); actor Matt Bomer in 1977 (age 46); actor Trevor Donovan in 1982 (age 42); actor Michelle Trachtenberg in 1985 (age 39); golfer Michelle Wie in 1989 (age 35); musician Cardi B, born Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, in 1992 (age 32); actor Brandon Flynn in 1993 (age 31).

On this date in history:

In 1811, the first steam-powered ferry in the world, the Juliana, started its run between New York City and Hoboken, N.J.

In 1868, Thomas Alva Edison filed papers for his first invention: an electrical vote recorder to rapidly tabulate floor votes in the U.S. Congress. Edison's device was issued U.S. Patent 90,646 on June 1, 1869. Members of Congress rejected the apparatus and it was never utilized.

In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education banned Japanese-American students from attending public schools, ordering that instead they were to be taught in racially segregated schools. A compromise was reached in February 1907, allowing the students back into the schools with the Japanese government accepting new immigration restrictions for its citizens wishing to travel to the United States.

In 1910, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to take flight in an airplane. Piloted by Arch Hoxsey, Roosevelt would stay aloft for 4 minutes in a Wright brothers-built plane at Kinloch Field in St. Louis, Mo.

In 1947, the United States agreed to the United Nations Partition Plan of Palestine, which recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States with the city of Jerusalem placed under direct trusteeship of the United Nations. The resolution was adopted by the General Assembly on Nov. 29, 1947, though a civil war, which would last nearly six months, erupted the next day between Arabs and Jews, resulting in the partition plan failing to be implemented.

In 1950, the Federal Communications Commission gave CBS the first license to broadcast color television.

In 1975, Saturday Night Live premiered on NBC with George Carlin as host and musicians Janis Ian and Billy Preston on the bill.

In 1984, Kathryn Sullivan, flying into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger, became the first American woman to walk in space.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss arms control and human rights. While the talks collapsed at the last minute, work would continue, resulting in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the two nations.

In 2000, Congress redesigned Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area as a national park, making it the first national recreation area to receive the upgrade in the United States.

In 2002, Congress gave U.S. President George W. Bush its backing for using military force against Iraq.

In 2008, the U.S. State Department removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. In return, North Korea agreed to give international inspectors access to its nuclear facilities and to continue disabling its plutonium processing project.

In 2013, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize. The United Nations-backed OPCW, which has headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, was overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile at the time it won the prize.

In 2022, British TV, film and stage legend Angela Lansbury, whose career spanned nearly 80 years, died at age 96.

A thought for the day: "The camera is an instrument that teaches people to see without a camera." -- American photographer Dorothea Lange