It happened today – this day in history – October 7
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1492: Christopher Columbus changes course… and misses Florida.
1690: The English attack Quebec.
1737: A cyclone causes 40 foot waves that are believed to have killed 300,000 in Calcutta, India.
1806: Carbon paper is patented by Ralph Wedgwood.
1849: Death of author Edgar Allen Poe says after being found delirious in the street.
1886: Slavery is abolished in Cuba.
1919: KLM, the oldest existing airline is formed in The Netherlands.
1926: Formation of the Italian Great Fascist Council.
1929: Ramsey MacDonald becomes the first British prime minister to address the US Congress.
1942: Establishment of the UN is announced.
1950: US forces invade North Korea.
1955: Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem Howl for the first time in public at a reading in San Francisco.
1959: Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 takes the first pictures of the far side of the Moon.
1966: Singer Johnny Kidd dies in a car crash.
1971: The French Connection, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider premiers in the US.
1973: Jackie Stewart wins his 3rd Formula 1 World Drivers Championship despite withdrawing from the final race of the season, the US Grand Prix.
1975: The US withdraws its threat to deport John Lennon ‘for a previous drug conviction’ (thought to actually be an attempt by the Nixon White House to have him removed for his political clout).
1976: John Lennon was awarded his ‘Green Card’ – permanent residency status, at a hearing in New York which overturned previous efforts by the US Government to deport him.
1977: Steve Hackett quits the band Genesis.
1979: Ferrari driver Jody Scheckter becomes the first South African to win the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.
1981: Hosni Mubarak becomes acting president of Egypt following the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
1985: PLO terrorists seize the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro.
1996: Rupert Murdoch launches Fox News.
2001: American and British troops began air strikes against Al Qaeda and Taliban targets after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin-Laden.
2003: Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes Governor of California.
2016: The Washington Post releases video of Donald Trump boasting of groping and kissing women without consent.
BIRTHDAYS: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 88; Kevin Godley, drummer/singer/video director, (10cc) 74; Vladimir Putin, Russian leader, 67; Ludmilla Tourischeva, Olympic gymnast, 67; Tico Torres, drummer (Bon Jovi) 66; Yo Yo Ma, cellist, 64; Jayne Torvill, former skating champion, 62; Simon Cowell, record executive/television producer, 60; Thom Yorke, musician (Radiohead), 51; Tim Minchin, comedian/musician, 44; Alesha Dixon, singer/TV judge, 41; Jermaine Defoe, footballer, 37.
