Today In History

Today in History: Thursday, October  20, 2016
AP Highlight in History:
On Oct. 20, 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, Libya’s dictator for 42 years, was killed as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell. Gadhafi was 69.
 

AP Photo/Ben Curtis

 

On this date in:
1803 The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
1931 Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Okla.
 

AP Photo

 

1944 Gen. Douglas MacArthur stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, 2 1/2 years after he’d said, “I shall return.”
1947 The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry.
1964 Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, died at age 90 in New York City.
1968 Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
1973 Special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus were fired and Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson resigned in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre.
1977 Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Miss.
1992 The host Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2 in the first World Series game played outside the United States.
2000 Egyptian-born Ali Mohamed, a U.S. citizen who’d served in the Army, pleaded guilty in New York to helping plan the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people.
Today’s Birthdays:
Rapper Snoop Dogg turns 45 years old today.
 

AP Photo/Katy Winn

 

Name Profession Age
William Christopher Actor (“M.A.S.H.”) 84
Juan Marichal Baseball Hall of Famer 79
Tom Petty Rock singer, musician 66
Sheldon Whitehouse U.S. senator, D-R.I. 61
Danny Boyle Director (“Slumdog Millionaire”) 60
Hilda Solis Former secretary of labor 59
Viggo Mortensen Actor 58
Actor John Krasinski (“The Office”) turns 37 years old today.
 

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

 

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