Today is Friday, October 10, 2008.

Birthdays

1731 Henry Cavendish, English physicist, chemist
1738 Benjamin West, painter.
1813 Giuseppe Verdi, operatic composer, (Rigoletto, Aida, Otello)
1830 Emily Dickinson, poet
1861 Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, humanitarian, (Nobel 1922)

Events

National Day, celebrated in Taiwan.
1845 US Naval academy opens at Annapolis, Maryland
1846 Neptune's moon Triton discovered by William Lassell
1911 The Manchu Dynasty is overthrown in China.
1933 first synthetic detergent for home use marketed
1963 Nuclear Atmospheric Test Ban treaty is signed by US, UK, USSR.
1964 18th Summer Olympic Games opened in Tokyo.
1970 Fiji gains independence from Britain (National Day).
1973 VP Spiro T. Agnew pleads no contest to tax evasion & resigns.
1975 Israel formally signs Sinai accord with Egypt
1980 Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network dedicated.
1985 US jets force Egyptian plane carrying hijackers of Italian ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy. Gunmen are placed in custody.

That's all for today.