Today is Monday, Oct. 6, the 280th day of 2008 with 86 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning star is Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," in 1820; inventor and manufacturer George Westinghouse in 1846; tennis champion Helen Wills Moody in 1905; actresses Janet Gaynor in 1906 and Carole Lombard in 1908; Norwegian ethnologist, archaeologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in 1914; former "60 Minutes" journalist Shana Alexander in 1925; and actresses Britt Eklund in 1942 (age 66) and Elisabeth Shue in 1963 (age 45).

On this date in history:

In 1853, Antioch College opened in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was the first non-sectarian school to offer equal opportunity for both men and women.

In 1921, sports writer Grantland Rice was at the microphone as the World Series was broadcast on radio for the first time.

In 1927, the movies began learning to talk. "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, Hollywood's legendary "first talkie," premiered in New York, ushering in the era of sound to great moviegoer enthusiasm and heralded the end of the silents.

In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated as he reviewed a military parade in Cairo.

In 1985, England's worst post-war race rioting, which began almost a month earlier in Birmingham, spread to the Tottenham section of London. One officer died and 125 people were injured.

In 1989, Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Bette Davis died of cancer in a suburb of Paris. She was 81.

In 1991, Anita Hill, a former personal assistant to Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas, accused Thomas of sexual harassment.

In 1994, South African President Nelson Mandela addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton used his new line-item veto power to eliminate 38 military spending projects.

In 2001, Cal Ripkin Jr. retired after a spectacular baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles that included playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games.

In 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States faced the possibility of a futile war in Iraq, which he said "could become a new center, a new magnet for all destructive elements."

In 2004, a U.S. weapons inspector said that Iraq began destroying its illicit weapons in 1991 and had none by 1996, seven years before the United States invaded.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush said the United States and allied forces had foiled at least three al-Qaida U.S. attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

Also in 2005, Canadian health officials said an additional six older people died in Toronto from a mysterious respiratory virus but the toll of 16 dead wasn't considered a threat to the city.

In 2007, Pervez Musharraf breezed to re-election to a third term as president of Pakistan. But, opposition continued to challenge legality of his serving as both president and army chief.

A thought for the day: Tansu Ciller, the first woman prime minister of Turkey, said, "Nobody can resist a ripe idea. The idea today is change."

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 7, the 281st day of 2008 with 85 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include poet James Whitcomb Riley in 1849; Grand Ole Opry star Uncle Dave Macon in 1870; Danish atomic physicist Niels Bohr in 1885; actor Andy Devine in 1905; singer/bandleader Vaughn Monroe in 1911; actress June Allyson in 1917; actor/singer Al Martino in 1927 (age 81); South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu in 1931 (age 77); Oliver North, the former White House aide who became the center of the Iran-Contra controversy, in 1943 (age 65); rock singer John Mellencamp in 1951 (age 57); classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1955 (age 53); and singer Toni Braxton in 1967 (age 41).

On this date in history:

In 1913, for the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park automobile factory was run on a continuously moving assembly line.

In 1916, in the most lopsided football game on record, Georgia Tech humbled Cumberland University, 222-0.

In 1949, less than five months after Britain, the United States and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany) was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone.

In 1968, the U.S. movie industry adopted a film ratings system for the first time: G (for general audiences), M (for mature audiences), R (no one under 16 admitted without an adult) and X (no one under 16 admitted).

In 1985, four Palestinian terrorists commandeered the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro with 511 passengers and crew off Egypt and threatened to blow it up unless Israel freed Palestinian prisoners. The hijackers, who surrendered in Port Said two days later, killed an American passenger.

Also in 1985, a mudslide in Ponce, Puerto Rico, killed an estimated 500 people in the island's worst disaster of the 20th century.

In 1989, East Germany celebrated its 40th anniversary as a communist state amid pro-reform demonstrations.

In 1991, Iran freed U.S. telecommunications engineer John Pattis, ending five years of captivity on charges of spying for the CIA.

Also in 1991, U.N. inspectors discovered an Iraqi nuclear weapons research center intact.

And in 1991, Slovenia and Croatia formally declared secession from Yugoslavia.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and the leaders of Mexico and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. The pact would create the world's largest trading bloc.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced he was sending the Navy and Marines in response to an Iraqi military build-up along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border.

In 1997, scientists announced they had found one of the most massive stars known, behind a dense dust cloud in the Milky Way that had previously concealed it. The star was 25,000 light-years from Earth.

In 1999, American Home Products, the makers of the diet drug combination known as "fen-phen," agreed to a $3.75 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit stemming from the drugs' use, which was linked to heart valve problems.

In 2000, Vojislav Kostunica was sworn in as Yugoslavia's new president.

In 2001, in the war on terror, the United States and Britain began a series of nightly attacks on targets in Afghanistan.

In a pre-recorded tape played on this date, 2001, Osama bin Laden warned, "America will not live in peace" until peace came to "Palestine" and "until the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammed."

In 2002, the sniper terrorizing the Washington area struck again, this time critically wounding a 13-year-old boy as he was being dropped off at school in Bowie, Md.

In 2003, Californians voted to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as their new governor.

In 2004, at least 56 people were killed and about 100 others injured when three bombs exploded at Egyptian resort areas near the Israeli border.

In 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency, known as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, were awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2006, three former congressional pages joined two others in accusing former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., of making "sexual approaches" over the Internet. Foley resigned a week earlier when the first of the reports surfaced.

In 2007, more than 1 million people were evacuated from China's southeastern coast ahead of a powerful typhoon that killed five in northern Taiwan.

A thought for the day: in "Don Quixote," Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes wrote, "Diligence is the mother of good fortune."

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 8, the 282nd day of 2008 with 84 to follow.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker in 1890; Argentine dictator Juan Peron in 1895; gossip columnist Rona Barrett in 1936 (age 72); civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1941 (age 67); "Goosebumps" author R.L. Stine in 1943 (age 65); and actors Paul Hogan in 1939 (age 69), Chevy Chase in 1943 (age 65), Sigourney Weaver in 1949 (age 59), Stephanie Zimbalist in 1956 (age 52) and Matt Damon in 1970 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1871, the massive Chicago fire destroyed more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless.

Also in 1871, on the same day, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wis., eventually killing about 1,100 people while burning some 850 square miles.

In 1918, Sgt. Alvin York of Tennessee became a World War I hero by single-handedly capturing a hill in the Argonne Forest of France, killing 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others.

In 1919, The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act, prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Also in 1919, the first U.S. transcontinental air race began with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York.