17, 1717, off Cape Cod, Mass.
In 1988, former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos pleaded innocent to charges that she and her husband, deposed President Ferdinand Marcos, embezzled more than $100 million from the Philippine government.
In 1992, more than 300 people were killed in renewed fighting as Angola slid back into civil war.
In 2001, U.S.-led forces resumed air strikes in Afghanistan, hitting Taliban positions in the northern part of the country and outside the capital, Kabul. The Taliban claimed 1,500 people were killed.
In 2002, Andrew Fastow, former Enron chief financial officer, was indicted on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in the collapse of the Houston energy trading company.
In 2003, a rebel group known to kidnap children and sell them in Sudan as slaves struck a village in northern Uganda, killing 18 and abducting many more.
In 2004, Iranian lawmakers chanted, "Death to America!" after a unanimous vote to allow their government to resume uranium enrichment activities.
Also in 2004, Japan confirmed a Japanese man taken hostage in Baghdad had been beheaded. The kidnappers had demanded Japan pull its troops out of Iraq.
In 2005, Samuel Alito, a 55-year-old conservative federal appeals judge, was nominated by U.S. President George Bush to the U.S. Supreme Court to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor.
In 2006, a U.S. congressional report claimed China helped North Korea develop its nuclear program within the past year.
Also in 2006, former South African President and Prime Minister P.W. Botha, one of his country's most powerful and feared leaders, died of a stroke. He was 90.
In 2007, three men were found guilty in the 2004 bombing of four commuter trains in Madrid. They were convicted of killing 191 people and wounding 1,800 others.
A thought for the day: English poet John Keats wrote, "If I should die, I have left no immortal work behind me -- nothing to make my friends proud of my memory -- but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered."
Today is Saturday, Nov. 1, the 306th day of 2008 with 60 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 Scorpio. They include journalist and novelist Stephen Crane in 1871; sportswriter/poet Grantland Rice and Polish author Sholem Asch, both in 1880; journalist James Kilpatrick in 1920 (age 88); actress Betsy Palmer in 1926 (age 82); golfer Gary Player in 1935 (age 73); publisher Larry Flynt in 1942 (age 66); country singer Lyle Lovett in 1957 (age 51); and actresses Rachel Ticotin in 1958 (age 50) and Jenny McCarthy in 1972 (age 36).
On this date in history:
In 1512, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, was exhibited to the public for the first time.
In 1755, an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal, killed 60,000 people.
In 1765, American colonists were furious over the new British Stamp Act, termed "taxation without representation" and, ultimately, a major cause of the revolution.
In 1800, U.S. President John Adams and his family moved into the newly built White House as Washington became the U.S. capital.
In 1918, the Hapsburg monarchy of Austria-Hungary was dissolved. Vienna became the capital of Austria and Budapest the capital of Hungary.
In 1922, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey became a republic.
In 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into the Blair House in Washington in an attempt to assassinate U.S. President Harry Truman.
In 1986, a warehouse fire in Basel, Switzerland, triggered massive chemical pollution of the Rhine River in Switzerland, France, West Germany and the Netherlands.
In 1990, McDonald's, under pressure from environmental groups, said it would replace plastic food containers with paper.
In 1991, the Russian Congress of People's Deputies granted Boris Yeltsin sweeping powers to launch and direct radical economic reforms in Russia.
In 1993, the European Community's treaty on European unity took effect.
In 2002, a powerful earthquake and more than 30 aftershocks shook Italy's remote Molise region, killing at least 29 people.
In 2006, China and Vietnam prepared for Typhoon Cimaron that bore down with 100-mph winds. The storm hit the northern Philippines island of Luzon earlier, killing 13 and inflicting heavy damage with high winds, floods and landslides.
In 2007, Paul Tibbets Jr., who flew the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, hastening the end of World War II, died in his Columbus, Ohio, home at age 92.
A thought for the day: Eubie Blake, who lived to be 100, reportedly said, "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself."
Today is Sunday, Nov. 2, the 307th day of 2008 with 59 to follow.
Daylight saving time ends in the United States.
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 Scorpio. They include frontiersman Daniel Boone in 1734; Marie Antoinette, queen of France, in 1755; U.S. President James Polk in 1795; U.S. President Warren G. Harding in 1865; astronomer Harlow Shapley, a pioneer in studies of the Milky Way, in 1885; jazz trumpeter Bunny Berigan in 1908; actor Burt Lancaster in 1913; Australian tennis player Ken Rosewall in 1934 (age 74); columnist, commentator and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan in 1938 (age 70); author Shere Hite and actress Stefanie Powers, both in 1942 (age 66); and singer k.d. lang in 1961 (age 47).
On this date in history:
In 1889, North and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states of the union.
In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour proposed a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Israel became a reality 31 years later.
In 1920, in the first significant news broadcast, KDKA in Pittsburgh reported the U.S. presidential election results for Warren G. Harding and James Cox.
In 1947, Howard Hughes built and piloted the world's largest airplane, the 200-ton flying boat Spruce Goose, on its only flight, at Long Beach, Calif. The Goose remained airborne for just less than 1 mile.
In 1962, U.S. President John Kennedy announced that Soviet missile bases in Cuba were being dismantled.
In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill establishing a national holiday to mark the birthday anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1986, U.S. hostage David Jacobsen was released in Beirut after 17 months. Later disclosures showed his freedom was a trade for U.S. arms sent to Iran.
In 1992, legendary filmmaker Hal Roach died at age 100. He was credited with discovering the comedy team of Laurel and Hardy and producing the "Our Gang" comedies.
Also in 1992, HIV-infected Earvin "Magic" Johnson retired from professional basketball "for good."
In 1993, a new series of wildfires swept along the Southern California coast, destroying more than 300 homes in the exclusive community of Malibu.
In 1995, the Justice Department indicted the Japanese-owned Daiwa Bank on conspiracy and fraud charges linked to an illegal bond-trading scheme.
In 1996, Britain announced a plan to ban ownership of large-caliber handguns.
In 2000, five days before the election, George W. Bush, the Republican nominee for president, admitted he had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in 1976 near the family home in Maine.
In 2001, the Labor Department announced that October unemployment had jumped to 5.4 percent, highest in five years and that 415,000 non-farm jobs had been lost, highest monthly figure since 1980.
In 2003, at least 13 U.S. soldiers were killed and about 20 wounded in Iraq when a missile downed a helicopter carrying members of the 82nd Airborne Division near Fallujah.
In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush was re-elected in a close race with Democrat John Kerry.
Also in 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who received death threats because of his film about violence against Islamic women, was slain as he rode his bicycle through an Amsterdam park.
In 2005, thousands of protesters gathered in Argentina near the site of an upcoming summit to denounce the imminent arrival of U.S. President George Bush.
In 2006, a foiled British terror plot to blow up 10 passenger airplanes with liquid bombs was meant to occur over U.S. cities, a senior FBI official said.
Also in 2006, Ted Haggard, a prominent Colorado pastor and rising conservative political star, denied charges he paid a gay prostitute for sex. He later was fired by the 14,000-member church he founded.
In 2007, rescuers worked in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco to help the estimated 300,000 people trapped in their homes by massive flooding. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the situation "extraordinarily grave."
A thought for the day: after winning the Masters tournament, golfer Tiger Woods said: ''I'm the first, but I wasn't the pioneer. Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder, Teddy Rhodes, those guys paved the way for me to be here. I thank them. If it wasn't for them, I might not have had the chance to play here.''
