Today is Thursday, Oct. 1, the 275th day of 2020. There are 91 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
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- In 1961, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run during a 162-game season, compared to Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs during a 154-game season. (Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox gave up the round-tripper; the Yankees won 1-0.)
On this date:
- In 1908, Henry Ford introduced his Model T automobile to the market.
- In 1910, the offices of the Los Angeles Times were destroyed by a bomb explosion and fire; 21 Times employees were killed.
- In 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing. A 42-day strike by the United Steelworkers of America began over the issue of retirement benefits.
- In 1957, the motto “In God We Trust” began appearing on U.S. paper currency.
- In 1962, Johnny Carson debuted as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” beginning a nearly 30-year run.
- In 1971, Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida.
- In 1982, Sony began selling the first commercial compact disc player, the CDP-101, in Japan.
- In 1996, The federal minimum wage rose 50 cents to four dollars, 75 cents an hour.
- In 2017, a gunman opened fire from a room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at a concert below, leaving 58 people dead and more than 800 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history; the gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock, killed himself before officers arrived.
Today’s Birthdays:
Former President Jimmy Carter is 96. Actor-singer Julie Andrews is 85. Actor Stella Stevens is 82. Rock musician Jerry Martini (Sly and the Family Stone) is 77. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew is 75. Jazz musician Dave Holland is 74. Actor Yvette Freeman is 70. Actor Randy Quaid is 70. Former British Prime Minister Theresa May is 64. Retired MLB All-Star Mark McGwire is 57. Actor-model Cindy Margolis is 55. Producer John Ridley is 55. Actor Zach Galifianakis is 51. Actor Brie Larson is 31. Singer/songwriter Jade Bird is 23. Actor Priah Ferguson is 14. Actor Jack Stanton is 12.