Oct. 7
Today in history
Today is Oct. 7. On this date in:
1765: The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City with representatives from nine colonies meeting to protest the British Stamp Act, which imposed the first direct tax by the British Crown upon the American colonies.
1916: Georgia Tech’s football team recorded the highest score in college football history, with a 222-0 win against Cumberland College. The Heisman Trophy was later named in honor of the team’s coach, John Heisman.
1949: The German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, was officially established during the Cold War. It was dominated by the USSR until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, leading to Germany’s reunification in October 1990.
1985: The Italian cruise
liner Achille Lauro was hijacked by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front in the Mediterranean. The hijackers surrendered two days later, but not before one passenger, Jewish New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer, was shot dead and thrown overboard in his wheelchair.
1993: Toni Morrison became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her work includes the critically acclaimed novels “The Bluest Eye,” “Song of Solomon” and “Beloved.”
1996: The Fox News Channel made its debut.
1998: University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was beaten and tortured, then tied to a prairie fence and left to die, in an anti-gay hate crime that shocked the world. His death led to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.
2001: The United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan with air strikes against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, marking the start of the U.S.-led war on terrorism following the 9/11 attacks.
2003: Famous actor and bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California in a special recall election. He served as the state’s governor until 2011.
2008: Popular music streaming service Spotify was publicly launched.
2010: A Chilean mining accident that kept the world riveted ended with all 33 trapped miners safely rescued after 69 days underground.
2011: Preorders began for the iPhone 4S, Apple’s fifth-generation smartphone, which introduced the now-iconic voice assistant, Siri, to millions of users worldwide.
2023: Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border into Israel in a surprise attack, killing over a thousand people – including families in residential communities and hundreds attending an international music festival – and taking at least 250 hostages. The resulting war between Israel and Hamas devastated the territory of Gaza and left at least tens of thousands of residents dead.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, October 7
