Today is Wednesday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2018. There are 75 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Oct. 17, 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
On this date:
In 1610, French King Louis XIII, age nine, was crowned at Reims, five months after the assassination of his father, Henry IV.
In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
In 1807, Britain declared it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of whether they held U.S. citizenship.
In 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted in Chicago of income tax evasion. (Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone was released in 1939.)
In 1939, Frank Capra's comedy-drama "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," starring James Stewart as an idealistic junior U.S. senator, had its premiere in the nation's capital.
In 1941, the U.S. destroyer Kearny was damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Iceland; 11 people died.
In 1967, Puyi, the last emperor of China, died in Beijing at age 61.
In 1973, Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.
In 1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck northern California, killing 63 people and causing $6 billion worth of damage.
In 1992, Japanese exchange student Yoshi Hattori was fatally shot by Rodney Peairs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after Hattori and his American host mistakenly knocked on Peairs' door while looking for a Halloween party. (Peairs was acquitted of manslaughter, but was ordered in a civil trial to pay more than $650,000 to Hattori's family.)
In 2000, the New York Yankees followed the Mets into the World Series, beating the Seattle Mariners 9-7 and winning the American League championship series four games to two.
