Today is Monday, Oct. 9, the 282nd day of 2017. There are 83 days left in the year. This is Columbus Day in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Oct. 9, 1967, Marxist revolutionary guerrilla leader Che Guevara, 39, was summarily executed by the Bolivian army a day after his capture.
On this date:
In 1514, Mary Tudor, the 18-year-old sister of Henry VIII, became Queen consort of France upon her marriage to 52-year-old King Louis XII, who died less than three months later.
In 1776, a group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.
In 1888, the public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.
In 1914, the Belgian city of Antwerp fell to German forces during World War I.
In 1936, the first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
In 1946, the Eugene O'Neill drama "The Iceman Cometh" opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York.
In 1958, Pope Pius XII died at age 82, ending a 19-year papacy. (He was succeeded by Pope John XXIII.)
In 1975, Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov (AHN'-dray SAHK'-ah-rawf) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1985, the hijackers of the Achille Lauro (ah-KEE'-leh LOW'-roh) cruise liner surrendered two days after seizing the vessel in the Mediterranean. (Passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed by the hijackers during the standoff.)
In 1987, author, politician and diplomat Clare Boothe Luce died in Washington at age 84.
In 1995, a sabotaged section of track caused an Amtrak train, the Sunset Limited, to derail in Arizona; one person was killed and about 80 were injured (the case remains unsolved).
In 2009, President Barack Obama was named the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
