| On this date in: |
| 1811 |
The first steam-powered ferryboat was put into operation between New York City and Hoboken, N.J. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1884 |
First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City. |
| 1958 |
The lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far as planned, fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere. |
| 1968 |
Apollo 7 was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. |
| 1975 |
“Saturday Night Live” debuted on NBC. |
| 1986 |
President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks on arms control and human rights in Reykjavik, Iceland. |
| 1991 |
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, law professor Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her; Thomas reappeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a “high-tech lynching.” |
| 1998 |
Pope John Paul II canonized the first Jewish-born saint of the modern era: Edith Stein, a Catholic nun killed at Auschwitz. |
| 2001 |
Trinidad-born writer V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize in literature. |
| 2002 |
The Senate joined the House in approving the use of America’s military might against Iraq. |
| 2002 |
Former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his 1970s Middle East diplomacy. |
