Today in History

Today is Thursday, Oct. 2, the 275th day of 2014. There are 90 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight:

On Oct. 2, 1944, German troops crushed the two-month-old Warsaw Uprising, during which a quarter of a million people were killed.

On this date:

In 1780, British spy John Andre was hanged in Tappan, New York, during the Revolutionary War.

In 1835, the first battle of the Texas Revolution took place as American settlers fought Mexican soldiers near the Guadalupe River; the Mexicans ended up withdrawing.

In 1889, the first International Conference of American States convened in Washington, D.C.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a serious stroke at the White House that left him paralyzed on his left side.

In 1939, the Benny Goodman Sextet (which included Lionel Hampton) made their first recording, “Flying Home,” for Columbia.

In 1950, the comic strip “Peanuts,” created by Charles M. Schulz, was syndicated to seven newspapers.

In 1958, the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa proclaimed its independence.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court as the court opened its new term.

In 1970, one of two chartered twin-engine planes flying the Wichita State University football team to Utah crashed into a mountain near Silver Plume, Colorado, killing 31 of the 40 people on board.

In 1984, Richard W. Miller became the first FBI agent to be arrested and charged with espionage. (Miller was tried three times; he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was released after nine years.)

In 1996, an AeroPeru Boeing 757 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 61 passengers and nine crew members on board.

In 2002, the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks began, setting off a frantic manhunt lasting three weeks. (John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were finally arrested for 10 killings and three woundings; Muhammad was executed in 2009; Malvo was sentenced to life in prison.)

Ten years ago: Suspected separatist rebels began four days of attacks in India’s Nagaland and Assam states that killed more than 70 people.

Five years ago: The International Olympic Committee, meeting in Copenhagen, chose Rio de Janeiro to be the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics; Chicago was eliminated in the first round, despite a last-minute in-person appeal by President Barack Obama. A man accused of stalking ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and secretly videotaping her inside her hotel room was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. (Michael David Barrett later pleaded guilty to interstate stalking and was sentenced to 2 ½ years in federal prison.) Marek Edelman, 90, the last surviving leader of the ill-fated 1943 Warsaw ghetto revolt against the Nazis (not to be confused with the above-mentioned 1944 uprising), died in Warsaw.

One year ago: President Barack Obama met privately with congressional leaders at the White House for the first time since a partial government shutdown began, but there was no sign of progress toward ending the impasse. Overloaded websites and jammed phone lines frustrated consumers for a second day as they tried to sign up for coverage using new health insurance exchanges. A jury in Los Angeles cleared a concert promoter of negligence, rejecting a lawsuit brought by Michael Jackson’s mother claiming AEG Live had been negligent in hiring Conrad Murray, the doctor who killed the pop star with an overdose of a hospital anesthetic.

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer-musician Leon Rausch (Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys) is 87. Retired MLB All-Star Maury Wills is 82. Movie critic Rex Reed is 76. Singer-songwriter Don McLean is 69. Cajun/country singer Jo-el Sonnier (sahn-YAY’) is 68. Actor Avery Brooks is 66. Fashion designer Donna Karan is 66. Photographer Annie Leibovitz is 65. Rock musician Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike &the Mechanics) is 64. Singer-actor Sting is 63. Actress Lorraine Bracco is 60. Country musician Greg Jennings (Restless Heart) is 60. Rock singer Phil Oakey (The Human League) is 59. Rhythm-and-blues singer Freddie Jackson is 56. Singer-producer Robbie Nevil is 56. Retro-soul singer James Hunter is 52. Former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien is 52. Rock musician Bud Gaugh (Sublime, Eyes Adrift) is 47. Folk-country singer Gillian Welch is 47. Country singer Kelly Willis is 46. Actor Joey Slotnick is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Dion Allen (Az Yet) is 44. Actress-talk show host Kelly Ripa (TV: “Live with Kelly and Michael”) is 44. Singer Tiffany is 43. Rock singer Lene Nystrom is 41. Actor Efren Ramirez is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer LaTocha Scott (Xscape) is 41. Gospel singer Mandisa (TV: “American Idol”) is 38. Actress Brianna Brown is 35. Rock musician Mike Rodden (Hinder) is 32. Tennis player Marion Bartoli is 30. Actor Christopher Larkin (TV: “The 100”) is 27. Rock singer Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes) is 26. Actress Samantha Barks is 24.

Thought for Today: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader (born this date in 1869, died 1948).