Today in History

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 10, the 315th day of 2020. There are 51 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 10, 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress.

On this date:

In 1766, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, had its beginnings as William Franklin, the Royal Governor of New Jersey, signed a charter establishing Queen's College in New Brunswick.

In 1919, the American Legion opened its first national convention in Minneapolis.

In 1938, Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on her CBS radio program.

In 1944, during World War II, the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded while moored at the Manus Naval Base in the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific, leaving 45 confirmed dead and 327 missing and presumed dead.

In 1951, customer-dialed long-distance telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, New Jersey, called Alameda, California, Mayor Frank Osborne without operator assistance.

In 1975, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism (the world body repealed the resolution in Dec. 1991). The ore-hauling ship SS Edmund Fitzgerald mysteriously sank during a storm in Lake Superior with the loss of all 29 crew members.

In 1982, the newly finished Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to its first visitors in Washington, D.C., three days before its dedication. Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died at age 75.

In 2009, John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks that killed 10 in the Washington, D.C. region, was executed. President Barack Obama visited Fort Hood, Texas, where he somberly saluted the 13 Americans killed in a shooting rampage, and pledged that the killer would be "met with justice — in this world, and the next."

In 2017, facing allegations of sexual misconduct, comedian Louis C.K. said the harassment claims by five women that were detailed in a New York Times report "are true," and he expressed remorse for using his influence "irresponsibly."

In 2018, President Donald Trump, in France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, canceled a visit to a cemetery east of Paris where Americans killed in that war are buried; rainy weather had grounded the presidential helicopter. Authorities in Northern California said 14 additional bodies had been found in the ruins from a fire that virtually destroyed the town of Paradise.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama cut short his visit to his boyhood home in Indonesia because of an ash cloud from Mount Merapi, and flew to South Korea for an economic summit. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's reform raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 became law, a victory for the conservative government and a defeat for unions that had waged massive strikes and street protests. Miranda Lambert received three Country Music Association Awards on her 27th birthday, including album of the year; Brad Paisley was named entertainer of the year. Movie producer Dino De Laurentiis, 91, died in Beverly Hills, California.

Five years ago: Jeb Bush and Ben Carson sought to steady their presidential campaigns during a GOP debate held in Milwaukee, with Bush taking advantage of a policy-focused contest to detail positions on the economy and immigration while Carson swatted away mounting questions about the veracity of his celebrated biography. Nine people were killed when a small jet crashed into an apartment house in Akron, Ohio; seven of the dead worked for a Florida real estate development company. Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, 96, died in Hamburg. Legendary New Orleans musician and composer Allen Toussaint, 77, died in Madrid.