On This Date
On Oct. 11, 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
On Oct. 11, 1884, Eleanor Roosevelt, the American first lady, social reformer, diplomat and author, was born.
October 11th
1811 - The first steam-powered ferryboat was put into operation between New York City and Hoboken, N.J.
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.
1962 - Pope John XXIII convened the first session of the Roman Catholic Church's 21st Ecumenical Council, better known as Vatican II.
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.
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.