Updated October 9, 2012, 2:28 pm
On Oct. 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion and resigned his office.
On Oct. 10, 1917, Thelonious Monk, the world-renowned American jazz pianist and composer, was born. Following his death on Feb. 17, 1982, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1813 Composer Giuseppe Verdi was born in Le Roncole, Italy. 1845 The U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Md. 1886 The tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut at the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. 1911 Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrew China’s Manchu dynasty. 1935 George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess,” featuring an all-black cast, opened on Broadway. 1943 Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China. 1964 The 18th Summer Olympic Games opened in Tokyo. 1966 The Beach Boys released the single “Good Vibrations.” 1970 Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule. 1979 Hockey Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky made his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers. 1985 U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the gunmen were taken into custody. 2002 The House voted 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraq. (The Senate followed suit the next day.) 2005 Angela Merkel became Germany’s first female chancellor and its first leader from the former Communist east. 2008 Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruled that gay couples have the right to marry. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Auto racer Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns 38 years old today.
AP Photo/Nick Wass
Rock singer David Lee Roth (Van Halen) turns 58 years old today.
AP Photo/Jason DeCrow
1941 Peter Coyote, Actor, turns 71 1946 John Prine, Rock, country singer, turns 66 1946 Ben Vereen, Actor, dancer, turns 66 1950 Nora Roberts, Author, turns 62 1958 Tanya Tucker, Country singer, turns 54 1959 Julia Sweeney, Actress, comedian (“Saturday Night Live”), turns 53 1959 Bradley Whitford, Actor (“The West Wing”), turns 53 1965 Rebecca Pidgeon, Actress, turns 47 1969 Brett Favre, Football player, turns 43 1973 Mario Lopez, Actor, turns 39 1979 Mya, R&B singer, turns 33 1982 Dan Stevens, Actor (“Downtown Abbey”), turns 30 1984 Troy Tulowitzki, Baseball player, turns 28 1989 Aimee Teegarden, Actress (“Friday Night Lights”), turns 23
Historic Birthdays
Thelonious Monk 10/10/1917 – 2/17/1982 American jazz pianist and composer.Go to obituary »
36 Jean-Antoine Watteau 10/10/1684 – 7/18/1721
French painter78 Henry Cavendish 10/10/1731 – 2/24/1810
American chemist82 Benjamin West 10/10/1738 – 3/11/1820
American painter71 Benjamin Wright 10/10/1770 – 8/24/1842
American engineer; directed construction of Erie Canal87 Giuseppe Verdi 10/10/1813 – 1/27/1901
Italian operatic composer73 Queen Isabella II 10/10/1830 – 4/9/1904
Spanish queen (1833-68)64 Maurice Prendergast 10/10/1859 – 2/1/1924
American-born Canadian painter92 Helen Hayes 10/10/1900 – 3/17/1993
American actress64 Alberto Giacometti 10/10/1901 – 1/11/1966
Swiss sculptor86 Frederick Douglass Patterson 10/10/1901 – 4/26/1988
American educator; president of Tuskegee Institute (1935-53) and founder of United Negro College Fund
A previous version of this page misidentified Gavin Newsome as Mayor of San Francisco and Brett Favre as the current Minnesota Vikings quarterback.
