Almanac - Friday October 7, 2022

1763 – King George III issues the Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing Indigenous lands in North America north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements.

1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.

1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: Léon Gambetta escapes the siege of Paris in a hot-air balloon.

1913 – Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving vehicle assembly line.

1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222–0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

1944 – World War II: During an uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down Crematorium IV.

1950 – Mother Teresa establishes the Missionaries of Charity.

1963 – President Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

1987 – Sikh nationalists declare the independence of Khalistan from India; it is not internationally recognized.

1988 – A hunter discovers three gray whales trapped under the ice near Alaska; the situation becomes a multinational effort to free the whales.

1996 – Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.

1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming. He died five days later.

…and if today is your birthday, Happy Birthday to you! You get to share birthday cake with…

1870 – Uncle Dave Macon, American old-time country banjo player, singer-songwriter, and comedian (d. 1952)

1879 – Joe Hill, Swedish-born American labor activist and poet (d. 1915)

1885 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)

1888 – Henry A. Wallace, American agronomist and politician, 33rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1965)

1897 – Elijah Muhammad, American religious leader (d. 1975)

1927 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist and author (d. 1989)

1931 – Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2021)

1934 – Amiri Baraka, American poet, playwright, and academic (d. 2014)

1934 – Ulrike Meinhof, German far-left terrorist, co-founder of the Red Army Faction, journalist (d. 1976)

1943 – Oliver North, American colonel, journalist, and author

1946 – Catharine MacKinnon, American lawyer, activist, and author

1951 – John Mellencamp, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor

1952 – Vladimir Putin, Russian colonel and politician, 4th President of Russia

1955 – Yo-Yo Ma, French-American cellist and educator

1964 – Dan Savage, American LGBT rights activist, journalist and television producer

1966 – Sherman Alexie, American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker

1967 – Toni Braxton, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress