WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2007

Today is Wednesday, October 17, the 290th day of 2007. There are 75 days left in the year.

532 _ Boniface II ends his reign as Catholic pope

1492 _ Columbus sights isle of San Salvador (Watling Island, Bahamas)

1787 _ Boston blacks, petition legislature for equal school facilities

1918 _ Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic

1931 _ Al Capone convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 11 years in prison

1933 _ Albert Einstein arrives in the U.S., a refugee from Nazi Germany

1941 _ The first U.S. destroyer (Kearney) torpedoed in WWII off Iceland

1957 _ Britain's Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip visit White House

1957 _ French author Albert Camus awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

1959 _ Queen Elizabeth is fined $140 for withdrawing her race horse

1977 _ West German commandos storm hijacked Lufthansa in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing 3 of the 4 hijackers

1978 _ President Jimmy Carter signs a bill restoring Jefferson Davis citizenship

1979 _ Mother Teresa of India, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

1986 _ The U.S. Senate approved immigration bill prohibiting hiring of illegal aliens and offered amnesty to illegals who entered prior to 1982