SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2009

Today is Saturday, October 17, the 290th day of 2009. There are 75 days left in the year.

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

1860 _ First pro golf tournament held (Scotland) (Willie Park wins)

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

1945 _ Juan Peron becomes dictator of Argentina

1957 _ French author Albert Camus awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

1977 _ Canada begins regular live TV coverage of parliament

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

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