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