Today is Friday, October 2, the 275th day of 2009. There are 90 days left in the year.
1187 _ Sultan Saladin captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders
1608 _ Prototype of modern reflecting telescope completed by Jan Lippershey
1836 _ Darwin returns to England aboard HMS Beagle
1870 _ Italy annexes Rome and Papal States; Rome made Italian capital
1919 _ President Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke
1946 _ First network soap opera-Faraway Hill-Dumont
1950 _ The comic strip ``Peanuts" first appears, in nine newspapers
1971 _ Homing pigeon averages 133 KPH (record) in 1,100-km Australian race
1984 _ Three cosmonauts return after a record 237 days in orbit
1990 _ Radio Berlin International's final transmission (links to Deutsche Welles of West Germany); final song is ``The End" by the Doors