October eleventh

Today's Highlight in History:
On October eleventh, 1975, "NBC Saturday Night" made its debut with guest host George Carlin.

On this date:
In 1779, Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski was killed while fighting for American independence during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Georgia.

In 1811, the first steam-powered ferryboat, the "Juliana," was put into operation between New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey.

In 1890, the Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in Washington DC.

In 1942, the World War Two Battle of Cape Esperance began in the Solomons, resulting in an American victory over the Japanese.

In 1948, the musical comedy "Where's Charley?," starring Ray Bolger and featuring songs by Frank Loesser, opened on Broadway.

In 1958, the lunar probe "Pioneer One" was launched; it failed to go as far out as planned, fell back to Earth, and burned up in the atmosphere.

In 1962, Pope John the 23rd convened the first session of the Roman Catholic Church's 21st Ecumenical Council, also known as "Vatican Two."

In 1968, "Apollo Seven," the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.

In 1984, space shuttle "Challenger" astronaut Kathy Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.

In 1998, Pope John Paul the Second decreed the first Jewish-born saint of the modern era: Edith Stein, a nun killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Ten years ago: Octavio Paz was named the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, the first Mexican writer so honored. About 60-thousand people rallied in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in support of a government proposal to seize all Communist Party property without compensation.

Five years ago: Ten Republican presidential candidates used their first televised forum to politely compete for support in the New Hampshire primary. O.J. Simpson backed out of his live interview with NBC just hours before air time. Americans Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland and Dutch scientist Paul Crutzen won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their controversial work warning that gases once used in spray cans and other items were eating away Earth's ozone layer.

One year ago: Dr. Guenter Blobel of New York's Rockefeller University won the Nobel Prize for medicine for discovering how proteins find their rightful places in cells.

"When a friend speaks to me, whatever he says is interesting."

-- Jean Renoir, French movie director (1894-1979).