This day in history

[October 10, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Monday, Oct. 10, the 283rd day of 2011. There are 82 days left in the year. This is the Columbus Day observance in the United States, as well as Thanksgiving Day in Canada.

Today's highlight in history:

On Oct. 10, 1911, Chinese revolutionaries launched the Wuchang Uprising which led to the collapse of the Qing (or Manchu) Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.

On this date:

In 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Md.

In 1911, California voters approved Proposition 4, giving women the right to vote, and Proposition 7, which established the initiative process for proposing and enacting new laws.

In 1913, the Panama Canal was effectively completed as President Woodrow Wilson sent a signal from the White House by telegraph, setting off explosives that destroyed a section of the Gamboa dike.

In 1935, the George Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess," featuring an all-black cast, opened on Broadway; it ran for 124 performances.

In 1938, Nazi Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland (soo-DAYT'-un-land).

In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China.

In 1967, the Outer Space Treaty, prohibiting the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, entered into force.

In 1970, Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped by the Quebec Liberation Front, a militant separatist group. (Laporte's body was found a week later.) Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.

In 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion, and resigned his office.

In 1985, U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro (ah-KEE'-leh LOW'-roh) to land in Italy, where the gunmen were taken into custody.

Ten years ago: U.S. jets pounded the Afghan capital of Kabul. President George W. Bush unveiled a list of 22 most-wanted terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California won the race for the post of House Democratic leader. Americans George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in economics; Americans William S. Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless and Ryoji Noyori of Japan won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Five years ago: The Bush administration rejected anew direct talks with North Korea in the wake of the communist country's nuclear test, and suggested it was possible the test was something less than it appeared.

One year ago: President Barack Obama delivered one of his most stinging criticisms yet of the GOP record to several thousand people in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood as he urged voters not to sit out the midterm elections. Kim Jong Il's heir apparent, Kim Jong Un, joined his father at a massive military parade in his most public appearance since being unveiled as North Korea's next leader. Opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland, 83, died at her home near Geneva.

Today's birthdays: Former Illinois Sen. Adlai Stevenson III is 81. Actor Peter Coyote is 70. Entertainer Ben Vereen is 65. Singer John Prine is 65. Actor Charles Dance is 65. Rock singer-musician Cyril Neville (The Neville Brothers) is 63. Actress Jessica Harper is 62. Author Nora Roberts (aka "J.D. Robb") is 61. Singer-musician Midge Ure is 58. Rock singer David Lee Roth is 57. Country singer Tanya Tucker is 53. Actress Julia Sweeney is 52. Actor Bradley Whitford is 52. Musician Martin Kemp is 50. Rock musician Jim Glennie (James) is 48. Actress Rebecca Pidgeon is 46. Rock musician Mike Malinin (mah-LIN'-in) (Goo Goo Dolls) is 44. NFL quarterback Brett Favre is 42. Actress Wendi McLendon-Covey is 42. Actor Mario Lopez is 38. Actress Jodi Lyn O'Keefe is 33. Singer Mya is 32. Singer Cherie is 27. Actress Aimee Teegarden is 22.

Thought for today: "Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason." -- Orson Welles, American actor-director (born 1915, died this date in 1985)

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.