12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for October 2, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1187 – Saladin captures Jerusalem, ending nearly nine decades of Crusader rule.
- 1835 – “Come and Take It”: The Battle of Gonzales sparks the Texas Revolution.
- 1870 – Rome’s annexation to Italy is ratified by a plebiscite.
- 1925 – John Logie Baird makes the first successful television transmission.
- 1941 – Operation Typhoon, Nazi Germany’s offensive toward Moscow, begins.
- 1950 – Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts debuts in newspapers.
- 1959 – The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS.
- 1967 – Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice.
- 1968 – Tlatelolco Massacre: Mexican security forces kill student protesters in Mexico City.
- 1958 – Guinea declares independence from France under Sékou Touré.
- 2002 – The Beltway (D.C.) sniper attacks begin in the Washington metro area.
- 2018 – Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1951 – Sting, singer-songwriter and former frontman of The Police (74).
- 1970 – Kelly Ripa, actress and morning talk-show host (55).
- 1982 – Tyson Chandler, NBA champion and former Defensive Player of the Year (43).
- 1986 – Camilla Belle, film and TV actress (10,000 BC) (39).
- 1949 – Annie Leibovitz, iconic portrait photographer (76).
- 1945 – Don McLean, singer-songwriter (“American Pie”) (80).
- 1950 – Mike Rutherford, Genesis bassist/guitarist and cofounder (75).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1803 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary and statesman (81).
- 1968 – Marcel Duchamp, pioneering Dada/Conceptual artist (81).
- 1973 – Paavo Nurmi, Finnish “Flying Finn” distance runner, 9× Olympic gold medalist (76).
- 1985 – Rock Hudson, film star and early public face of the AIDS crisis (59).
- 1998 – Gene Autry, “Singing Cowboy” entertainer and Angels owner (91).
- 2017 – Tom Petty, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Heartbreakers frontman (66).
- 2020 – Bob Gibson, Hall of Fame St. Louis Cardinals pitcher (84).
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