Today in History: October 10, 2026

• 2018: Hurricane Michael slams into the Florida Panhandle as a Category 5 storm.
  The hurricane came ashore near Mexico Beach with winds of about 160 miles per hour, the strongest storm on record to strike the Panhandle. It was blamed for 57 deaths in the United States and an estimated $25.1 billion in damage.
• 2010: The Netherlands Antilles is officially dissolved.
  The territory had been an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands made up of five Caribbean islands. Curaçao and Sint Maarten became self-governing countries within the kingdom, while Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands.
• 1985: U.S. Navy jets force down an airliner carrying the Achille Lauro hijackers.
  Palestinian gunmen had seized the Italian cruise ship days earlier and killed Leon Klinghoffer, an American passenger who used a wheelchair. Navy fighters intercepted the Egyptian plane taking the hijackers out of Egypt and made it land at a NATO base in Sicily, where Italian authorities took them into custody.
• 1979: Wayne Gretzky plays his first NHL game with the Edmonton Oilers.
  The 18-year-old Canadian center picked up an assist in his debut against Chicago, in the Oilers' first season after moving over from the World Hockey Association. He went on to win four Stanley Cups in Edmonton and retired in 1999 as the league's all-time leading scorer.
• 1973: Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns.
  Agnew stepped down the same day he pleaded no contest to a federal income tax evasion charge, the result of an investigation into payments he took while holding office in Maryland. President Richard Nixon chose House Republican leader Gerald Ford to replace him, and Ford became president less than a year later.
• 1967: The Outer Space Treaty takes effect.
  Signed earlier that year by the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, the agreement bars nations from placing nuclear weapons in orbit and from claiming the Moon or other celestial bodies as their own territory. It remains the foundation of international space law.
• 1964: The Summer Olympics open in Tokyo.
  These were the first Olympic Games held in Asia, and the opening ceremony was the first to be relayed live by satellite to viewers overseas. The cauldron was lit by Yoshinori Sakai, a runner born in Hiroshima Prefecture on the day the atomic bomb fell.
• 1963: From Russia with Love premieres in London.
  The second James Bond film brought Sean Connery back as agent 007 after Dr. No a year earlier, and was adapted from Ian Fleming's 1957 novel. Many fans and critics still rank it among the best entries in the long-running series.
• 1956: Giant has its world premiere.
  The sprawling Texas saga, based on Edna Ferber's novel, starred Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. It was Dean's final film; he was killed in a car crash in September 1955, shortly after shooting wrapped, at age 24. George Stevens won the Academy Award for directing it.
• 1913: President Woodrow Wilson sets off the blast that joins the waters of the Panama Canal.
  Wilson pressed a button in Washington that sent a telegraph signal to dynamite the Gamboa Dike, the last major barrier in the channel. The explosion marked the end of the heavy construction work, and the canal opened to ship traffic in August 1914.
• 1911: Revolutionaries rise up in Wuchang, China.
  The revolt broke out a day after an accidental bomb explosion exposed the plotters, and it is usually counted as the formal start of the Chinese Revolution. The uprising spread quickly, the Qing dynasty was overthrown, and the Republic of China was proclaimed in 1912. Taiwan still marks October 10 as its national day.
• 1846: Astronomer William Lassell discovers Triton, Neptune's largest moon.
  The English astronomer, a brewer by trade who built his own telescopes, spotted the moon just 17 days after Neptune itself was first observed. Triton is unusual among large moons because it circles its planet in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation.
• 1845: The U.S. Naval Academy is founded in Annapolis, Maryland.
  Navy Secretary George Bancroft, who was also a historian and educator, set up the school to improve the way midshipmen were trained. It opened as the Naval School with 50 students and took its present name in 1850.
• 732: Charles Martel defeats an invading Umayyad army near Tours.
  The Frankish leader's forces met the army in what is now west-central France, and the Umayyad commander, Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, was killed in the fighting. The battle is often remembered as the point where the Muslim advance into western Europe was turned back.

Born on This Day

• 1990: Geno Smith, American football player
  Turns 36. Quarterback who was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022.
• 1982: Dan Stevens, English actor
  Turns 44. Played Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey and the Beast in Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast.
• 1979: Mýa, American singer and actress
  Turns 47. R&B singer who shared a Grammy for the 2001 hit remake of “Lady Marmalade.”
• 1974: Dale Earnhardt Jr., American race car driver
  Turns 52. Two-time Daytona 500 winner and longtime NASCAR fan favorite who moved into broadcasting.
• 1974: Chris Pronger, Canadian hockey player
  Turns 52. Hall of Fame defenseman who was the NHL's most valuable player in 2000 and won the Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2007.
• 1973: Mario Lopez, American actor and television host
  Turns 53. Played A.C. Slater on Saved by the Bell and later hosted Extra and Access Hollywood.
• 1969: Brett Favre, American football player
  Turns 57. Hall of Fame quarterback who set major NFL passing records with the Green Bay Packers, then finished his career with the Minnesota Vikings in 2009 and 2010.
• 1969: Wendi McLendon-Covey, American actress
  Turns 57. Played Beverly Goldberg on The Goldbergs and co-starred in Bridesmaids.
• 1967: Gavin Newsom, American politician
  Turns 59. Governor of California since 2019 and a former mayor of San Francisco.
• 1961: Jodi Benson, American actress and singer
  Turns 65. The voice of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid.
• 1959: Bradley Whitford, American actor
  Turns 67. Won an Emmy as Josh Lyman on The West Wing and later appeared in Get Out and The Handmaid's Tale.
• 1958: Tanya Tucker, American country singer
  Turns 68. Scored her first hit at 13 with “Delta Dawn” and joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2023.
• 1954: David Lee Roth, American rock singer
  Turns 72. Original frontman of Van Halen, heard on “Jump” and “Panama.”
• 1950: Nora Roberts, American author
  Turns 76. Bestselling romance novelist who also writes the In Death series under the name J.D. Robb.
• 1946: John Prine, American singer-songwriter
  Wrote “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Stone,” and “Paradise.” He died in 2020.
• 1946: Ben Vereen, American actor, singer, and dancer
  Turns 80. Tony winner for Pippin who played Chicken George in the miniseries Roots.
• 1941: Peter Coyote, American actor
  Turns 85. Appeared in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and narrates many of Ken Burns's documentaries.
• 1917: Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist and composer
  One of the creators of modern jazz, he wrote “'Round Midnight” and “Straight, No Chaser.”
• 1900: Helen Hayes, American actress
  Known as the First Lady of the American Theatre, she won two Academy Awards, the second for Airport.
• 1813: Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer
  Wrote the operas Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Aida.