Today in History: October 7, 2026

• 2023: Hamas launches a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza.
  Militants crossed out of the Gaza Strip and killed about 1,200 people, and more than 240 others were carried back into Gaza as hostages. It was the deadliest single day in Israel's history, and it set off the Israel-Hamas War.
• 2022: The Nobel Peace Prize goes to rights defenders in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
  The award was shared three ways by Ales Bialiatski, a Belarusian activist who was in jail at the time, Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties, and the Russian organization Memorial. All three were recognized for documenting abuses of power and defending civil rights in their countries.
• 2001: The war in Afghanistan begins with U.S. and British air strikes.
  Warplanes started bombing Taliban targets less than a month after the September 11 attacks, which had been planned by al-Qaeda leaders sheltered in the country. The conflict became the longest war in American history, lasting until the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
• 1996: Fox News Channel goes on the air.
  Television executive Roger Ailes built the cable network for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation as a competitor to CNN. Within a few years it had become the most-watched cable news channel in the United States.
• 1985: Palestinian gunmen hijack the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.
  Four members of the Palestine Liberation Front seized the liner in the Mediterranean and held 97 passengers hostage. They later killed one of them, Leon Klinghoffer, an American who used a wheelchair. After the hijackers gave up, U.S. Navy jets forced the airliner carrying them to land in Sicily.
• 1971: The French Connection premieres in New York and Los Angeles.
  William Friedkin directed the gritty police thriller, with Gene Hackman as New York narcotics detective Popeye Doyle. Remembered for its car chase beneath an elevated train, it went on to win the Academy Award for best picture.
• 1959: Pillow Talk opens in theaters across the United States.
  The romantic comedy was the first of three films pairing Rock Hudson and Doris Day. It was a box-office hit, won the Oscar for its screenplay, and earned Day her only Academy Award nomination.
• 1949: East Germany is founded.
  A constitution took effect in the Soviet occupation zone, creating the German Democratic Republic a few months after West Germany was established. The communist state existed alongside its western neighbor until the two were reunified in 1990.
• 1944: The Dumbarton Oaks Conference wraps up with a blueprint for the United Nations.
  Delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China had been meeting since August at an estate in Washington, D.C. Their proposals for a new world organization became the basis of the UN Charter, signed in San Francisco the following year.
• 1916: Georgia Tech beats Cumberland 222-0 in college football's most lopsided game.
  Tech coach John Heisman, for whom the Heisman Trophy is named, was reportedly settling a grudge over a 22-0 baseball loss to the Tennessee school. His team scored 32 touchdowns and piled up 978 yards in Atlanta against an overmatched Cumberland squad.
• 1870: French leader Léon Gambetta escapes besieged Paris in a balloon.
  German forces had surrounded the capital during the Franco-Prussian War, so the politician floated out over their lines. Once free, he worked to raise and rally new French armies against the invasion.
• 1849: Writer Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore.
  The poet, critic, and short-story writer was 40 years old and had been found in distress on a city street a few days earlier. The cause of his death has never been settled. He is best remembered for “The Raven” and for tales such as “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
• 1826: The Granite Railway, the first chartered railroad in the United States, begins service.
  Built in Quincy, Massachusetts, the line used horse-drawn wagons to haul stone about three miles from the quarries to the Neponset River. The granite was bound for the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown.

Born on This Day

• 1996: Lewis Capaldi, Scottish singer-songwriter
  Turns 30. Topped the U.S. charts in 2019 with the ballad “Someone You Loved.”
• 1992: Mookie Betts, American baseball player
  Turns 34. Los Angeles Dodgers star who was the 2018 American League MVP with the Boston Red Sox.
• 1985: Evan Longoria, American baseball player
  Turns 41. Three-time All-Star third baseman who spent a decade with the Tampa Bay Rays.
• 1976: Charles Woodson, American football player
  Turns 50. Heisman Trophy winner at Michigan and Hall of Fame defensive back who won a Super Bowl with the Green Bay Packers.
• 1976: Taylor Hicks, American singer
  Turns 50. Gray-haired soul singer who won the fifth season of American Idol in 2006.
• 1973: Priest Holmes, American football player
  Turns 53. Kansas City Chiefs running back who was one of the NFL's top rushers and scorers in the early 2000s.
• 1968: Thom Yorke, English singer-songwriter
  Turns 58. Lead singer of Radiohead, the band behind “Creep” and the album OK Computer.
• 1967: Toni Braxton, American R&B singer
  Turns 59. Grammy winner known for “Un-Break My Heart” and “Breathe Again.”
• 1959: Simon Cowell, English television personality and record executive
  Turns 67. Sharp-tongued judge on American Idol and America's Got Talent.
• 1957: Michael W. Smith, American Christian singer-songwriter
  Turns 69. One of contemporary Christian music's biggest names, known for “Friends” and “Place in This World.”
• 1955: Yo-Yo Ma, French-born American cellist
  Turns 71. The world's best-known cellist and a winner of many Grammy Awards.
• 1953: Tico Torres, American drummer
  Turns 73. Longtime drummer for Bon Jovi, heard on “Livin' on a Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
• 1952: Vladimir Putin, Russian president
  Turns 74. Has led Russia as president or prime minister since 1999.
• 1951: John Mellencamp, American rock singer-songwriter
  Turns 75. Heartland rocker behind “Jack & Diane,” “Pink Houses,” and “Small Town,” and a co-founder of Farm Aid.
• 1943: Oliver North, American Marine officer and commentator
  Turns 83. Central figure in the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s who later became a radio and television host.
• 1942: Joy Behar, American comedian and television host
  Turns 84. Longtime co-host of the daytime talk show The View.
• 1931: Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and activist
  Won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent opposition to apartheid.
• 1927: Al Martino, American singer and actor
  Crooner known for “Spanish Eyes” and for playing singer Johnny Fontane in The Godfather.
• 1917: June Allyson, American actress
  MGM star of the 1940s and 1950s, seen in Little Women and The Glenn Miller Story.