Today in HistoryToday is Saturday, October 7, the 280th day of 2006. There are 85 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

IIn 1849, author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore at age 40.

In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.

In 1949, the Republic of East Germany was formed.

In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.

In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard M. Nixon held the second of their broadcast debates.

In 1981, Egypt’s parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.

In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers, who killed an elderly Jewish American tourist, surrendered two days after taking the ship.)

In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him, and urged the Senate to investigate her claims; Thomas denied Hill’s allegations.

In 1996, the Irish Republican Army detonated two car bombs inside the British army’s headquarters in Northern Ireland, wounding 31 people. Fox News Channel made its debut.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“The human mind is like an umbrella — it functions best when open.” — Walter Gropius, German-American architect (1883-1969).