GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, October 11, the 284th day of 2014 with 81 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:52 and sunset is @ 6:10. The moon is waning. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter, Uranus & Venus. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune & Saturn.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1521 – Pope Leo X conferred the title of “Defender of the Faith” on England’s Henry VIII for his
support of Catholic principles. Henry VIII denounced Martin Luther’s teachings.
1689 – Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, assumed control.
1727 – George II of England was crowned.
1776 – The first naval battle of Lake Champlain was fought during the American Revolution.
1811 – The first steam-powered ferryboat, Juliana, was put into operation between New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey.
1862 – The Confederate Congress in Richmond passed a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service.
1887 – A patent was granted to Dorr Eugene Felt for the first adding machine.
1890 – The Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in Washington, D.C.
1899 – The South African Boer War began between the British Empire and Boers of the Transvaaland Orange Free State, who are settlers from the Netherlands.
1923 – The first political telecast, sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, aired from New York.
1939 – Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, arguing the scientific feasibility of atomic weapons and urging the rapid development of a U.S. atomic program.
1945 – Negotiations between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung broke down.
1950 – Federal Communications Commission authorized the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) to began commercial color television broadcasts.
1958 – The lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched, but it failed to go far enough and fell back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere.
1962 – Pope John XXIII convened the first session of the Roman Catholic Church’s 21st Ecumenical Council.
1968 – Apollo Seven, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
1975 – “Saturday Night Live” made its TV debut, with comedian George Carlin as host.
1976 – Mao Zedong’s widow, Jiang Qing, and three others were arrested and charged with plotting a coup as the Gang of Four.
1984 – On space shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathy Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.
1998 – Pope John Paul II canonized the first Jewish-born saint of the modern era: Edith Stein, a nun killed in Auschwitz gas chambers.
2002 – Former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy in the Middle East in the 1970s.