This Day in History
On Oct. 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire from a room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel in Las Vegas on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at a concert below, leaving 58 people dead and more than 800 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history; the gunman, 64-yearold Stephen Craig Paddock, killed himself before officers arrived.
On this date:
In 1885, special delivery mail service began in the United States.
In 1890, Congress passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs to a record level.
In 1908, Henry Ford introduced his Model T automobile to the market.
In 1910, the offices of the Los Angeles Times were destroyed by a bomb explosion and fire; 21 Times employees were killed.
In 1955, the situation comedy “The Honeymooners,” starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and Joyce Randolph, premiered on CBS-TV.
In 1957, the motto “In God We Trust” began appearing on U.S. paper currency.
In 1962, Johnny Carson debuted as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” beginning a nearly 30-year run.
In 1971, Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida.
In 1982, Sony began selling the first commercial compact disc player, the CDP-101, in Japan.
In 1987, eight people were killed when an earthquake measuring magnitude 5.9 struck the Los Angeles area.
In 1994, National Hockey League team owners began a 103-day lockout of their players.
In 1996, a federal grand jury indicted Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski in the 1994 mail bomb slaying of advertising executive Thomas Mosser. (Kaczynski was later sentenced to four life terms plus 30 years.)
Ten years ago: The U.S. and five other world powers held high-stakes talks with Iran in Geneva to demand a freeze of its nuclear activities; President Barack Obama, in Washington, called the discussions “a constructive beginning.” David Letterman publicly acknowledged having had sexual relationships with some female staffers as “48 Hours Mystery” producer Joe Halderman was charged in a blackmail plot against the CBS “Late Show” host.