Wednesday, October 17, 2012 Today in History - Wednesday, Oct.
17, 2012 Today is Wednesday, Oct. 17, the 291st day of 2012.
There are 75 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in
History: On Oct. 17, 1777, British forces under Gen. John
Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a
turning point of the Revolutionary War. On this date: In 1610,
French King Louis XIII, age nine, was crowned at Reims, five
months after the assassination of his father, Henry IV. In 1711,
Jupiter Hammon, the first black poet to have his work published
in America, was born on Long Island, N.Y., into a lifetime of
slavery. In 1807, Britain declared it would continue to reclaim
British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of
whether they held U.S. citizenship. In 1912, Pope John Paul I
was born Albino Luciani at Forno di Canale, Italy. In 1931,
mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion.
(Sentenced to 11 years in prison, Capone was released in 1939.)
In 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in