Today is Friday, Oct. 16, the 289th day of 2026 with 76 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn.

Those born on this day are under the sign of Libra. They include lexicographer Noah Webster in 1758; writer Oscar Wilde in 1854; writer Eugene O'Neill in 1888; Irish revolutionary Michael Collins in 1890; Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in 1898; actor Angela Lansbury in 1925; actor Barry Corbin in 1940 (age 86); musician Fred Turner (Backman-Turner Overdrive) in 1943 (age 83); actor Suzanne Somers in 1946; musician Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) in 1947; filmmaker David Zucker in 1947 (age 79); actor Andy Kindler in 1956 (age 70); actor Tim Robbins in 1958 (age 68); musician Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet) in 1959 (age 67); musician Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) in 1962 (age 64); musician Wendy Wilson (Wilson Phillips) in 1969 (age 57); actor Paul Sparks in 1971 (age 55); actor Kellie Martin in 1975 (age 51); musician John Mayer in 1977 (age 49); Basketball Hall of Fame member Sue Bird in 1980 (age 46); actor Caterina Scorsone in 1981 (age 45); writer/illustrator Alice Oseman in 1994 (age 32); computer scientist Lucas Wilson 1995 (31); auto racer Charles Leclerc in 1997 (age 29); musician Mo Chara (Kneecap) in 1997 (age 29); tennis player Naomi Osaka in 1997 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1793, following her conviction for treason, French Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, was beheaded on the Place de la Revolution.

In 1859, abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Va. He was later convicted of treason and hanged.

In 1916, the nation's first birth-control clinic was opened in New York by Margaret Sanger and two other women. Officials shut down the clinic 10 days later.

In 1934, about 100,000 men and women belonging to the communist Red Party in China began what would later be called The Long March. The followers of Mao Zedong marched some 6,000 miles fleeing the Nationalist forces.

In 1946, at Nuremberg, Germany, 10 high-ranking Nazi officials were executed by hanging for World War II war crimes. Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force, was to have been among them but killed himself in his cell the night before.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs, collected by a U-2 spy plane two days earlier, had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. This would mark the start of the most fraught 13 days of the 20th century, the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In 1964, China detonated its first atomic bomb, dubbed Project 596.

In 1968, American track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the Black Power salute during the medal ceremony for the 200-meter dash at the Mexico City Olympics. Smith said the gesture was meant to show that "we are black and we are proud of it."

In 1972, a light plane carrying U.S. House Democratic leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana, fellow Democratic Rep. Nick Begich of Alaska and his aide Russell Brown and pilot Don Jonz was reported missing on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau in Alaska. The plane was never found.

In 1973, North Vietnamese diplomat Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger, U.S. national security adviser, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their Paris negotiations that led to a Vietnam War cease-fire agreement. Le Duc Tho refused to accept the award, saying ''peace has not yet been established.''

In 1978, Karol Jozef Wojtyla was elected pope and took the name John Paul II.

In 1984, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle against apartheid.

In 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure was rescued from an abandoned well in Texas, 58 hours after she first fell into it. Her ordeal captured national attention and she came to be known affectionately as "Baby Jessica."

In 1991, police said George Hennard shot and killed 23 people and then took his own life after driving his pickup truck through the front window of Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history.

In 1992, Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu, a leading activist for Latin America's Indigenous population, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2003, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.

In 2011, British race car driver Dan Wheldon, 33-year-old two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, died after a 15-car pileup at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In 2013, all 44 people aboard a Lao Airlines plane died after the ATR twin-turbo crashed just before landing at its destination in Pakse, Laos.

In 2024, British musician Liam Payne died in a fall from a third-floor balcony at a Buenos Aires hotel. The former One Direction singer was 31.

A thought for the day: "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." -- Irish author Oscar Wilde