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Almanac for Oct. 19, 2026

Local columns

Today is Sunday, Oct. 19, the 292nd day of 2025. There are 73 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 19, 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6% in value (its largest daily percentage loss ever), to close at 1,738.74 on what came to be known as "Black Monday." Also on this date: In 1781, British forces under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, as the American Revolution neared its end. In 1914, the First Battle of Ypres began in World War I. In 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was ...

A culture of death

Local columns

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." — Voltaire (1694-1778) A government that claims the authority to kill persons after they have been subdued, disarmed, tried, convicted and confined in prison has ...

Donald Trump's “assault on the rule of law” is intensifying

Editorial

On Oct. 9, Donald Trump drove home his belief that might is right and the rule of law is an obstacle rather than an essential foundation stone of international order. First came the escalated assault on the international criminal court (ICC), sanctioning the body itself. Then he announced a deal with Russia to buy diesel. The US has long chafed at the notion of being bound by the rule of law that it espoused publicly. That hypocrisy now appears as a lesser vice. The president has declared that “my own morality” is all that constrains him. His brazen flouting of the law, embrace of ...

Almanac for Oct. 17, 2026

Local columns

Today is Saturday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2026. There are 75 days left in the year. Today in history: On Oct. 17, 1989, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck northern California, killing 63 people and causing up to $10 billion worth of damage. Also on this date: In 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, in a turning point of the Revolutionary War. In 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted in Chicago of income tax evasion; he would be sentenced to 11 years in prison, fined $50,000 and ordered to pay back taxes. Capone ...