Today is Wednesday, Oct. 7, the 280th day of 2026. There are 85 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 7, 2006, Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote stories critical of Kremlin policies in the early years of Vladimir Putin's presidency, was shot and killed in Moscow. The Kremlin denied any role in the death of Politkovskaya, who worked for an independent newspaper.

Also on this date:

In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.

In 1913, the first moving assembly line began operation at the Ford Motor Company factory in Highland Park, Michigan.

In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.

In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro (ah-KEE'-leh LOW'-roh) in the Mediterranean Sea. The hijackers shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish American tourist in a wheelchair, and pushed him overboard, before surrendering on Oct. 9.

In 1992, trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement during a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, in the presence of President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie, Wyoming; he died five days later. Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard's murder.

In 2001, war in Afghanistan started as the United States and Britain launched air attacks against military targets and Osama bin Laden's training camps in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.S. military completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan to end the 20-year war on Aug. 30, 2021.

In 2003, California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger their new governor.

In 2019, President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria. Syria's Kurds accused the U.S. of turning its

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