Today in History: Thursday, October 11, 2012

On Oct. 11, 2002.The Senate joined the House in approving the use of America's military might against Iraq.

1811 The first steam-powered ferryboat was put into operation between New York City and Hoboken, N.J.

1884 First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City.

1958 The lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far as planned, fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.

1962, Pope John XXIII convened the first session of the Roman Catholic Church's 21st Ecumenical Council, better known as Vatican II.

1968 Apollo 7 was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.

1975 "Saturday Night Live" debuted on NBC.

1986 President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev opened two days of talks on arms control and human rights in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1991 Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, law professor Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her; Thomas reappeared before the panel to denounce the proceedings as a "high-tech lynching."

1998 Pope John Paul II canonized the first Jewish-born saint of the modern era: Edith Stein, a Catholic nun killed at Auschwitz.

2001 Trinidad-born writer V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize in literature.

2002 Former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his 1970s Middle East diplomacy.