On this day, Oct. 7 …

2001: The war in Afghanistan starts as the United States and Britain launch air attacks against military targets and Usama bin Laden's training camps in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Also on this day:

1849: Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore at age 40.

Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore at age 40. 1954: Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.

Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. 1960: Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard Nixon hold their second televised debate, this one in Washington, D.C.

Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard Nixon hold their second televised debate, this one in Washington, D.C. 1979: Pope John Paul II concludes his week-long tour of the United States with a Mass on the Washington Mall.

Pope John Paul II concludes his week-long tour of the United States with a Mass on the Washington Mall. 1985: Palestinian gunmen hijack the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers would shoot and kill Leon Klinghoffer, a Jewish-American tourist in a wheelchair, and push him overboard, before surrendering on Oct. 9.)

1991: University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accuses Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denies Hill's allegations.

1992: Trade representatives of the United States, Canada and Mexico initial 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.