Today in History: October 5, Steve Jobs dies at 56

Today is Monday, Oct. 5, the 278th day of 2026. There are 87 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 5, 2011, Steve Jobs, the Apple founder and former chief executive who invented and master-marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology, died in Palo Alto, California, at age 56.

Also on this date:

In 1892, the Dalton Gang, notorious for its train robberies, was practically wiped out while attempting to rob a pair of banks in Coffeyville, Kansas.

In 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised White House address as he spoke on the world food crisis.

In 1953, Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson.

In 1958, racially desegregated Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, was nearly leveled by an early morning bombing.

In 1983, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa (lek vah-WEN’-sah) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Starting in 1980, Walesa spearheaded Poland’s pro-democracy movement that nine years later led to the peaceful end of the country's communist rule. He served as democratic Poland’s first popularly elected president from 1990 until 1995.

In 1986, Nicaraguan Sandinista government soldiers shot down a cargo plane carrying weapons and ammunition bound for Contra rebels; the event exposed a web of illegal arms shipments, leading to the Iran-Contra Scandal.

In 1989, a jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, convicted evangelist Jim Bakker of using his television show to defraud followers. Initially sentenced to 45 years in prison, Bakker was freed in December 1994 after serving 4 1/2 years.

In 2001, Florida tabloid photo editor Robert Stevens died from inhaled anthrax, the first of a series of cases in which anthrax-laced letters also were mailed to television networks and a U.S. Senate office building in Washington, killing four other people. The FBI eventually concluded that a government scientist who killed himself in 2008 was responsible, but some who worked with him expressed doubt that he did it.

In 2018, a jury in Chicago convicted white police officer Jason Van Dyke of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting of Black teenager Laquan McDonald.

In 2020, President Donald Trump made a dramatic return to the White House after leaving the military hospital where he was being treated for COVID-19.

In 2025, Syria held its first parliamentary elections, nearly a year after a rebel-led offensive unseated longtime autocratic leader Bashar Assad. The People’s Assembly was tasked with passing a new constitution to move the country past the Assad era and more than a decade of civil war.

Today’s Birthdays: College Football Hall of Fame coach Barry Switzer is 89. Rock musician Steve Miller is 83. Rock singer Brian Johnson (AC/DC) is 79. Actor Karen Allen is 75. Singer-songwriter Bob Geldof is 75. Astrophysicist-author Neil deGrasse Tyson is 68. Architect-designer Maya Lin is 67. Golf Hall of Famer Laura Davies is 63. Hockey Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux is 61. Hockey Hall of Famer Patrick Roy is 61. Actor Guy Pearce is 59. Actor Josie Bissett is 56. Actor Parminder Nagra (pahr-MIHN’-da NAH’-grah) is 51. Actor Kate Winslet is 51. Actor Jesse Eisenberg is 43. NFL tight end Travis Kelce is 37. Actor Jacob Tremblay is 20.