Today is Saturday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2025. Today in history:On Oct. 4, 2002, “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh received a 20-year sentence after a sobbing plea for forgiveness before a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia. Also on this date:In 1777, Gen. George Washington’s troops launched an assault on the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania, resulting in heavy American casualties and the retreat of Washington’s Continental Army. In 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. In 1965, Pope Paul VI became the first pope to visit the Western Hemisphere as he addressed the U.N. General Assembly.