Today in History – October 30

1735 – John Adams, the second President of the United States, was born in Braintree, MA. His son became the sixth President of the U.S.

1817 – The independent government of Venezuela was established by Simon Bolivar.

1831 – Escaped slave Nat Turner was apprehended in Southampton County, VA, several weeks after leading the bloodiest slave uprising in American history.

1875 – The constitution of Missouri was ratified by popular vote.

1893 – The U.S. Senate gave final approval to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.

1894 – The time clock was patented by Daniel M. Cooper of Rochester, NY.

1938 – Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds” aired on CBS radio. The belief that the realistic radio dramatization was a live news event about a Martian invasion caused panic among listeners.

1943 – In Moscow, a declaration was signed by the Governments of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and China called for an early establishment of an international organization to maintain peace and security. The goal was supported on December 1, 1943, at a meeting in Teheran.

1944 – Martha Graham’s ballet “Appalachian Spring” premiered at the Library of Congress.

1945 – The U.S. government announced the end of shoe rationing.

1953 – General George C. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1961 – The Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb with a force of approximately 58 megatons.

1961 – The Soviet Party Congress unanimously approved an order to remove Joseph Stalin’s body from Lenin’s tomb.

1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon approved legislation to increase Social Security spending by $5.3 billion.

1972 – In Illinois, 45 people were killed when two trains collided on Chicago’s south side.

1975 – Prince Juan Carlos assumed power in Spain as dictator Francisco Franco was near death.

1975 – The New York Daily News ran the headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” The headline came a day after U.S. President Gerald R. Ford said he would veto any proposed federal bailout of New York City.

1982 – Portugal’s constitution was revised for the first time since it was ratified on April 25, 1976.

1984 – In Poland, police found the body of kidnapped pro-Solidarity priest Father Jerry Popieluszko. His death was blamed on four security officers.

1989 – Mitsubishi Estate Company announced it would buy 51 percent of Rockefeller Group Inc. of New York.

1993 – Martin Fettman, America’s first veterinarian in space, performed the world’s first animal dissections in space, while aboard the space shuttle Columbia.

1993 – The United Nations deadline concerning ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide passed with country’s military still in control.

1995 – Federalist prevailed over separatists in Quebec in a referendum concerning secession from the federation of Canada.

1997 – The play revival “The Cherry Orchard” opened.

1998 – The terrorist who hijacked a Turkish Airlines plane and the 39 people on board was killed when anti-terrorist squads raided the plane.

2001 – In New York City, U.S. President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

2001 – Michael Jordan returned to the NBA with the Washington Wizards after a 3 1/2 year retirement. The Wizards lost 93-91 to the New York Knicks.

Today in History – October 29

1618 – Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded under a sentence that had been brought against him 15 years earlier for conspiracy against King James I.

1652 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed itself to be an independent commonwealth.

1682 – William Penn landed at what is now Chester, PA. He was the founder of Pennsylvania.

1863 – The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.

1901 – Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President McKinley, was electrocuted.

1923 – Turkey formally became a republic after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The first president was Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Ataturk.

1929 – America’s Great Depression began with the crash of the Wall Street stock market.

1940 – The first peacetime military draft began in the U.S.

1945 – The first ballpoint pens to be made commercially went on sale at Gimbels Department Store in New York at the price of $12.50 each.

1956 – Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula during the Suez Canal Crisis.

1956 – “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” premiered on NBC. The show replaced “The Camel News Caravan.”

1959 – General Mills became the first corporation to use close-circuit television.

1960 – Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) won his first professional fight.

1966 – The National Organization for Women was founded.

1969 – The U.S. Supreme Court ordered an immediate end to all school segregation.

1973 – O.J. Simpson, of the Buffalo Bills, set two NFL records. He carried the ball 39 times and he ran 157 yards putting him over 1,000 yards at the seventh game of the season.

1974 – U.S. President Gerald Ford signed a new law forbidding discrimination in credit applications on the basis of sex or marital status

1985 – It was announced that Maj. Gen. Samuel K. Doe had won the first multiparty election in Liberia.

1990 – The U.N. Security Council voted to hold Saddam Hussein’s regime liable for human rights abuses and war damages during its occupation of Kuwait.

1991 – The U.S. Galileo spacecraft became the first to visit an asteroid (Gaspra).

1991 – Trade sanctions were imposed on Haiti by the U.S. to pressure the new leaders to restore the ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

1992 – Depo Provera, a contraceptive, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

1995 – Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers became the NFL’s career leader in receiving yards with 14,040 yards.

1998 – South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemned both apartheid and violence committed by the African National Congress.

1998 – The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with John Glenn on board. Glenn was 77 years old. In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the Earth.

1998 – The oldest known copy of Archimedes’ work sold for $2 million at a New York auction.

2001 – KTLA broadcasted the first coast to coast HDTV network telecast.

2014 – The smartwatch Microsoft Band was released.

Today in History – October 28

1636 – Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts. The original name was Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the first school of higher education in America.

1776 – The Battle of White Plains took place during the American Revolutionary War.

1793 – Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin.

1886 – The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World.”

1904 – The St. Louis Police Department became the first to use fingerprinting.

1919 – The U.S. Congress enacted the Volstead Act, also known as the National Prohibition Act. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 with the passing of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1922 – Benito Mussolini took control of the Italian government and introduced fascism to Italy.

1936 – The Statue of Liberty was rededicated by U.S. President Roosevelt on its 50th anniversary.

1940 – During World War II, Italy invaded Greece.

1949 – U.S. President Harry Truman swore in Eugenie Moore Anderson as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Anderson was the first woman to hold the post of ambassador.

1958 – Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was elected Pope. He took the name John XXIII.

1962 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1965 – Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

1965 – The Gateway Arch along the waterfront in St. Louis, MO, was completed.

1976 – John D. Erlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, entered a federal prison camp in Safford, AZ, to begin serving his sentence for Watergate-related convictions.

1982 – Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev condemned the U.S. for arms buildup.

1983 – The U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution “deeply deploring” the ongoing U.S.-led invasion of Grenada.

1985 – John A. Walker Jr. and his son, Michael Lance Walker, pled guilty to charges of spying for the Soviet Union.

1986 – The centennial of the Statue of Liberty was celebrated in New York.

1988 – Roussel Uclaf, a French manufacturer that produces the abortion pill RU486, announced it would resume distribution of the drug after the government of France demanded it do so.

1990 – Iraq announced that it was halting gasoline rationing.

1993 – Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, called for a complete blockade of Haiti to force out the military leaders.

1994 – U.S. President Clinton visited Kuwait and implied that all the troops there would be home by Christmas.

1996 – The Dow Jones Industial Average gained a record 337.17 points (or 5%). The day before the Dow had dropped 554.26 points (or 7%).

Today in History – October 27

1659 – William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson became the first Quakers to be executed in America.

1787 – The first of the Federalist Papers were published in the New York Independent. The series of 85 essays, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, were published under the pen name “Publius.”

1795 – The United States and Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo. The treaty is also known as “Pinckney’s Treaty.”

1858 – Roland Macy opened Macy’s Department Store in New York City. It was Macy’s eighth business adventure, the other seven failed.

1878 – The Manhattan Savings Bank in New York City was robbed of over $3,000,000. The robbery was credited to George “Western” Leslie even though there was not enough evidence to convict him, only two of his associates were convicted.

1904 – The New York subway system officially opened. It was the first rapid-transit subway system in America.

1925 – Fred Waller received a patent for water skis.

1927 – The first newsreel featuring sound was released in New York.

1931 – Chuhei Numbu of Japan set a long jump record at 26′ 2 1/4″.

1938 – Du Pont announced “nylon” as the new name for its new synthetic yarn.

1947 – “You Bet Your Life,” the radio show starring Grouch Marx, premiered on ABC. It was later shown on NBC television.

1954 – Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were divorced. They had been married on January 14, 1954.

1954 – The first Walt Disney television show “Disneyland” premiered on ABC.
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1962 – The Soviet Union adds to the Cuban Missile Crisis by calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile basis in Turkey. U.S. President Kennedy agreed to the new aspect of the agreement.

1978 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord.

1994 – The U.S. Justice Department announced that the U.S. prison population had exceeded one million for the first time in American history.

1997 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 554.26 points. The stock market was shut down for the first time since the 1981 assassination attempt on U.S. President Reagan.

1998 – The reunion episode “CHiPs ’99” aired for the first time on the cable network TNT.

1998 – Disney’s “Lion King II: Simba’s Pride” was released on video.
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2002 – The Anaheim Angels won their first World Series. They beat the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the series.

2002 – Emmitt Smith (Dallas Cowboys) became the all-time leading rusher in the NFL when he extended his career yardage to 16,743. He achieved the record in his 193rd game. He also scored his 150th career touchdown.

2002 – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in a runoff. He was the country’s first elected leftist leader.

2003 – Bank of America Corp. announced it had agreed to buy FleetBoston Financial Corp. The deal created the second largest banking company in the U.S.

Today in History – October 24

1632 – Scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Holland. He created the first microscope lenses that were powerful enough to observe single-celled animals.

1648 – The Holy Roman Empire was effectively destroyed by the Peace of Westphalia that brought an end to the Thirty Years War.

1795 – The country of Poland was divided up between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

1836 – Alonzo D. Phillips received a patent for the phosphorous friction safety match.

1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent when Justice Stephen J. Field of California transmitted a telegram to U.S. President Lincoln.

1901 – Daredevil Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel. She was 63 years old.

1929 – In the U.S., investors dumped more than 13 million shares on the stock market. The day is known as “Black Tuesday.”

1931 – The upper level of the George Washington Bridge opened for traffic between New York and New Jersey.

1939 – Nylon stockings were sold to the public for the first time in Wilmington, DE.

1940 – In the U.S., the 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

1945 – The United Nations (UN) was formally established less than a month after the end of World War II. The Charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of other signatories.

1948 – The term “cold war” was used for the first time. It was in a speech by Bernard Baruch before the Senate War Investigating Committee.

1949 – The cornerstone for the U.N. Headquarters was laid in New York City.

1960 – All remaining American-owned property in Cuba was nationalized. The process of nationalizing all U.S. and foreign-owned property in Cuban had begun on August 6, 1960.

1962 – During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. military forces went on the highest alert in the postwar era in preparation for a possible full-scale war with the Soviet Union. The U.S. blockade of Cuba officially began on this day.

1969 – Richard Burton bought his wife Elizabeth Taylor a 69-carat Cartier diamond ring for $1.5 million. Burton presented the ring to Taylor several days later.

1986 – Britain broke off relations with Syria after a Jordanian was convicted in an attempted bombing. The evidence in the trial led to the belief that Syria was involved in the attack on the Israeli jetliner.

1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series.

2001 – The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that gave police the power to secretly search homes, tap all of a person’s telephone conversation and track people’s use of the Internet.

2001 – The U.S. stamp “United We Stand” was dedicated.

2001 – NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars.

2002 – Microsoft Corp. and Walt Disney Co. announced the release of an upgraded MSN Internet service with Disney content.
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2003 – In London, the last commercial supersonic Concorde flight landed.

Today in History – October 22

1746 – The College of New Jersey was officially chartered. It later became known as Princeton University.

1797 – Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump. He made the jump from about 3,000 feet.

1836 – Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.

1844 – This day is recognized as “The Great Disappointment” among those who practiced Millerism. The world was expected to come to an end according to the followers of William Miller.

1879 – Thomas Edison conducted his first successful experiment with a high-resistance carbon filament.

1883 – The New York Horse show opened. The first national horse show was formed by the newly organized National Horse Show Association of America.

1907 – The Panic of 1907 began when depositors began withdrawing money from many New York banks.

1939 – The first televised pro football game was telecast from New York. Brooklyn defeated Philadelphia 23-14.

1950 – The Los Angeles Rams set an NFL record by defeating the Baltimore Colts 70-27. It was a record score for a regular season game.

1954 – The Federal Republic of Germany was invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

1959 – “Take Me Along” opened on Broadway.

1962 – U.S. President Kennedy went on radio and television to inform the United States about his order to send U.S. forces to blockade Cuba. The blockade was in response to the discovery of Soviet missile bases on the island.

1968 – Apollo 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. The spacecraft had orbited the Earth 163 times.

1975 – Air Force Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was discharged after publicly declaring his homosexuality. His tombstone reads ” “A gay Vietnam Veteran. When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

1979 – The ousted Shah of Iran, Mohammad Riza Pahlavi was allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment.

1981 – The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.

1983 – At the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia, an armed man crashed a truck through front gates and demanded to speak with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

1986 – U.S. President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 into law.

1991 – The European Community and the European Free Trade Association agreed to create a free trade zone of 19 nations by the year 1993.

1995 – The 50th anniversary of the United Nations was marked by a record number of world leaders gathering.

1998 – The United Nations announced that over 2 million children had been killed in war as innocent victims since 1987.

1998 – Pakistan’s carpet weaving industry announced that they would begin to phase out child labor.

1999 – China ended its first-ever human rights conference in which it defied Western definitions of civil liberties.

1999 – The U.N. Security Council voted to send 6,000 troops to Sierra Leone to oversee a peace plan that had been signed in July.

2008 – The iTunes Music Store reached 200 million applications downloaded.

2010 – The Internation Space Station set the record (3641 days) for the longest continuous human occupation of space. It had been continously inhabited since November 2, 2000.

2014 – The iPad Air 2 was released in the U.S.

Today in History – October 21

1797 – “Old Ironsides,” the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, was launched in Boston’s harbor.

1805 – The Battle of Trafalgar occurred off the coast of Spain. The British defeated the French and Spanish fleet.

1849 – The first tattooed man, James F. O’Connell, was put on exhibition at the Franklin Theatre in New York City, NY.

1858 – The Can-Can was performed for the first time in Paris.

1879 – Thomas Edison invented the electric incandescent lamp. It would last 13 1/2 hours before it would burn out.

1917 – The first U.S. soldiers entered combat during World War I near Nancy, France.

1918 – Margaret Owen set a typing speed record of 170 words per minute on a manual typewriter.

1925 – The photoelectric cell was first demonstrated at the Electric Show in New York City, NY.

1925 – The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had fined 29,620 people for prohibition (of alcohol) violations.

1927 – In New York City, construction began on the George Washington Bridge.

1944 – During World War II, the German city of Aachen was captured by U.S. troops.

1945 – Women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.

1950 – Chinese forces invaded Tibet.

1959 – The Guggenheim Museum was opened to the public in New York. The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

1967 – Thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington, DC, in opposition to the Vietnam War.

1980 – The Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series.

1983 – The Pentagon reported that 2,000 Marines were headed to Grenada to protect and evacuate Americans living there.

1986 – The U.S. ordered 55 Soviet diplomats to leave. The action was in reaction to the Soviet Union expelling five American diplomats.

1991 – Jesse Turner, an American hostage in Lebanon, was released after nearly five years of being imprisoned.

1993 – The play “The Twilight of the Golds” opened.

1994 – North Korea and the U.S. signed an agreement requiring North Korea to halt its nuclear program and agree to inspections.

1998 – The New York Yankees set a major league baseball record of 125 victories for the regular and postseason combined.

1998 – Cancer specialist Dr. Jane Henney became the FDA’s first female commissioner.

2003 – The U.S. Senate voted to ban what was known as partial birth abortions.

2003 – North Korea rejected U.S. President George W. Bush’s offer of a written pledge not to attack in exchange for the communist nation agreeing to end its nuclear weapons program.

Today in History – October 18

1469 – Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The marriage united all the dominions of Spain.

1685 – King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration of the Protestant population.

1767 – The Mason-Dixon line was agreed upon. It was the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

1842 – Samuel Finley Breese Morse laid his first telegraph cable.

1860 – British troops burned the Yuanmingyuan at the end of the Second Opium War.

1867 – The U.S. took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. The land was purchased of a total of $7 million dollars (2 cents per acre).

1873 – The first rules for intercollegiate football were drawn up by representatives from Rutgers, Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities.

1892 – The first long-distance telephone line between Chicago, IL, and New York City, NY, was opened.

1898 – The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico only one year after the Caribbean nation won its independence from Spain.

1929 – The Judicial Committee of England’s Privy Council ruled that women were to be considered as persons in Canada.

1943 – The first broadcast of “Perry Mason” was presented on CBS Radio. The show went to TV in 1957.

1944 – Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviets during World War II.

1944 – “Forever Amber”, written by Kathleen Windsor, was first published.

1950 – Connie Mack announced that he was going to retire after 50 seasons as the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.

1956 – NFL commissioner Bert Bell disallowed the use of radio-equipped helmets by NFL quarterbacks.

1958 – The first computer-arranged marriage took place on Art Linkletter’s show.

1961 – Henri Matiss’ “Le Bateau” went on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It was discovered 46 days later that the painting had been hanging upside down.

1967 – The American League granted permission for the A’s to move to Oakland. Also, new franchises were awarded to Kansas City and Seattle.

1968 – Two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee for giving a “black power” salute during a ceremony in Mexico City.

1969 – The U.S. government banned artificial sweeteners due to evidence that they caused cancer.

1970 – Quebec’s minister of labor was found strangled to death after eight days of being held captive by the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ).

1971 – After 34 years, the final issue of “Look” magazine was published.

1977 – Reggie Jackson tied Babe Ruth’s record for hitting three homeruns in a single World Series game. Jackson was only the second player to achieve this.

1983 – General Motors agreed to hire more women and minorities for five years as part of a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

1985 – South African authorities hanged black activist Benjamin Moloise. Moloise had been convicted of murdering a police officer.

1989 – Egon Krenz became the leader of East Germany after Erich Honecker was ousted. Honeker had been in power for 18 years.

1989 – The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a mission that included the deployment of the Galileo space probe.

1990 – Iraq made an offer to the world that it would sell oil for $21 a barrel. The price level was the same as it had been before the invasion of Kuwait.

1997 – A monument honoring U.S. servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.

2006 – Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7.0.

2013 – Saudi Arabia became the first nation to reject a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Jordan took the seat on December 6.

Today in History – October 17

1739 – Thomas Coram was granted a Royal Charter from George II so a “hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children” in Londond, England.

1777 – American troops defeated British forces in Saratoga, NY. It was the turning point in the American Revolutionary War.

1888 – The first issue of “National Geographic Magazine” was released at newsstands.

1931 – Al Capone was convicted on income tax evasion and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939.

1933 – “News-Week” appeared for the first time at newsstands. The name was later changed to “Newsweek.”

1933 – Dr. Albert Einstein moved to Princeton, NJ, after leaving Germany.

1939 – “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” premiered.

1945 – Ava Gardner and Artie Shaw were married.

1945 – Colonel Juan Peron became the dictator of Argentina after staging a coup in Buenos Aires.

1973 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) began an oil-embargo against several countries including the U.S. and Great Britain. The incident stemmed from Western support of Israel when Egypt and Syria attacked the nation on October 6, 1973. The embargo lasted until March of 1974.

1978 – U.S. President Carter signed a bill that restored full U.S. citizenship rights to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

1979 – Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1987 – U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan underwent a modified radical mastectomy at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

1989 – An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit the San Francisco Bay area in California. The quake caused about 67 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $7 billion.

1994 – Israel and Jordan initialed a draft peace treaty.

1994 – The Angolan government and rebels agreed to a peace treaty that ended their 19 years of civil war.

1997 – The remains of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara were laid to rest in his adopted Cuba, 30 years after his execution in Bolivia.

2000 – In New York City, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum opened to the public. The 42nd Street location joined Tussaud’s other exhibitions already in London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Las Vegas.

2000 – Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) achieved his 448th victory as a goalie in the NHL. Roy passed Terry Sawchuck to become the record holder for career victories.

2001 – Israel’s tourism minister was killed. A radical Palestinian faction claimed that it had carried out the assassination to avenge the killing of its leader by Israel 2 months earlier.

2001 – Pakistan placed its armed forces on high alert because of troop movements by India in the disputed territory of Kashmir. India said that the movements were part of a normal troop rotation.

2001 – Italian priest Giuseppe “Beppe” Pierantoni was kidnapped by the terrorist group the “Pentagon.” He was released on April 8, 2002.

2003 – In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration approved a drug, known as memantine, to help people with Alzheimer’s symptoms.

2003 – In Taipei, Taiwan, construction crews finished 1,676-foot-tall-building called Taipei 101. The building was planned to open for business in 2004.

2003 – In northwest England, the Carnforth railway station reopened as a heritage center.

Today in History – October 16

1701 – The Collegiate School was founded in Killingworth, CT. The school moved to New Haven in 1745 and changed its name to Yale College.

1793 – During the French Revolution, Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded after being convicted of treason.

1829 – In Boston, MA, the first modern hotel in America opened. The Tremont Hotel had 170 rooms that rented for $2 a day and included four meals.

1859 – Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harper’s Ferry, VA (now located in West Virginia).

1869 – A hotel in Boston became the first in the U.S. to install indoor plumbing.

1916 – Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in New York City, NY.

1923 – Walt Disney contracted with M.J. Winkler to distribute the Alice Comedies. This event is recognized as the start of the Disney Company.
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1928 – Marvin Pipkin received a patent for the frosted electric light bulb.

1939 – “Right To Happiness” debuted on the NBC-Blue network.

1939 – “The Man Who Came to Dinner” opened on Broadway.

1941 – The Nazis advanced to within 60 miles of Moscow. Romanians entered Odessa, USSR, and began exterminating 150,000 Jews.

1942 – The ballet “Rodeo” premiered in New York City.

1943 – Chicago’s new subway system was officially opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

1944 – “The Robe,” by Lloyd Douglas, was published for the first time.

1945 – “His Honor the Barber” debuted on NBC Radio.

1955 – Mrs. Jules Lederer replaced Ruth Crowley in newspapers using the name Ann Landers.

1962 – U.S. President Kennedy was informed that there were missile bases in Cuba, beginning the Cuban missile crisis.

1964 – China detonated its first atomic bomb becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power.

1967 – NATO headquarters opened in Brussels.

1970 – Anwar Sadat was elected president of Egypt to succeed Gamal Abdel Nassar.

1973 – Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Vietnamese official declined the award.

1982 – China announced that it had successfully fired a ballistic missile from a submarine.

1987 – Rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. The was trapped for 58 hours.

1989 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed the Gramm-Rudman budget reduction law that ordered federal programs be cut by $16.1 billion.

1990 – Comedian Steve Martin and his wife Victoria Tennant visited U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia.

1993 – The U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of U.S. warships to enforce a blockade on Haiti to increase pressure on the controlling military leaders.

1994 – German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was re-elected to a fourth term.

1995 – The “Million Man March” took place in Washington, DC.

1997 – Charles M. Schulz and his wife Jeannie announced that they would give $1 million toward the construction of a D-Day memorial to be placed in Virginia.

2000 – It was announced that Chevron Corp. would be buying Texaco Inc. for $35 billion. The combined company was called Chevron Texaco Corp. and became the 4th largest oil company in the world.

2002 – It was reported that North Korea had told the U.S. that it had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of an 1994 agreement with the U.S.

2002 – The Arthur Andersen accounting firm was sentenced to five years probation and fined $500,000 for obstructing a federeal investigation of the energy company Enron.

2008 – The iTunes Music Store reached 200 billion television episodes sold.