Today is Saturday, October 18, the 292nd day of 2008. There are 74 days left in the year.
1648 _ First U.S. labor organization forms (Boston Shoemakers)
1685 _ Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, outlaws Protestantism
1776 _ In a N.Y. bar decorated with bird tail, customer orders ``cock tail"
1867 _ U.S. takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia ($7.2 million)
1890 _ John Owen is first man to run 100-yd. dash in under 10 seconds
1892 _ First commercial long-distance phone line opens (Chicago-N.Y.)
1912 _ Beginning of the first Balkan War
1922 _ British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) established
1944 _ Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II
1979 _ ``Beatlemania" opens in London