Today is Tuesday, October 18, the 291st day of 2011. 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-yard dash in under 10 seconds
1912 ― Beginning of the first Balkan War
1944 ― Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia during WW II
1960 ― In Britain, the News Chronicle and Daily Mail merge, and The London Evening Star merges with the Evening News
1962 ― Dr. Watson (U.S.) & Drs. Crick & Wilkins (Britain) win Nobel Prize for Medicine for work in determining structure of DNA
1968 ― U.S. Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving ``black power" salute as a protest during victory ceremony