Today in History

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2008

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2008

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2008

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2008

Today is Tuesday, October 21, the 295th day of 2008. There are 71 days left in the year. 1520 _ Magellan entered the strait which bears his name 1553 _ Volumes of the Talmud are burned 1805 _ Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Nelson defeats French and Spanish fleet and dies 1879 _ Thomas Edison perfects the carbonized cotton filament light bulb 1915 _ First transatlantic radiotelephone message, Arlington, Va., to Paris 1950 _ Chinese forces occupy Tibet 1967 _ Thousands opposing Vietnam War try to storm the Pentagon 1970 _ 777 Unification church couples wed in Korea 1976 _ American Saul Bellow wins Nobel Prize for Literature 1988 _ Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos indicted on racketeering charges

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008

Today is Monday, October 20, the 294th day of 2008. There are 72 days left in the year. 1600 _ Battle of Sekigahara sets Tokugawa clan as Japan's rulers (shoguns) 1740 _ Maria Theresa became ruler of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia 1813 _ German Kingdom of Westphalia abolished 1845 _ The opera ``Tannheuser" is produced (Dresden) 1905 _ Great General Strike in Russia begins; lasts 11 days 1944 _ U.S. forces under Gen Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines 1947 _ HUAC opens hearings into alleged Communist influence in Hollywood 1968 _ Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis 1973 _ OPEC oil embargo begins 1990 _ Antiwar protest marches begin in 20 U.S. cities (U.S.-Iraq)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2008

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

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2008

Today is Friday, October 17, the 291st day of 2008. There are 75 days left in the year. 1492 _ Columbus sights isle of San Salvador (Watling Island, Bahamas) 1871 _ President Grant suspends writ of habeas corpus 1918 _ Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic 919 _ Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created 1931 _ Al Capone convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 11 years in prison 1933 _ Albert Einstein arrives in the U.S., a refugee from Nazi Germany 1957 _ French author Albert Camus awarded Nobel Prize in Literature 1967 _ The play ``Hair" is 1st performed 1979 _ Mother Teresa of India, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1986 _ U.S. Senate approved immigration bill prohibiting hiring of illegal aliens and offered amnesty to illegals who entered prior to 1982

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008

Today is Thursday, October 16, the 290th day of 2008. There are 76 days left in the year. 1923 _ Disney Co founded 1945 _ U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization comes into existence 1946 _ 10 Nazi leaders hanged as war criminals after Nuremberg trials 1962 _ Cuban missile crisis began as JFK becomes aware of missiles in Cuba 1964 _ China becomes world's fifth nuclear power 1968 _ During Olympics Tommie Smith and John Carlos give black power salute 1970 _ Anwar Sadat elected president of Egypt, succeeding Gamal Abdel Nasser 1982 _ Shultz warns U.S. will withdraw from U.N. if they vote to exclude Israel 1984 _ Desmond Tutu, black Anglican Bishop, wins the Nobel Peace Prize 1986 _ U.S. government closes down due to budget problems

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2008

Today is Wednesday, October 15, the 289th day of 2008. There are 77 days left in the year. 1520 _ King Henry VIII of England orders bowling lanes at Whitehall 1789 _ First presidential tour _ George Washington in New England 1846 _ Dr. William Thomas Green Morton first public use of ether 1878 _ Edison Electric Light Company incorporated 1937 _ Ernest Hemingway novel ``To Have & Have Not" published 1964 _ Kosygin and Brezhnev replace Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev 1977 _ Debbie Boone's ``You Light Up My Life," goes No. 1 & stays No. 1 for 10 weeks 1988 _ Amnesty International's Global Concert Tour ends in Buenos Aires 1989 _ Wayne Gretsky passes Gordie Howes as NHL's all time top scorer 1991 _ Clarence Thomas is confirmed as Supreme Court Justice (52-48)

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2008

Today is Tuesday, October 14, the 288th day of 2008. There are 78 days left in the year. 1066 _ Battle of Hastings, in which William the Conqueror wins England 1867 _ 15th and last Tokugawa Shogun resigns in Japan 1884 _ George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film 1922 _ First automated telephones-Pennsylvania exchange in NYC 1933 _ Nazi Germany announces withdrawal from League of Nations 1953 _ Ike promises to fire as Red any federal worker taking 5th amendment 1960 _ Peace Corps first suggested by JFK 1964 _ Martin Luther King Jr. wins Nobel Peace Prize 1968 _ First live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft (Apollo 7) 1982 _ 6,000 Unification Church couples wed in Korea