JIONGEZE UFAHAMU

November 3

1493
Christopher Columbus arrives at the Caribbee Isles (Dominica) during his second expedition.

1507
Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint Lisa Gherardini ("Mona Lisa").

1529
The first parliament for five years opens in England and the Commons put forward bills against abuses amongst the clergy and in the church courts.

1794
Thomas Paine is released from a Parisian jail with help from the American ambassador James Monroe. He was arrested for having offended the Robespierre faction.

1813
American troops destroy the Indian village of Tallushatchee in the Mississippi Valley.

1868
Ulysses S. Grant elected the 18th president of the United States.

1883
A poorly trained Egyptian army, led by British General William Hicks, marches toward El Obeid in the Sudan–straight into a Mahdist ambush and massacre.

1883
The U.S. Supreme Court declares American Indians to be "dependent aliens."

1892
First automatic telephone exchange goes into operation in La Porte, Indiana.

1896
William McKinley is elected 25th president of the United States.

1912
The first all-metal plane flies near Issy, France, piloted by Ponche and Prinard.

1918
The German fleet at Kiel mutinies. This is the first act leading to Germany's capitulation in World War I.

1921
Milk drivers on strike dump thousands of gallons of milk onto New York City's streets.

1935
Left-wing groups in France form the Socialist and Republican Union.

1957
The Soviet Union launches Sputnik II with the dog Laika, the first animal in space, aboard.

1964
For the first time residents of Washington, D.C., are allowed to vote in a presidential election.

1964
Lyndon B. Johnson is elected the 36th president of the United States.

1964
Robert Kennedy, brother of the slain president, is elected as a senator from New York.

1967
The Battle of Dak To begins in Vietnam's Central Highlands; actually a series of engagements, the battle would continue through Nov. 22.

1969
US President Richard Nixon, speaking on TV and radio, asks the "silent majority" of the American people to support his policies and the continuing war effort in Vietnam.

1973
NASA launches Mariner 10, which will become the first probe to reach Mercury.

1979
Ku Klux Klansmen and neo-Nazis kill 5 and wound 7 members of the Communist Workers Party during a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, NC; the incident becomes known as the Greensboro Massacre.

1983
Jesse Jackson announces his candidacy for the office of president of the United States.

1986
The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports the US has secretly been selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of 7 American hostages being held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992
Arkansas Governor Bill (William Jefferson) Clinton is elected 42nd president of the United States.

1997
US imposes economic sanctions against Sudan in response to human rights abuses and support of Islamic extremist groups.

Born on November 3

1718
John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich and inventor of the sandwich.

1794
William Cullen Bryant, poet and journalist.

1801
Karl Baedeker, German publisher, well known for travel guides.

1831
Ignatius Donnelly, American social reformer best known for his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World.

1901
Andre Malraux, French novelist (Man's Fate).

1903
Walker Evans, photographer.

1909
James "Scotty" Reston, New York Times reporter, editor and columnist.

1918
Russell Long, U.S. senator from Louisiana from 1951 to 1968 and son of Huey P. Long.

1920
Oodgeroo Noonuccal [Kath Walker], Australian Aboriginal poet.

1933
Jeremy Brett, actor; best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the Granada TV productions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about the detective.

1933
Michael Dukakis, politician; the longest-serving governor in the history of the State of Massachusetts (1975-79, 1983-91); unsuccessful Democratic candidate for US presidency (1988).

1933
Amartya Sen, Indian economist, winner of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1998) for his work on economic theories of famines and social justice and indexes for measuring the well-being of citizens in developing countries.

1942
Martin Cruz Smith, novelist (Gorky Park).

1949
Larry Holmes, professional boxer known as The Easton Assassin; his 20 successful defenses of his heavyweight title is second only to Joe Louis' record 25.

1952
Roseanne Barr, comedian, actress, producer; best known for her starring role in the TV series Roseanne, for which she won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe.

1952
David Ho, virologist, AIDS researcher.

1956
Gary Ross, film director, screenwriter (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit).

October 29

1618
Sir Walter Raleigh is executed. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh's enemies spread rumors that he was opposed the accession of King James.

1787
Mozart's opera Don Giovanni opens in Prague.

1814
The Demologos, the first steam-powered warship, launched in New York City.

1901
Leon Czolgosz is electrocuted for the assassination of US President William McKinley. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot McKinley on September 6 during a public reception at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, N.Y. Despite early hopes of recovery, McKinley died September 14, in Buffalo, NY.

1927
Russian archaeologist Peter Kozloff apparently uncovers the tomb of Genghis Khan in the Gobi Desert, a claim still in dispute.

1929
Black Tuesday–the most catastrophic day in stock market history, the herald of the Great Depression. 16 million shares were sold at declining prices. By mid-November $30 billion of the $80 billion worth of stocks listed in September will have been wiped out.

1945
The first ball-point pen goes is sold by Gimbell's department store in New York for a price of $12.

1949
Alonzo G. Moron of the Virgin Islands becomes the first African-American president of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia.

1952
French forces launch Operation Lorraine against Viet Minh supply bases in Indochina.

1964
Thieves steal a jewel collection–including the world's largest sapphire, the 565-carat "Star of India," and the 100-carat DeLong ruby–from the Museum of Natural History in New York. The thieves were caught and most of the jewels recovered.

1969
The U.S. Supreme Court orders immediate desegregation, superseding the previous "with all deliberate speed" ruling.

1969
First computer-to-computer link; the link is accomplished through ARPANET, forerunner of the Internet.

1972
Palestinian guerrillas kill an airport employee and hijack a plane, carrying 27 passengers, to Cuba. They force West Germany to release 3 terrorists who were involved in the Munich Massacre.

1983
More than 500,000 people protest in The Hague, The Netherlands, against cruise missiles.

1986
The last stretch of Britain's M25 motorway opens.

1998
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports condemns both sides on the Apartheid issue for committing atrocities.

1998
John Glenn, at age 77, becomes the oldest person to go into outer space. He is part of the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-95.

1998
The deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record up to that time, Hurricane Mitch, makes landfall in Honduras (in 2005 Hurricane Wilma surpassed it); nearly 11,000 people died and approximately the same number were missing.

2004
For the first time, Osama bin Laden admits direct responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US; his comments are part of a video broadcast by the Al Jazeera network.

2008
Delta and Northwest airlines merge, forming the world's largest airline.

2012
Hurricane Sandy devastates much of the East Coast of the US; nearly 300 die directly or indirectly from the storm.

Born on October 29

1882
Jean Giraudoux, French dramatist, novelist and diplomat, famous for his book Tiger at the Gates.

1891
Fanny Brice, comedian, singer and actress.

1897
Joseph G. Göbbels, German Nazi Propaganda Minister who committed suicide in Hitler's bunker.

1905
Henry Green, novelist (Living, Party Going).

1910
A. J. Ayer, English philosopher.

1921
Bill Maudlin, American cartoonist whose GI characters "Willie" and "Joe" appeared in Stars and Stripes newspapers during World War II.

1938
Ralph Bakshi, Palestinian-American director of live films and animated full-length films for adults including 1972's Fritz the Cat (first animated film to be rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America), Wizards (1977) and The Lord of the Rings (1978).

1943
Don Simpson, film producer, screenwriter, actor; (co-producer Flashdance, 1985; Top Gun, 1986).

1945
Melba Moore, disco and R&B singer, actress ("You Stepped into My Life," "Lean on Me").

1946
Peter Green, guitarist, songwriter, founder of the band Fleetwood Mac; regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

1947
Richard Dreyfuss, actor (American Graffiti, Jaws; won Academy Award for Best Actor for 1977's The Goodbye Girl).

1948
Kate Jackson, actress, director, producer (original Charlie's Angels TV series, Scarecrow and Mrs. King TV series).

1954
Lee Child, author; creator of the Jack Reacher novel series.

1958
David Remnick, journals, author, magazine editor (The New Yorker); won Pulitzer Prize for Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (1994).

1971
Winona Ryder, actress, producer (Beetlejuice; Girl, Interrupted).

October 28

312
Constantine the Great defeats Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius at the Mulvian Bridge.

969
After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines end 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.

1216
Henry III of England is crowned.

1628
After a fifteen-month siege, the Huguenot town of La Rochelle surrenders to royal forces.

1636
Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Mass.

1768
Germans and Acadians join French Creoles in their armed revolt against the Spanish governor of New Orleans.

1793
Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleans the tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively–a job which was previously done by hand.

1863
In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet attack a Federal force near Chattanooga, Tennessee, hoping to cut their supply line, the "cracker line." They fail.

1886
The Statue of Liberty, originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, is dedicated at Liberty Island, N. Y., formerly Bedloe's Island, by President Grover Cleveland

1901
Race riots sparked by Booker T. Washington's visit to the White House kill 34.

1904
The St. Louis police try a new investigation method: fingerprints.

1914
The German cruiser Emden, disguised as a British ship, steams into Penang Harbor near Malaya and sinks the Russian light cruiser Zhemchug.

1914
George Eastman announces the invention of the color photographic process.

1919
Over President Wilson's veto, Congress passes the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, named after its promoter, Congressman Andrew J. Volstead. It provides enforcement guidelines for the Prohibition Amendment.

1927
Pan American Airways launches the first scheduled international flight.

1940
Italy invades Greece, launching six divisions on four fronts from occupied Albania.

1944
The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission flies from the airfields in the Mariana Islands in a strike against the Japanese base at Truk.

1960
In a note to the OAS (Organization of American States), the United States charges that Cuba has been receiving substantial quantities of arms and numbers of military technicians" from the Soviet bloc.

1962
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders Soviet missiles removed from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1965
Construction completed on St. Louis Arch; at 630 feet (192m), it is the world's tallest arch.

1971
Britain launches the satellite Prospero into orbit, using a Black Arrow carrier rocket; this is the first and so far (2013) only British satellite launched by a British rocket.

1982
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party wins election, giving Spain its first Socialist government since the death of right-wing President Francisco Franco.

2005
Libby "Scooter" Lewis, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, resigns after being indicted for "outing" CIA agent Valerie Plame.

2007
Argentina elects its first woman president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Born on October 28

1875
Gilbert Grosvenor, editor, turned the National Geographic Society's irregularly published pamphlet into a periodical with a circulation of nearly two million.

1896
Howard Hansen, composer, director of the Eastman School of music.

1903
Evelyn Waugh, English novelist who wrote Decline and Fall and Brideshead Revisited.

1909
Francis Bacon, English artist who painted expressionist portraits.

1912
Richard Doll, English epidemiologist who established a link between tobacco smoke and cancer.

1914
Jonas Salk, U.S. scientist who developed the first vaccine against polio.

1926
Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner of Major League Baseball (1969–1984).

1936
Charlie Daniels, country / Southern rock singer, songwriter, musician ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia").

1938
Anne Perry, an author of historical detective fiction, she was herself convicted at age 15 of aiding in the murder of a friend's mother in New Zealand; their crime was the basis for the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures.

1944
Anton Schlecker, founder of the Schlecker Company, which operated retail stores across Europe.

1949
Bruce Jenner, athlete, actor; won gold medal in the Decathlon at the Summer Olympics in Montreal (1976).

1951
Joe R. Lansdale, author ("Hap and Leonard" novel series, "Bubba Ho-Tep"); won World Horror Convention Grand Master Award 2007.

1955
William "Bill" Gates, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software firm.

1967
Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein.

1967
Julia Roberts, actress (Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias; won Academy Award for Best Actress in Erin Brockovich).

1967
John Romero, game designer, developer; co-founded id Software (Doom, Quake).

1972
Brad Paisley, country / Southern rock singer, songwriter, musician ("I'm Gonna Miss Her," "Letter to Me"); his many awards include the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year 2010.

October 27

97
To placate the Praetorians of Germany, Nerva of Rome adopts Trajan, the Spanish-born governor of lower Germany.

1553
Michael Servetus, who discovered the pulmonary circulation of the blood, is burned for heresy in Switzerland.

1612
A Polish army that invaded Russia capitulates to Prince Dimitri Pojarski and his Cossacks.

1791
President George Washington transmits to Congress the results of the first US census, exclusive of South Carolina which had not yet submitted its findings.

1806
Emperor Napoleon enters Berlin.

1809
President James Madison orders the annexation of the western part of West Florida. Settlers there had rebelled against Spanish authority.

1862
A Confederate force is routed at the Battle of Georgia Landing, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.

1870
The French fortress of Metz surrenders to the Prussian Army.

1873
Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire. Glidden eventually received five patents and is generally considered the inventor of barbed wire.

1891
D. B. Downing, inventor, is awarded a patent for the street letter (mail) box.

1904
The New York subway officially opens running from the Brooklyn Bridge uptown to Broadway at 145th Street.

1907
The first trial in the Eulenberg Affair ends in Germany.

1917
20,000 women march in a suffrage parade in New York. As the largest state and the first on the East Coast to do so, New York has an important effect on the movement to grant all women the vote in all elections.

1922
In Italy, liberal Luigi Facta's cabinet resigns after threats from Mussolini that "either the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome." Mussolini calls for a general mobilization of all Fascists.

1927
Fox Movie-tone news, the first sound news film, is released.

1941
In a broadcast to the nation on Navy Day, President Franklin Roosevelt declares: "America has been attacked, the shooting has started." He does not ask for full-scale war yet, realizing that many Americans are not yet ready for such a step.

1954
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the US Air Force.

1962
American U-2 reconnaissance plane shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Cuba, killing the pilot, Maj. Rudolf Anderson, the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1962
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev offers to remove Soviet missile bases in Cuba if the U.S. removes its missile bases in Turkey.

1964
The political career of future US president Ronald Reagan is launched when he delivers a speech on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

1971
The Democratic Republic of the Congo renamed Zaire.

1986
London Stock Exchange rules change as Britain suddenly deregulates financial markets, an event called the Big Bang.

1988
US President Ronald Reagan decides to tear down a new US Embassy in Moscow because Soviet listening devices were built into the structure.

1997
Stock markets crash around the world over fears of a global economic meltdown.

Born on October 27

1728
Captain James Cook, British explorer.

1811
Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1858
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States (1901-1909).

1914
Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.

1923
Roy Lichtenstein, 'pop art' painter.

1927
Ruby Dee, actress and civil rights activist.

1932
Sylvia Plath, poet and novelist.

1939
John Cleese, actor-writer best known for comedy productions (Monty Python, Fawlty Towers).

1940
Maxine Hong Kingston, writer (The Woman Warrior, China Men).

1946
Peter Martins, Danish dancer and choreographer.

1950
Fran Leibowitz, writer (Metropolitan Life, Social Studies).

1958
Simon  Le Bon, lead singer of the band Duran Duran and Arcadia.

1975
Aron Ralston, outdoorsman, engineer, author; known for surviving an accident by amputating his own right forearm to escape from under a boulder that had trapped him for over five days.

Today in History
October 24

439
Carthage, the leading Roman city in North Africa, falls to Genseric and the Vandals.

1531
Bavaria, despite being a Catholic region, joins the League of Schmalkalden, a Protestant group which opposes Charles V.

1648
The signing of the Treaty of Westphalia ends the German Thirty Years' War.

1755
A British expedition against the French held Fort Niagara in Canada ends in failure.

1836
The match is patented.

1861
Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line, putting the Pony Express out of business.

1863
General Ulysses S. Grant arrives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to find the Union Army there starving.

1897
The first comic strip appears in the Sunday color supplement of the New York Journal called the 'Yellow Kid.'

1901
Anna Edson Taylor, 43, is the first woman to go safely over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She made the attempt for the cash award offered, which she put toward the loan on her Texas ranch.

1916
Henry Ford awards equal pay to women.

1917
The Austro-German army routs the Italian army at Caporetto, Italy.

1929
Black Thursday–the first day of the stock market crash which began the Great Depression.

1930
John Wayne debuts in his first starring role in The Big Trail .

1931
Al (Alphonse) Capone, the prohibition-era Chicago gangster, is sent to prison for tax evasion.

1934
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called Mahatma or "Great Soul," resigns from Congress in India.

1938
The Fair Labor Standards Act becomes law, establishing the 40-hour work week.

1944
The aircraft carrier USS Princeton is sunk by a single Japanese plane during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

1945
The United Nations comes into existence with the ratification of its charter by the first 29 nations.

1945
Vidkun Quisling, Norway's wartime minister president, is executed by firing squad for collaboration with the Nazis.

1952
Presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that if elected, he will go to Korea.

1970
Leftist Salvador Allende elected president of Chile.

1973
Yom Kippur War ends.

1980
Poland's government legalizes the Solidarity trade union.

1992
Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves in the 11th inning of the 6th game, to become the first Major League Baseball team from outside the US to win the series.

2003
The supersonic Concorde jet made its last commercial passenger flight from New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London's Heathrow Airport, traveling at twice the speed of sound.

2008
Many stock exchanges worldwide suffer the steepest declines in their histories; the day becomes known as "Bloody Friday."

Born on October 24

1632
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch naturalist.

1788
Sarah Josepha Hale, magazine editor and poet whose book Poems for Our Children included "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (the first words to be recorded in sound)

1904
Moss Hart, American playwright who, with George S. Kaufman, wrote plays such as You Can't Take it with You and The Man who came to Dinner.

1911
Sonny Terry, blues performer.

1923
Denise Levertov, English poet.

1929
George Henry Crumb, American composer.

1930
The Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.), singer, songwriter, musician; an early star of rock 'n' roll ("Chantilly Lace"), he died in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the pilot, Roger Peterson.

1933
Ronald and Reginald Kray, gangsters whose gang, The Firm, was the most infamous organized crime group in London's East End in the 1950s and '60s.

1941
Dr. William H. Dobelle, biomedical researcher who developed technology that restored limited sight to blind patients.

1942
Frank Delany, Irish author, journalist, broadcaster; best known for his novel Ireland and non-fiction book Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea.

1958
Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, US Army's Deputy Director of Operations during the Iraq War that deposed dictator Saddam Hussein; presently (2013) commander of Third Army.

Today in History
October 21

1096
Seljuk Turks at Chivitot slaughter thousands of German crusaders.

1529
The Pope names Henry VIII of England Defender of the Faith after defending the seven sacraments against Luther.

1600
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats his enemies in battle and affirms his position as Japan's most powerful warlord.

1790
The Tricolor is chosen as the official flag of France.

1805
Vice Admiral and Viscount Horatio Nelson wins his greatest victory over a Franco-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. Nelson is fatally wounded in the battle, but lives long enough to see victory.

1837
Under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops siege the Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida.

1861
The Battle of Ball's Bluff, Va. begins, a disastrous Union defeat which sparks Congressional investigations.

1867
Many leaders of the Kiowa, Comanche and Kiowa-Apache sign a peace treaty at Medicine Lodge, Kan. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker refused to accept the treaty terms.

1872
The U.S. Naval Academy admits John H. Conyers, the first African American to be accepted.

1879
After 14 months of testing, Thomas Edison first demonstrates his electric lamp, hoping to one day compete with gaslight.

1904
Panamanians clash with U.S. Marines in Panama in a brief uprising.

1917
The first U.S. troops enter the front lines at Sommerviller under French command.

1939
As war heats up with Germany, the British war cabinet holds its first meeting in the underground war room in London.

1940
Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.

1942
Eight American and British officers land from a submarine on an Algerian beach to take measure of Vichy French to the Operation Torch landings.

1950
North Korean Premier Kim Il-Sung establishes a new capital at Sinuiju on the Yalu River opposite the Chinese City of Antung.

1959
The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in Manhattan.

1961
Bob Dylan records his first album in a single day at a cost of $400.

1967
The "March on the Pentagon," protesting American involvement in Vietnam , draws 50,000 protesters.

1969
Israel's Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan resigns over disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policies related to the Palestinians.

1983
The United States sends a ten-ship task force to Grenada.

1994
North Korea and the US sign an agreement requiring North Korea to halts its nuclear weapons program and agree to international inspections.

Born on October 21

1760
Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese printmaker.

1772
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet ("The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," "Kubla Khan").

1833
Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prizes.

1917
Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter.

1929
Ursula K. Le Guin, science fiction writer (The Left Hand of Darkness)

1938
Carl Brewer, Canadian hockey player; won three Stanley Cups (1962-64) as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

1950
Ronald McNair, astronaut; died when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch on Jan. 2, 1986.

1952
Patti Davis, actress, author; daughter of former US Pres. Ronald Reagan.

1956
Carrie Fisher, actress, author, screenwriter; best known as Prince Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy and he bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge; daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds.

1969
Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain; presently (2013) First Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Supreme Commander, he is heir apparent to the Bahrain kingdom.

Chanzo; History Net

October 20

480 BC
Greeks defeat the Persians in a naval battle at Salamis.

1587
In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse's larger Catholic force at Coutras.

1709
Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy take Mons in the Netherlands.

1714
George I of England crowned.

1805
Austrian general Karl Mac surrenders to Napoleon's army at the battle of Ulm.

1818
The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.

1870
The Summer Palace in Beijing, China, is burnt to the ground by a Franco-British expeditionary force.

1903
The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, rules in favor of the United States. The deciding vote is Britain's, which embitters Canada. The United States gains ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.

1904
Bolivia and Chile sign a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognizes Chile's possession of the coast, but provides for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica, on the coast.

1924
Baseball's first 'colored World Series' is held in Kansas City, Mo.

1938
Czechoslovakia, complying with Nazi policy, outlaws the Communist Party and begins persecuting Jews.

1941
German troops reach the approaches to Moscow.

1944
U.S. troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur's pledge "I shall return."

1945
Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon form the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

1947
The House Un-American Activities Committee opens public hearings on alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Among those denounced as having un-American tendencies are: Katherine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin and Edward G. Robinson. Among those called to testify is Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan, who denies that leftists ever controlled the Guild and refuses to label anyone a communist.

1968
Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.

1973
Arab oil-producing nations ban oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.

1977
Charter plane crashes in Mississippi, killing three members of popular Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with their assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.

1991
Oakland Hills firestorm destroys nearly 3,500 homes and apartments and kills 25 people.

2011
In the Libyan civil war, rebels capture deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his hometown of Sirte, killing him soon afterward.

Born on October 20

1632
Sir Christopher Wren, astronomer and architect.

1854
Arthur Rimbaud, poet.

1874
Charles Ives, composer.

1884
Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born film actor famous for his portrayal of Count Dracula (1931).

1891
Sir James Chadwick, physicist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the neutron.

1901
Adelaide Hall, cabaret singer.

1925
Art Buchwald, humorist.

1931
Mickey Mantle, baseball great who played for the New York Yankees

1932
Michael McClure, beat poet.

1940
Robert Pinsky, former U.S. Poet Laureate.

1946
Lewis Grizzard, journalist and humorist who gained popularity through his syndicated Atlanta Journal-Constitution column; he authored 25 books, including collections of his columns.

1946
Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian playwright and novelist; awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, 2004.

1948
Tom Petty, singer, songwriter, musician; lead singer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and a founder of the Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch bands; inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2002.

1971
Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus, Jr.), rapper, songwriter, actor; his debut album, Doggy style, came in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot R&B / Hip-Hop charts.

Chanzo; History Net