On This Day

September 24, 2014

1789 - The U.S. Congress passed the First Judiciary Act. The act provided for an Attorney General and a lower federal courts.

1869 - Thousands of businessmen were financially ruined after a panic on Wall Street. The panic was caused by an attempt to corner the gold market by Jay Gould and James Fisk.

1915 - "The Lamb," Douglas Fairbanks first film, was shown at the Knickerbocker Theater in New York City, NY.

1929 - The first all-instrument flight took place in New York when Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over Mitchell Field.

1933 - "Roses and Drums" was heard on WABC in New York City. It was the first dramatic presentation for radio.

1934 - Babe Ruth played his last game as a New York Yankee player.

1938 - Don Budge became the first tennis player to win all four of the major titles when he won the U.S. Tennis Open. He had already won the Australian Open, the French Open and the British Open.

1955 - U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver, CO.

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field.

1957 - U.S. President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock, AR, to enforce school integration.

1960 - The first nuclear powered aircraft carrier was launched. The USS Enterprise set out from Newport News, VA.

1961 - "The Bullwinkle Show" premiered in prime time on NBC-TV. The show was originally on ABC in the afternoon as "Rocky and His Friends."

1963 - The U.S. Senate ratified a treaty that limited nuclear testing. The treaty was between the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union.

1968 - "60 Minutes" premiered on CBS-TV.

1968 - "The Mod Squad" premiered on ABC-TV.

1977 - "The Love Boat" debuted on ABC-TV. The theme song was sung by jack Jones and was written by Paul Williams and Charles Fox.

1995 - Three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities ended with the signing of a pact by Israel and the PLO.

1996 - The United States, represented by President Clinton, and the world's other major nuclear powers signed a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons.

1998 - The U.S. Federal Reserve released into circulation $2 billion in new harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush froze the assets of 27 suspected terrorists and terrorist groups.

2003 - Anthony Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

September 25, 2014

1492 - The crew of the Pinta, one of Christopher Columbus' ships, mistakenly thought that they had spotted land.

1493 - Christopher Columbus left Spain with 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

1513 - The Pacific Ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he crossed the Isthmus of Panama. He named the body of water the South Sea. He was truly just the first European to see the Pacific Ocean.

1690 - One of America's earliest newspapers published its first and last edition. The "Publik Occurences Both Foreign and Domestik" was published at the London Coffee House in Boston, MA, by Benjamin Harris.

1775 - Ethan Allen was captured by the British during the American Revolutionary War. He was leading the attack on Montreal.

1789 - The first U.S. Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution. Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights.

1847 - During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces led by General Zachary Taylor captured Monterrey Mexico.

1882 - The first major league double header was played. It was between the Worcester and Providence teams.

1890 - The Sequoia National Park was established as a U.S. National Park in Central California.

1890 - Mormon President Wilford Woodruff issued a Manifesto in which the practice of polygamy was renounced.

1919 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, CO. The speaking tour was in support of the Treaty of Versailles.

1933 - Tom Mix was heard on NBC Radio for the first time. His show ran until June of 1950.

1956 - A transatlantic telephone-cable system began operation between Newfoundland and Scotland.

1957 - 300 U.S. Army troops stood guard as nine black students were escorted to class at Central High School in Little Rock, AR. The children had been forced to withdraw 2 days earlier because of unruly white mobs.

1965 - Willie Mays, at the age of 34, became the oldest man to hit 50 home runs in a single season. He had also set the record for the youngest to hit 50 ten years earlier.

1973 - The three crewmen of Skylab II landed in the Pacific Ocean after being on the U.S. space laboratory for 59 days.

1978 - Melissa Ludtke, a writer for "Sports Illustrated", filed a suit in U.S. District Court. The result was that Major League Baseball could not bar female writers from the locker room after the game.

1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court when she was sworn in as the 102nd justice. She had been nominated the previous July by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

1983 - A Soviet military officer, Stanislav Petrov, averted a potential worldwide nuclear war. He declared a false alarm after a U.S. attack was detected by a Soviet early warning system. It was later discovered the alarms had been set off when the satellite warning system mistakenly interpreted sunlight reflections off clouds as the presence of enemy missiles.

1986 - An 1894-S Barber Head dime was bought for $83,000 at a coin auction in California. It is one of a dozen that exist.

1987 - The booty collected from the Wydah, which sunk off Cape Cod in 1717, was auctioned off. The worth was around $400 million.

1990 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose an air embargo against Iraq. Cuba was the only dissenting vote.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously ordered a worldwide arms embargo against Yugoslavia and all of its warring factions.

1992 - In Orlando, FL, a judge ruled in favor of 12-year-old Gregory Kingsley. He had sought a divorce from his biological parents.

1992 - The Mars Observer blasted off on a mission that cost $980 million. The probe has not been heard from since it reached Mars in August of 1993.

1995 - Ross Perot announced that he would form the Independence Party.

1997 - NBC sportscaster Marv Albert pled guilty to assault and Battery of a lover. He was fired from NBC within hours.

1997 - Mark & Brian received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2001 - Michael Jordan announced that he would return to the NBA as a player for the Washington Wizards. Jordan became the president of basketball operations for the team on January 19, 2000.

2002 - U.S. forces landed in Ivory Coast to aid in the rescue foreigners trapped in a school by fighting between government troops and rebel troops. Rebels had attempted to take over the government on September 19.

2012 - China launched its first aircraft carrier into service.

September 26, 2014

1777 - Philadelphia was occupied by British troops during the American Revolutionary War.

1789 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first Secretary of State. John Jay was appointed the first chief justice of the U.S. Samuel Osgood was appointed the first Postmaster-General. Edmund Jennings Randolph was appointed the first Attorney General.

1892 - "The King of Marches" was introduced to the general public.

1908 - Ed Eulbach of the Chicago Cubs became the first baseball player to pitch both games of a doubleheader and win both with shutouts.

1908 - In "The Saturday Evening Post" an ad for the Edison Phonograph appeared.

1914 - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission was established.

1918 - During World War I, the Meuse-Argonne offensive against the Germans began. It was the final Allied offensive on the western front.

1950 - U.N. troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans during the Korean Conflict.

1955 - The New York Stock Exchange suffered its worst decline since 1929 when the word was released concerning U.S. President Eisenhower's heart attack.

1960 - The first televised debate between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy took place in Chicago, IL.

1962 - "The Beverly Hillbillies" premiered on CBS-TV.

1964 - "Gilligan's Island" premiered on CBS-TV. The show aired for the last time on September 4, 1967.

1969 - "The Brady Bunch" series premiered on ABC-TV.

1980 - The Cuban government abruptly closed Mariel Harbor to end the freedom flotilla of Cuban refugees that began the previous April.

1981 - The Boeing 767 made its maiden flight in Everett, WA.

1984 - Britain and China initialed a draft agreement on the future of Hong Kong when the Chinese take over ruling the British Colony.

1985 - Shamu was born at Sea World in Orlando, FL. Shamu was the first killer whale to survive being born in captivity.

1986 - The episode of "Dallas" that had Bobby Ewing returning from the dead was aired.

1986 - William H. Rehnquist became chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court following the retirement of Warren Burger.

1990 - The Motion Picture Association of America announced that it had created a new rating. The new NC17 rating was to keep moviegoers under the age of 17 from seeing certain films.

1991 - Four men and four women began their two-year stay inside the "Biosphere II." The project was intended to develop technology for future space colonies.

1991 - The U.S. Congress heard a plea from Kimberly Bergalis concerning mandatory AIDS testing for health care workers.

1993 - The eight people who had stayed in "Biosphere II" emerged from their sealed off environment.

1995 - The warring factions of Bosnia agreed on guidelines for elections and a future government.

1996 - Shannon Lucid returned to Earth after being in space for 188 days. she set a time record for a U.S. astronaut in space and in the world for time spent by a woman in space.

2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. The act states that an infant would be considered to have been born alive if he or she is completely extracted or expelled from the mother and breathes and has a beating heart and definite movement of the voluntary muscles.

2000 - Slobodan Milosevic conceded that Vojislav Kostunica had won Yugoslavia's presidential election and declared a runoff. The declared runoff prompted mass protests.

2001 - In Kabul, Afghanistan, the abandoned U.S. Embassy was stormed by protesters. It was the largest anti-Amercian protest since the terror attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, on September 11.

2001 - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced plans to formalize a cease-fire and end a year of fighting in the region.

September 27, 2014

1779 - John Adams was elected to negotiate with the British over the American Revolutionary War peace terms.

1825 - George Stephenson operated the first locomotive that hauled a passenger train.

1894 - The Aqueduct Race Track opened in New York City, NY.

1928 - The U.S. announced that it would recognize the Nationalist Chinese Government.

1938 - The League of Nations branded the Japanese as aggressors in China.

1939 - After 19 days of resistance, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered to the Germans after being invaded by the Nazis and the Soviet Union during World War II.

1940 - The Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis was set up. The military and economic pact was for 10 years between Germany, Italy and Japan.

1954 - The "Tonight!" show made its debut on NBC-TV with Steve Allen as host.

1962 - The U.S. sold Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel.

1968 - The U.K.'s entry into the European Common Market was barred by France.

1970 - "The Original Amateur Hour" aired for the last time on CBS. It had been on television for 22 years.

1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew said he would not resign after he pled "no contest" to a charge of tax evasion. He did resign on October 10th.

1979 - The Department of Education became the 13th Cabinet in U.S. history after the final approval from Congress.

1982 - Italian and French soldiers entered the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Beirut. The move was made by the members of a multinational force due to hundreds of Palestinians being massacred by Christian militiamen.

1983 - Larry Bird signed a seven-year contract with the Boston Celtics worth $15 million. The contract made him the highest paid Celtic in history.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved federal tax code changes that were the most sweeping since World War II.

1989 - Columbia Pictures Entertainment agreed to buyout Sony Corporation for $3.4 billion.

1989 - Two men went over the 176-foot-high Niagara Falls in a barrel. Jeffrey Petkovich and Peter Debernardi were the first to ever survive the Horshoe Falls.

1990 - The deposed emir of Kuwait addressed the U.N. General Assembly and denounced the "rape, destruction and terror" that Iraq had inflicted upon his country.

1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush eliminated all land-based tactical nuclear arms and removed all short-range nuclear arms from ships and submarines around the world. Bush then called on the Soviet Union to do the same.

1994 - More than 350 Republican congressional candidates signed the Contract with America. It was a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the House.

1995 - The U.S. government unveiled the redesigned $100 bill. The bill featured a larger, off-center portrait of Benjamin Franklin.

1998 - In Germany, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder was elected chancellor. The election ended 16 years of conservative rule.

1998 - Mark McGwire (St. Louis Cardinals) set a major league baseball record when he hit his 70th home run of the season.

2004 - North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon announced that North Korea had turned plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons. He also said that the weapons were to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent nuclear war in northeast Asia. The U.S. State Department noted that the U.S. has repeatedly said that the U.S. has no plans to attack North Korea.

September 28, 2014

1066 - England was invaded by William the Conqueror who claimed the English throne.

1542 - San Diego, CA, was discovered by Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo.

1687 - The Turks surrendered Athens to the Venetians.

1781 - During the Revolutionary War, American forces began the siege on Yorktown, VA.

1787 - The U.S. Congress voted to send the new Constitution of the United States to the state legislatures for their approval.

1850 - The U.S. Navy abolished flogging as a form of punishment.

1850 - U.S. President Millard Fillmore named Brigham Young the first governor of the Utah territory. In 1857, U.S. President James Buchanan removed Young from the position.

1892 - The first nighttime football game in the U.S. took place under electric lights. The game was between the Mansfield State Normal School and the Wyoming Seminary.

1915 - The British defeated the Turks in Mesopotamia at Kut-el-Amara.

1924 - The first around-the-world flight was completed by two U.S. Army planes when they landed in Seattle, WA. The trip took 175 days.

1936 - "Bachelor's Children" debuted on CBS Radio.

1939 - During World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed upon a plan on the division of Poland.

1939 - "Fleischmann Hour" aired for the last time on radio.

1944 - "The Boys From Boise" was shown on WABD in New York as the first full-length comedy written for television.

1950 - The United Nations admitted Indonesia.

1955 - The World Series was televised in color for the first time. The game was between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1961 - "Dr. Kildare" premiered on NBC-TV.

1961 - "Hazel" premiered on NBC-TV.

1967 - The first mayor of Washington, DC, Walter Washington, took office.

1968 - The Atlanta Chiefs won the first North American Soccer League Championship.

1972 - Communist China and Japan agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations.

1974 - First Lady Betty Ford underwent a mastectomy to remove a lump in her breast.

1978 - Heavy fighting occurred in Lebanon between Syrian peacekeeping troops and Lebanese Christian militiamen.

1978 - Don Sherman, editor of Car & Driver, set a new Class E record in Utah. Driving the Mazda RX7 he reached a speed of 183.904 mph.

1984 - Bob Hope showed outtakes of his 34 years in television on NBC.

1991 - In response to U.S. President Bush's reduction of U.S. nuclear arms Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised to reciprocate.

1995 - Yasser Arafat of the PLO and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed an accord that transferred control of the West Bank.

1997 - The 103rd convention of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) was held in New York City, NY. The official debut of the DVD format was featured.

2000 - The U.S. Federal Drug Administration approved the use of RU-486 in the United States. The pill is used to induce an abortion.

2004 - The U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. Secret Service introduced the first newly redesigned $50 bill.

2004 - Nate Olive and Sarah Jones arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border to complete the first known continuous hike of the 1,800-mile trail down the U.S. Pacific Coast. They started the trek on June 8.

September 29, 2014

1789 - A regular army was established by the U.S. War Department with several hundred men.

1829 - The first public appearance by London's re-organized police force was met with jeers from political opponents. The force became known as Scotland Yard.

1902 - David Belasco opened his first Broadway theater.

1930 - Lowell Thomas made his debut on CBS Radio. He was in the radio business for the next 46 years.

1930 - Bing Crosby and Dixie Lee were married.

1940 - The radio quiz show "Double or Nothing" debuted on the Mutual Radio Network.

1943 - U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marchal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson.

1946 - "The Adventures of Sam Spade" debuted on CBS Radio.

1951 - The first network football game was televised by CBS-TV in color. The game was between the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania.

1953 - "Make Room for Daddy" premiered on ABC-TV.

1955 - "A View From the Bridge," a play by Arthur Miller, opened in New York at the Coronet Theater.

1957 - The New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds. The next year the Giants were in San Francisco, CA.

1960 - "My Three Sons" debuted on ABC-TV.

1962 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy nationalized the Mississippi National guard in response to city officials defying federal court orders. The orders had been to enroll James Meredith at the University of Mississippi.

1963 - "My Favorite Martian" premiered on CBS-TV.

1963 - "The Judy Garland Show" premiered on CBS-TV.

1967 - The International Monetary Fund reformed monetary systems around the world.

1977 - Eva Shain became the first woman to officiate a heavyweight title boxing match. About 70 million people watched Muhammad Ali defeat Ernie Shavers on NBC-TV.

1982 - In Chicago, IL, seven people died after taking capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide. 264,000 bottles were recalled.

1983 - The War Powers Act was used for the first time by the U.S. Congress when they authorized President Reagan to keep U.S. Marines in Lebanon for 18 more months.

1983 - "A Chorus Line" with performance number 3,389 became the longest running show on Broadway.

1984 - Irish officials announced that they had intercepted the Marita Anne carrying seven tons of U.S.-purchased weapons. The weapons were intended for the Irish Republican Army.

1984 - Elizabeth Taylor was voted to be the world's most beautiful woman in a Louis Harris poll. Taylor was at the time in the Betty Ford Clinic overcoming a weight problem.

1986 - Mary Lou Retton announced that she was quitting gymnastics.

1988 - The space shuttle Discovery took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was the first manned space flight since the Challenger disaster.

1990 - "Millie's Book" by First Lady Barbara Bush was the best-selling non-fiction book in the U.S.

1992 - Magic Johnson announced that he was returning to professional basketball. The comeback ended the following November.

1992 - Brazilian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to impeach President Fernando Collor de Mello.

1993 - Bosnia's parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject an international peace plan unless Bosnian Serbs returned land that had been taken by force.

1994 - The U.S. House voted to end the practice of lobbyist buying meals and entertainment for members of Congress.

1998 - Hasbro announced plans to introduce an action figure of retired U.S. General Colin Powell.

2010 - In China, Canton Tower became operational.

September 30, 2014

1399 - Henry Bolingbroke became the King of England as Henry IV.

1777 - The Congress of the United States moved to York, PA, due to advancing British forces.

1787 - The Columbia left Boston and began the trip that would make it the first American vessel to sail around the world.

1846 - Dr. William Morton performed a painless tooth extraction after administering ether to a patient.

1861 - Chewing gum tycoon William Wrigley, Jr. was born.

1868 - Spain's Queen Isabella was deposed and fled to France.

1882 - In Appleton, WI, the world's first hydroelectric power plant began operating.

1927 - George Herman "Babe" Ruth hit his 60th homerun of the season. He broke his own record with the homerun. The record stood until 1961 when Roger Maris broke the record.

1930 - "Death Valley Days" was heard for the first time on the NBC Blue radio network.

1935 - "The Adventures of Dick Tracey" debuted on Mutual Radio Network.

1935 - "Porgy and Bess" premiered in Boston.

1938 - The Munich Conference ended with a decision to appease Adolf Hitler. Britain, and France allowed Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to be annexed by the Nazis.

1939 - "Captain Midnight" was heard for the first time on the Mutual Radio Network.

1946 - An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes.

1947 - The World Series was televised for the first time. The sponsors only paid $65,000 for the entire series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

1949 - The Berlin Airlift came to an end. The airlift had taken 2.3 million tons of food into the western sector despite the Soviet blockade.

1951 - "The Red Skelton Show" debuted on NBC-TV.

1954 - The U.S. Navy commissioned the Nautilus submarine at Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered vessel. The submarine had been launched on January 21, 1954.

1954 - Julie Andrews made her first Broadway appearance in "The Boy Friend".

1962 - James Meredith succeeded in registering at the University of Mississippi. It was his fourth attempt to register.

1963 - The Soviet Union publicly declared itself on the side of India in their dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.

1966 - Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released at midnight from Spandau prison after completing their 20-year sentences. Speer was the Nazi minister of armaments and von Schirach was the founder of Hitler Youth.

1971 - The Soviet Union and the United States signed pacts that were aimed at avoiding an accidental nuclear war.

1971 - A committee of nine people was organized to investigate the prison riot at Attica, NY. 10 hostages and 32 prisoners were killed when National Guardsmen stormed the prison on September 13, 1971.

1976 - California enacted the Natural Death Act of California. The law was the first example of right-to-die legislation in the U.S.

1980 - Israel issued its new currency, the shekel, to replace the pound.

1983 - The first AH-64 Apache attack helicopter was rolled out by McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company.

1982 - "Cheers" began an 11-year run on NBC-TV.

1984 - Mike Witt became only the 11th pitcher to throw a perfect game in major league baseball.

1984 - "Doonesbury" by Garry Trudeau returned. The comic strip had not been printed in nearly 20 months.

1986 - The U.S. released accused Soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov, one day after the Nicholas Daniloff had been released by the Soviets.

1987 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev retired President Andrei A. Gromyko from the Politburo and fired other old-guard leaders in a shake-up at the Kremlin.

1989 - Thousands of East Germans began emigrating under an accord between the NATO nations and the Soviet Union.

1989 - Non-Communist Cambodian guerrillas claimed that they had captured 3 towns and 10 other positions from the residing government forces.

1990 - The Soviet Union and South Korea opened diplomatic relations.

1991 - Haiti's first freely elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was overthrown by Brigadier General Raoul Cedras. Aristide was later returned to power.

1992 - George Brett of the Kansas City Royals reached his 3,000th career hit during a game against the California Angels.

1992 - Moscow banks distributed privatization vouchers aimed at turning millions of Russians into capitalists.

1993 - U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell retired.

1994 - The space shuttle Endeavor took off on an 11-day mission. Part of the mission was to use a radar instrument to map remote areas of the Earth.

1997 - France's Roman Catholic Church apologized for its silence during the persecution and deportation of Jews the pro-Nazi Vichy regime.

1998 - Gov. Pete Wilson of California signed a bill into law that defined "invasion of privacy as trespassing with the intent to capture audio or video images of a celebrity or crime victim engaging in a personal of family activity." The law went into effect January 1, 1999.

1999 - The San Francisco Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers in the last baseball game to be played at Candlestick Park (3Com Park). The Dodgers won 9-4.

1999 - In Tokaimura, Japan, radiation escaped a nuclear facility after workers accidentally set off an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction.

October 1, 2014

1569 - The Duke of Norfolk was imprisoned by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for trying to marry Mary the Queen of Scots.

1800 - Spain ceded the territory of Louisiana back to France. Later the property would be purchased by the U.S. effectively doubling its size.

1880 - Thomas Edison began the commercial production of electric lamps at Edison Lamp Works in Menlo Park.

1885 - Special delivery mail service began in the United States. The first routes were in West Virginia.

1890 - The U.S. Congress passed the McKinley Tariff Act. The act raised tariffs to a record level.

1896 - Rural Free Delivery was established by the U.S. Post Office.

1903 - The first modern World Series took place between the Boston Pilgrims and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1908 - The Model T automobile was introduced by Henry Ford. The purchase price of the car was $850.

1918 - Damascus was captured from the Turks during World War I by a force made up of British and Arab forces.

1933 - Babe Ruth made his final pitching appearance. He pitched all nine innings and hit a home run in the 5th inning.

1936 - General Francisco Franco was proclaimed the head of the Spanish state.

1938 - German forces enter Czechoslovakia and seized control of the Sudetenland. The Munich Pact had been signed two days before.

1940 - The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened as the first toll superhighway in the United States.

1943 - Naples was captured by the Allied forces during World War II.

1946 - The International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg sentenced 12 Nazi officials to death. Seven others were sentenced to prison terms and 3 were acquitted.

1946 - The first baseball play-off game for a league championship was played. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2.

1949 - Mao Tse-tung raised the first flag of the People's Republic of China when the communist forces had defeated the Nationalists. The Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan.

1952 - "This is Your Life" began airing on NBC-TV.

1961 - Roger Maris (New York Yankees) hit his 61st home run of the season to beat Babe Ruth's major league record of 60.

1962 - Johnny Carson began hosting the "Tonight" show on NBC-TV. He stayed with the show for 29 years. jack Paar was the previous host.

1964 - The Free Speech Movement was started at the University of California at Berkeley.

1968 - "Night of the Living Dead" premiered in Pittsburgh, PA.

1971 - Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, FL.

Disney movies, music and books

1972 - The Chinese government approved friendly relations with the United States.

1979 - The United States handed control of the Canal Zone over to Panama.

1980 - Robert Redford became the first male to appear alone on the cover of "Ladies' Home Journal." He was the only male to achieve this in 97 years.

1982 - EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) Center opened in Florida. The concept was planned by Walt Disney.

1984 - U.S. Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan announced that he was taking a leave of absence following his indictment on charges of larceny and fraud. He was later acquitted.

1985 - The PLO's headquarters in Tunisia was raided by Israeli jet fighters.

1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the Soviet presidency.

1989 - The authorized Charles Schulz biography, Good Grief, was published.

1989 - 7,000 East Germans were welcomed into West Germany after they were allowed to leave by the communist government.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly and once again condemned Iraq's takeover of Kuwait.

1990 - In Croatia, minority Serbs proclaimed autonomy.

1991 - U.S. President Bush condemned the military coup in Haiti that removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power. U.S. economic and military aid was suspended.

1991 - The U.S. trust territory of Palau became independent.

1992 - The Strategic Arm Reduction Treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate.

1994 - The U.S. and Japan avoided a trade war by reaching a series of trade agreements.

1994 - The National Hockey League (NHL) team owners began a lockout of the players that lasted 103 days.

1995 - Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine other defendants were convicted in New York of conspiring to attack the U.S. through bombings, kidnappings and assassinations.

1996 - Lucent Technologies became an independent company.

1998 - The U.S. government posted a $2.2 million reward for the capture of Augustin Vasquez Mendoza. He is accused of killing an undercover U.S. agent during a drug purchase in 1994.

1999 - The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China was celebrated in Beijing.

2001 - San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban Internet filters designed to keep pornography away from children at city libraries. The board left the decision up to the Library Commission to decide whether to install filtering software in children's areas. A federal law in the U.S. mandated the use of the filters.

October 2, 2014

1492 - King Henry VII of England invaded France.

1780 - British army major John Andre was hanged as a spy. He was carrying information about the actions of Benedict Arnold.

1835 - The first battle of the Texas Revolution took place near the Guadalupe River when American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry unit.

1836 - Charles Darwin returned to England after 5 years of acquiring knowledge around the world about fauna, flora, wildlife and geology. He used the information to develop his "theory of evolution" which he unveiled in his 1859 book entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

1869 - Mahatma (Mohandas) K Gandhi was born. He was known for his advocacy of non-violent resistance to fight tyranny.

1870 - Rome was made the capital of Italy.

1876 - The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opened. It was the state's first venture into public higher education. The school was formally dedicated 2 days later by Texas Gov. Richard Coke.

1889 - The first international Conference of American States began in Washington, DC.

1908 - Addie Joss of Cleveland pitched the fourth perfect game in major league baseball history.

1919 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

1920 - The Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates played the only triple-header in baseball history. The Reds won 2 of the 3 games.

1924 - The Geneva Protocol adopted the League of Nations.

1925 - Scottish inventor John Logie Baird completed the first transmission of moving images.

1929 - "The National Farm and Home Hour" debuted on NBC radio.

1933 - "Red Adams" debuted on NBC radio.

1937 - Warner Bros. released "Love Is on the Air." Ronald Reagan made his acting debut in the motion picture. He was 26 years old.

1940 - During World War II, the HMS Empress was sunk while carrying child refugees from Britain to Canada.

1941 - Operation Typhoon was launched by Nazi Germany. The plan was an all-out offensive against Moscow.

1944 - The Nazis crushed the Warsaw Uprising.

1947 - The Federatino Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) formally established Formula One racing in Grand Prix competition.

1948 - The first automobile race to use asphalt, cement and dirt roads took place in Watkins Glen in New York. It was the first road race in the U.S. following World War II.

1949 - "The Aldrich Family" debuted on NBC-TV.

1950 - "Peanuts," the comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz, was published for the first time in seven newspapers.

1953 - "Person to Person" debuted on CBS-TV.

1955 - "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" debuted on CBS-TV.

1958 - Guinea, the French colony in West Africa, proclaimed its independence. Sekou Toure was the first president of the Republic of Guinea.

1959 - "The Twilight Zone" debuted on CBS-TV. The show ran for 5 years for a total of 154 episodes.

1962 - U.S. ports were closed to nations that allowed their ships to carry arms to Cuba, ships that had docked in a socialist country were prohibited from docking in the United States during that voyage, and the transport of U.S. goods was banned on ships owned by companies that traded with Cuba.

1967 - Thurgood Marshall was sworn in. He was the first African-American member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1988 - Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered free elections.

1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany a protest took place demanding the legalization of opposition groups and the adoption of democratic reforms.

1990 - The Allies ceded their rights to areas they occupied in Germany.

1993 - Opponents of Russian President Boris Yeltsin fought police and set up burning barricades.

1998 - Hawaii sued petroleum companies, claiming state drivers were overcharged by about $73 million a year in price-fixing.

1998 - About 10,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq and attacked Kurdish rebels.

2001 - The U.S. Postmaster unveiled the "Tribute to America" stamp. The stamp was planned for release the next month.

2001 - NATO, for the first time, invoked a treaty clause that stated that an attack on one member is an attack on all members. The act was in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

October 3, 2014

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November would be recognized as Thanksgiving Day.

1888 - "The Yeomen of the Guard" was performed for the first time. It was the first of 423 shows.

1893 - The motor-driven vacuum cleaner was patented by J.S. Thurman.

1901 - The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated. After a merger with Radio Corporation of America the company became RCA-Victor.

1906 - W.T. Grant opened a 25-cent department store.

1922 - Rebecca L. Felton became the first female to hold office of U.S. Senator. She was appointed by Governor Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia to fill a vacancy.

1929 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes officially changed its name to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

1932 - Iraq was admitted into the League of Nations leading Britain to terminate their mandate over the nation. Britain had ruled Iraq since taking it from Turkey during World War I.

1935 - Italian forces invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia).

1941 - Adolf Hitler stated in a speech that Russia was "broken" and they "would never rise again."

1942 - The Office of Economic Stabilization was established by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also authorized controls on rents, wages, salaries and farm prices.

1944 - During World War II, U.S. troops broke through the Siegfried Line.

1946 - "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day" began airing on NBC-TV.

1951 - CBS-TV aired the first coast-to-coast telecast of a prizefight. Dave Sands defeated Carl Olson at Soldier Field in Chicago.

1952 - Britain became the third nuclear power in the world when they successfully detonated their first atomic bomb. The U.S. and Russia were the only other nuclear powers.

1954 - "Father Knows Best" began airing on CBS-TV.

1955 - "Captain Kangaroo" premiered on CBS-TV.

1955 - "The Mickey Mouse Club" premiered on ABC-TV.

1961 - "The Dick Van Dyke Show" debuted on CBS-TV.

1962 - The Sigma VII blasted off from Cape Canaveral for a nine-hour flight.

1962 - The play, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!" opened on Broadway.

1974 - Frank Robinson took over the management position of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. He was the first black manager in major league baseball.

1981 - Irish Nationalist in Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland called off their hunger strike. The strike had lasted 7 months and ten people had died.

1986 - "Tough Guys" was released. It was the first comedy to feature Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. It was, however, their seventh movie together.

1988 - The space shuttle Discovery landed safely after its four-day mission. It was the first American shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster.

1989 - East Germany suspended unrestricted travel to Czechoslovakia in an effort to slow the flow of refugees to the West.

1989 - Art Shell became the first African-American head coach in the modern NFL when he took over the Los Angeles Raiders.

1990 - The Berlin Wall was dismantled eleven months after the borders between East and West Germany were dissolved. The unification of Germany ended 45 years of division.

1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made a visit to Kuwait since his country had seized control of the oil-rich nation.

1994 - The headquarters of the Haitian pro-army militia was raided by U.S. soldiers.

2001 - ESPN began its 10th season of National Hockey League (NHL) coverage.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) broke Babe Ruth's major league single-season record for walks at 171.

2003 - Ray Horn, of the duo "Siegfried & Roy," was attacked by tiger during a performance. Roy survived the attack after being dragged offstage. The tiger, a 7-year-old male named Montecore, was debuting in his first show.

2006 - North Korea announced that it would conduct a nuclear test as a key step in the manufacture of atomic bombs that it viewed as a deterrent against a U.S. attack. A date for the test was not announced.

2006 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a new high ending the day at 11,727.34. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,758.95. Both previous records had been set on January 14, 2000.

October 4, 2014

1535 - The first complete English translation of the Bible was printed in Zurich, Switzerland.

1648 - The first volunteer fire department was established in New York by Peter Stuyvesant.

1777 - At Germantown, PA, Patriot forces and British forces both suffer heavy losses in battle. The battle was seen as British victory, which actually served as a moral boost to the Americans.

1876 - The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas formally dedicated by Texas Gov. Richard Coke. It was the state's first venture into public higher education. The college opened for classed two days earlier.

1881 - Edward Leveaux received a patent for the player piano.

1887 - The Paris Herald Tribune was published for the first time. It was later known as the International Herald Tribune.

1893 - The first professional football contract was signed by Grant Dibert for the Pittsburgh AC.

1895 - The first U.S. Open golf tournament took place in Newport, RI. Horace Rawlins, 19 years old, won the tournament.

1909 - The first airship race in the U.S. took place in St. Louis, MO.

1915 - The Dinosaur National Monument was established. The area covered part of Utah and Colorado.

1927 - The first actual work of carving began on Mount Rushmore.

1931 - The comic strip "Dick Tracy" made its debut in the Detroit Daily Mirror. The strip was created by Chester Gould.

1933 - "Esquire" magazine was published for the first time.

1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met in the Alps at Brenner Pass. Hitler was seeking help from Italy to fight the British.

1948 - The Railroad Hour" debuted on ABC radio.

1953 - "I Led Three Lives" was first seen in syndication. The TV show was never on network.

1954 - "December Bride" debuted on CBS-TV.

1956 - "Playhouse 90" debuted on CBS-TV.

1957 - "Leave it to Beaver" debuted on CBS-TV.

1957 - The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into orbit around the Earth. Sputnik was the first manmade satellite to enter space. Sputnik I fell out of orbit on January 4, 1958.

1958 - British Overseas Airways Corporation became the first jetliner to offer trans-Atlantic service to passengers with flights between London, England and New York.

1959 - The first World Series to be played west of St. Louis began in Los Angeles, CA.

1965 - Pope Paul VI addressed the U.N. General Assembly and became the first reigning pontiff to visit the Western Hemisphere.

1976 - Barbara Walters joined Harry Reasoner at the anchor desk of the "ABC Evening News" for the first time.

1981 - Bruce Jenner and Harry Belafonte debuted in their first dramatic roles in NBC-TV's "Grambling's White Tiger".

1987 - NFL owners used replacement personnel to play games despite the player's strike.

1990 - The German parliament had its first meeting since reunification.

1992 - The 16-year civil war in Mozambique ended.

1993 - Russian Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi and Chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov surrendered to Boris Yeltsin after a ten-hour tank assault on the Russian White House. The two men had barricaded themselves in after Yeltsin called for general elections and dissolved the legislative body.

1993 - Dozens of Somalis dragged an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. A videotape showed Michael Durant being taken prisoner by Somali militants.

1994 - South African President Nelson Mandela was welcomed to the White House by U.S. President Clinton.

1997 - Hundreds of thousands of men attended a Promise Keepers rally on the Mall in Washington, DC.

1998 - The Vincent Van Gogh exhibit opened in Washington, DC. The exhibit featured 70 paintings.

1998 - Davis Gaines performed as the Phantom in the show "Phantom of the Opera" for the 2,000th time.

2001 - NATO granted the United States open access to their airfields and seaports and agreed to deploy ships and early-warning radar planes in the war on terrorism.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire's major league record. Bonds also moved past Reggie Jackson on the all-time list with his 564th career home run.

2001 - Rickey Henderson (San Diego Padres) scored his 2,246th career run to break Ty Cobb's major league record.

2001 - In Washington, DC, Reagan National Airport re-opened. The airport had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

2004 - SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 368,000 feet. It was the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly in space twice within a two week window. The ship won the Ansari X Prize of $10 million dollars for their success.

October 4, 2014

1813 - Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Indians was killed at the Battle of Thames when American forced defeated the British and the allied Indian warriors.

1877 - Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to the U.S. Army after a 1,000-mile retreat towards the Canadian border.

1919 - Enzo Ferrari debuted in his first race. He later founded the Auto Avio Construzioni Ferrari, an independent manufacturing company.

1921 - The World Series was broadcast on the radio for the first time. The game was between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees.

1930 - Laura Ingalls became the first woman to make a transcontinental airplane flight.

1930 - "The Fighting Priest" began airing on CBS radio.

1931 - Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon landed in Washington after flying non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. The flight originated in Japan and took about 41 hours.

1934 - "Hollywood Hotel" became the first major network radio to originate from Hollywood, CA.

1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt called for a "quarantine" of aggressor nations.

1947 - U.S. President Harry S Truman held the first televised presidential address from the White House. The subject was the current international food crisis.

1952 - "Inner Sanctum" was heard for the last time on ABC radio.

1955 - The play "The Diary of Anne Frank" opened at the Cort Theatre in New York.

1969 - A Cuban defector landed a Soviet-made MiG-17 at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. The plane entered U.S. air space and landed without being detected.

1969 - "Monty Python's Flying Circus" debuted on BBC television.

1970 - Anwar Sadat took office as President of Egypt replacing Gamal Abdel Nassar. Sadat was assassinated in 1981.

1974 - American David Kunst completed the first journey around the world on foot. It took four years and 21 pairs of shoes. He crossed four continents and walked 14,450 miles.

1985 - An Egyptian policeman went on a shooting rampage at a Sinai beach. Seven Israeli tourists were killed. The policeman died in prison the following January of an apparent suicide.

1986 - "Business World" began airing on ABC-TV.

1986 - Sandinista soldiers captured American Eugene Hasenfus after shooting him down over southern Nicaragua.

1988 - In a debate between candidates for vice president of the U.S., Democratic Lloyd Bentsen told Republican Dan Quayle, "You're no jack Kennedy."

1989 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign to end the Chinese domination of Tibet. Gyatso was the 15th Dalai Lama.

1990 - The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall opened.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced that his country would cut its nuclear arsenal in response to the arms reduction that was initiated by U.S. President George Bush.

1993 - China set off an underground nuclear explosion.

1995 - A 60-day cease-fire was agreed upon by Bonsian combatants. The civil war had lasted 3 1/2.

1997 - In London, the Express Newspapers printed an article claiming that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were homosexual and that their marriage was a sham to cover the truth. The paper paid damages in a settlement on October 29, 1998.

1998 - The U.S. paid $60 million for Russia's research time on the international space station to keep the cash-strapped Russian space agency afloat.

1999 - Kevin Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - MCI Worldcom Inc. and Sprint Corp. announced plans to merge.

2006 - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rolled out its $4 generic drug program to the entire state of Florida after a successful test in the Tampa area.

October 6, 2014

1683 - The first Mennonites arrived in America aboard the Concord. The German and Dutch families settled in an area that is now a neighborhood in Philadelphia, PA.

1847 - "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte was first published in London.

1848 - The steamboat SS California left New York Harbor for San Francisco via Cape Horn. The steamboat service arrived on February 28, 1849. The trip took 4 months and 21 days.

1857 - The American Chess Congress held their first national chess tournament in New York City.

1863 - The first Turkish bath was opened in Brooklyn, NY, by Dr. Charles Shepard.

1866 - The Reno Brothers pulled the first train robbery in America near Seymour, IN. The got away with $10,000.

1880 - The National League kicked the Cincinnati Reds out for selling beer.

1884 - The Naval War College was established in Newport, RI.

1889 - In Paris, the Moulin Rouge opened its doors to the public for the first time.

1889 - The Kinescope was exhibited by Thomas Edison. He had patented the moving picture machine in 1887.

1890 - Polygamy was outlawed by the Mormon Church.

1927 - "The Jazz Singer" opened in New York starring Al Jolson. The film was based on the short story "The Day of Atonement" by Sampson Raphaelson.

1928 - War-torn China was reunited under the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek.

1937 - "Hobby Lobby" debuted on CBS radio.

1939 - Adolf Hitler denied any intention to wage war against Britain and France in an address to Reichstag.

1948 - "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.

1949 - U.S. president Harry Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act. The act provided $1.3 billion in the form of military aid to NATO countries.

1954 - E.L. Lyon became the first male nurse for the U.S. Army.

1961 - U.S. president John F. Kennedy advised American families to build or buy bomb shelters to protect them in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

1962 - Robert Goulet began the role of Sir Lancelot in "Camelot".

1973 - Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in an attempt to win back territory that had been lost in the third Arab-Israel war. Support for Israel led to a devastating oil embargo against many nations including the U.S. and Great Britain on October 17, 1973. The war lasted 2 weeks.

1979 - Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the White House.

1991 - Elizabeth Taylor married Larry Fortensky. The ceremony was held at Michael Jackson's estate near Los Angeles, CA. It was Taylor's 8th marriage and Fortensky's 3rd.

1992 - Ross Perot appeared in his first paid broadcast on CBS-TV after entering the U.S. presidential race.

October 7, 2014

1765 - Nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the "Declaration of Rights and Grievances."

1777 - During the American Revolution the second Battle of Saratoga began.

1868 - Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, NY.

1913 - For the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park automobile factory was run on a continuously moving assembly line when the chassis was added to the process.

1918 - The Georgia Tech football team defeated Cumberland College 222-0. Georgia Tech carried the ball 978 yards and never threw a pass.

1939 - "Kate Hopkins, Angel of Mercy" was heard for the first time on CBS radio.

1940 - "Portia Faces Life" debuted on the NBC Red network.

1949 - The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was formed.

1950 - The U.S.-led U.N. forces crossed the 38th parallel and entered North Korea. China in November proved their threat to enter the war by sending several hundred thousand troops over the border into North Korea.

1951 - The Western Hills Hotel in Fort Worth, TX, became the first hotel to feature all foam-rubber mattresses and pillows.

1956 - A U.S. House subcommittee began investigations of allegedly rigged TV quiz shows.

1963 - U.S. President Kennedy signed a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.

1968 - The Motion Picture Association of America adopted the film-rating system that ranged for "G" to "X."

1981 - The Egyptian parliament, after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, named Vice President Hosni Mubarak the next president of Egypt.

1982 - A record was set when 147,000,000 shares were exchanged on the New York Stock Exchange.

1985 - The United States announced that it would no longer automatically comply with World Court decisions.

1989 - In Budapest, Hungary's Communist Party renounced Marxism in favor of democratic socialism.

1993 - U.S. President Clinton sent more troops, heavy armor, and naval firepower to Somalia.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton dispatched an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf when Iraqi troops were spotted moving toward Kuwait. The U.S. Army was also put on alert.

1998 - The U.S. government filed an antitrust suit that alleged Visa and MasterCard inhibit competition by preventing banks from offering other cards.

1999 - American Home Products Corp. agreed to pay up to $4.83 billion to settle claims that the fen-phen diet drug caused dangerous problems with heart valves.

2000 - Vojislav Kostunica took the oath of office as Yugoslavia's first popularly elected president.

2001 - Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit his 73rd home run of the season and set a new major league record.

2001 - The U.S. and Great Britain began airstrikes in Afghanistan in response to that state's support of terrorism and Osama bin Laden. The act was the first military action taken in response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in the recall election of Governor Gray Davis.

2003 - Randy Quaid received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2004 - Billy Bob Thornton got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

October 8, 2014

1895 - The Berliner Gramophone Company was founded in Philadelphia, PA.

1904 - "Little Johnny Jones" opened in Hartford, CT.

1915 - During World War I, the Battle of Loos concluded.

1918 - U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France. York had originally tried to avoid being drafted as a conscientious objector. After this event his was promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1919 - The first transcontinental air race in the U.S. began.

1935 - "The O’Neills" debuted on CBS radio.

1938 - The cover of "The Saturday Evening Post" portrayed Norman Rockwell.

1944 - "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" debuted on CBS radio.

1945 - U.S. President Truman announced that only Britain and Canada would be given the secret to the atomic bomb.

1950 - U.N. forces crossed into North Korea from South Korea.

1952 - "The Complete Book of Etiquette" was published for the first time.

1956 - Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first perfect game in the history of the World Series.

1957 - The Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that it had accepted a deal to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

1966 - The U.S. Government declared that LSD was dangerous and an illegal substance.

1970 - Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature.

1979 - "Sugar Babies" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon to the White House. The group was preparing to leave for Egypt to attend the funeral of Anwar Sadat.

1982 - In Poland, all labor organizations, including Solidarity, were banned.

1991 - A slave burial site was found by construction workers in lower Manhattan. The "Negro Burial Ground" had been closed in 1790. Over a dozen skeletons were found.

1993 - The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people.

1996 - Pope John Paul II underwent a successful operation to remove his inflamed appendix.

1998 - Taliban forces attacked Iranian border posts. Iran said that three border posts were destroyed before the Taliban forces were forced to retreat. The Taliban of Afghanistan denied the event occurred.

1998 - Canada and Netherlands were voted into the U.N. Security Council.

2001 - Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania, was sworn in as director of the new U.S. department of Homeland Security.

2001 - Rush Limbaugh announced to his listeners that he was totally deaf in his left ear and had only partial hearing in his right ear. The condition had happened in a three month period.

2001 - Two Russian cosmonauts made the first spacewalk to be conducted outside of the international space station without a shuttle present.

2002 - A federal judge approved U.S. President George W. Bush's request to reopen West Coast ports, to end a caustic 10-day labor lockout. The lockout was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day.

2003 - China announced that it would have a human crew orbit the Earth briefly on October 15.

2003 - Vietnam and the United States reached a tentative agreement that would allow the first commercial flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War.

2003 - It was announced that Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co. had reached an agreement to merge. The name for the combined company was NBC Universal.

2003 - Siegfried Fischbacher and his manager announced that the "Siegfried and Roy" show at the Mirage was canceled permanently. It was also said that if Roy Horn survived, after a tiger attack on October 3, the duo would continue to work together.

2004 - The first-ever direct presidential elections were held in Afghanistan.

October 9, 2014

1635 - Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, was banished from Massachusetts because he had spoken out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away land that belonged to the Indians. Williams had founded Providence, Rhode Island as a place for people to seek religious freedom.

1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut was chartered in New Haven. The name was later changed to Yale.

1776 - A group of Spanish missionaries settled in what is now San Francisco, CA.

1781 - The last major battle of the American Revolutionary War took place in Yorktown, VA. The American forces, led by George Washington, defeated the British troops under Lord Cornwallis.

1812 - During the War of 1812 American forces captured two British brigs, the Detroit and the Caledonia.

1855 - Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine motor.

1855 - Joshua C. Stoddard received a patent for his calliope.

1858 - Mail service via stagecoach between San Francisco, CA, and St. Louis, MO, began.

1872 - Aaron Montgomery started his mail order business with the delivery of the first mail order catalog. The firm later became Montgomery Wards.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson made their longest telephone call to date. It was a distance of two miles.

1888 - The public was admitted to the Washington Monument for the first time.

1914 - During World War I, German forces captured Antwerp, Belgium.

1919 - The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series. The win would be later tainted when 8 Chicago White Sox were charged with throwing the game. The incident became known as the "Black Sox" scandal.

1930 - Aviator Laura Ingalls landed in Glendale, CA, to complete the first solo transcontinental flight across the U.S. by a woman.

1935 - "Cavalcade of America" was first broadcast on CBS radio.

1936 - The first generator at Boulder Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles, CA. The name of the dam was later changed to Hoover Dam.

1940 - St. Paul's Cathedral in London was bombed by the Nazis. The dome was unharmed in the bombing.

1943 - "Land of the Lost" debuted on ABC radio.

1946 - "The Iceman Cometh" opened in New York City, NY.

1946 - The first electric blanket went on sale in Petersburg, VA.

1947 - The Broadway show, "High Button Shoes", opened.

1975 - Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Soviet scientist is known as the "father of the hydrogen bomb."

1983 - Helen Moss joined the Brownies at the age of 83. She became the oldest person to become a member.

1986 - U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne became the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment. The U.S. Senate convicted Claiborne of "high crimes and misdemeanors."

1986 - Joan Rivers debuted her new "The Late Show" on the FOX network.

1986 - The musical "Phantom of the Opera" by Andrew Lloyd Webber opened in London.

1989 - The official Soviet news agency Tass reported an unidentified flying object. The report included a trio of tall aliens that had visited the city of Voronzh.

1991 - The play revival "On Borrowed Time" opened.

1994 - The U.S. sent troops and warships to the Persian Gulf in response to Saddam Hussein sending thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks toward the Kuwaiti border.

1995 - Saboteurs tinkered with a stretch of railroad track in Arizona. An Amtrak train derailed killing one and injuring a hundred.

2000 - Brett Hull (Dallas Stars) scored his 611th National Hockey League (NHL) goal. The goal allowed him to pass his father, Bobby Hull, on the all time scoring list bringing him to number 9.

2003 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II knighted Roger Moore and made Sting a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

2009 - NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). On November 13, it was announced that water had been discovered in the planned impact plume on the moon.

October 11, 2014

1776 - During the American Revolution the first naval battle of Lake Champlain was fought. The forces under Gen. Benedict Arnold suffered heavy losses.

1811 - The Juliana, the first steam-powered ferryboat, was put into operation by the inventor John Stevens. The ferry went between New York City, NY, and Hoboken, NJ.

1869 - Thomas Edison filed for a patent on his first invention. The electric machine was used for counting votes for the U.S. Congress, however the Congress did not buy it.

1881 - David Henderson Houston patented the first roll film for cameras.

1890 - The Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in Washington, DC.

1899 - The Boer War began in South Africa between the British and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

1929 - JCPenney opened a store in Milford, DE, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.

1932 - In New York, the first telecast of a political campaign was aired.

1936 - The radio show, "Professor Quiz", aired for the first time.

1939 - U.S. President Roosevelt was presented with a letter from Albert Einstein that urged him to develop the U.S. atomic program rapidly.

1942 - The Battle of Cape Esperance, during World War II, began in the Solomons.

1958 - Pioneer 1, a lunar probe, was launched by the U.S. The probe did not reach its destination and fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.

1968 - Apollo 7 was launched by the U.S. The first manned Apollo mission was the first in which live television broadcasts were received from orbit. Wally Schirra, Don Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham were the astronauts aboard.

1971 - Hugh Downs left the "Today" show and "Concentration". He later became the host of ABC's "20/20".

1975 - "Saturday Night Live" was broadcast for the first time. George Carlin was the guest host.

1975 - Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham were married in Fayetteville, AR.

1983 - The last hand-cranked telephones in the U.S. went out of service. The 440 telephone customers of Bryant Pond, ME, were switched to direct-dial service.

1984 - Construction began on the Kamric/Cinergy Futursonics Studio in Houston, TX.

1984 - American Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first female astronaut to space walk. She was aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1984 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) made his debut in the National Hockey League (NHL) against the Boston Bruins. He scored a goal on his first shot on his first NHL shift.

1994 - U.S. troops in Haiti took control of the National Palace.

1994 - Iraqi troops began moving away from the Kuwaiti border.

1994 - The Colorado Supreme Court declared that the anti-gay rights measure in the state was unconstitutional.

October 12, 2014

1492 - Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, sighted Watling Island in the Bahamas. He believed that he had found Asia while attempting to find a Western ocean route to India. The same day he claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain.

1792 - The first monument honoring Christopher Columbus was dedicated in Baltimore, MD.

1810 - Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The royalty invited the public to attend the event which became an annual celebration that later became known as Oktoberfest.

1892 - In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Columbus landing the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in public schools.

1895 - In Newport, RI, the first amateur golf tournament was held.

1915 - Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt criticized U.S. citizens who identified themselves by dual nationalities.

1920 - Construction of the Holland Tunnel began. It opened on November 13, 1927. The tunnel links Jersey City, NJ and New York City, NY.

1933 - The U.S. Department of Justice acquired Alcatraz Island from the U.S. Army.

1937 - "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" debuted on radio.

1938 - Filming began on "The Wizard of Oz."

1942 - During World War II, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.

1945 - Private First Class Desmond T. Doss was presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor for outstanding bravery as a medical corpsman. He was the first conscientious objector in American history to win the award.

1960 - Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded a shoe on his desk during a dispute at a U.N. General Assembly.

1961 - The first video memoirs by a U.S. president were made. Walter Cronkite interviewed Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1964 - The Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 into orbit around the Earth. It was the first space flight to have a multi-person crew and the first flight to be performed without space suits.

1972 - During the Vietnam War, a racial brawl broke out aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. Nearly 50 sailors were injured.

1976 - China announced that Hua Guo-feng was named to succeed the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of the Communist Party.

1988 - Federal prosecutors announced that the Sundstrand Corp. would pay $115 million dollars to settle with the Pentagon for overbilling airplane parts over a five-year period.

1989 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved a statutory federal ban on the destruction of the American flag.

1993 - The play "Mixed Emotions" opened at the John Golden Theatre.

1994 - Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras was granted political asylum by Panama.

1994 - The Magellan space probe ended its four-year mission to Venus for the purpose of mapping.

1997 - The St. Francis Basilica and 15th-century bell tower above Foligno city hall in Italy were damaged by 3 earthquakes.

1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Online Copyright Bill.

1999 - Rob Reiner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup that toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The Supreme Court ruled that the coup was legal but insisted that a civilian government be restored within three years.

2001 - A special episode of America's Most Wanted was aired that focused on 22 wanted terrorists. The show was specifically requested by U.S. President George W. Bush.

2006 - The Dow Jones industrial average advanced over 11,900 for the first time.

November 9, 2014

1857 - The "Atlantic Monthly" first appeared on newsstands and featured the first installment of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

1872 - A fire destroyed about 800 buildings in Boston, MA.

1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt left for Panama to see the progress on the new canal. It was the first foreign trip by a U.S. president.

1911 - George Claude of Paris, France, applied for a patent on neon advertising signs.

1918 - Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.

1923 - In Munich, the Beer Hall Putsch was crushed by German troops that were loyal to the democratic government. The event began the evening before when Adolf Hitler took control of a beer hall full of Bavarian government leaders at gunpoint.

1935 - United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.

1938 - Nazi troops and sympathizers destroyed and looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, burned 267 synagogues, killed 91 Jews, and rounded up over 25,000 Jewish men in an event that became known as Kristallnacht or "Night of Broken Glass."

1953 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1922 ruling that major league baseball did not come within the scope of federal antitrust laws.

1961 - Major Robert White flew an X-15 rocket plane at a world record speed of 4,093 mph.

1961 - The Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) eliminated its "caucasians only" rule.

1963 - In Japan, about 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion.

1963 - In Japan, 160 people died in a train crash.

1965 - The great Northeast blackout occurred as several states and parts of Canada were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours.

1967 - A Saturn V rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.

1976 - The U.N. General Assembly approved ten resolutions condemning the apartheid government in South Africa.

1979 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously called upon Iran to release all American hostages "without delay." Militants, mostly students had taken 63 Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4.

1981 - U.S. troops began arriving in Egypt for a three-week Rapid Deployment Force excercise. Somalia, Sudan and Oman were also involved in the operation.

1981 - The Internation Monetary Fund approved a $5.8 billion load to India. It was the highest loan to date.

1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing. In 1984 Leonard came out of retirement to fight one more time before becoming a boxing commentator for NBC.

1984 - A bronze statue titled "Three Servicemen," by Frederick Hart, was unveiled at the site of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

1989 - Communist East Germany opened its borders, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany.

1990 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, visiting London, appealed for assistance in rescheduling his country's debt, and asked British businesses to invest.

1997 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) became the first player in NFL history to rush for over 1,000 yards in nine straight seasons. In the same game Sanders passed former Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett for third place on the all-time rushing list.

1998 - A federal judge in New York approved the richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history. A leading brokerage firm was ordered to pay $1.03 billion to investors who had sued over price-rigging of Nasdaq stocks.

1998 - PBS aired its documentary special "Chihuly Over Venice."

2004 - U.S. First Lady Laura Bush officially reopened Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to pedestrians.

November 10, 2014

1775 - The U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. The Marines went out of existence after the end of the Revolutionary War in April of 1783. The Marine Corps were formally re-established on July 11, 1798. This day is observed as the birth date of the United States Marine Corps.

1801 - The U.S. state of Tennessee outlawed the practice of dueling.

1871 - Henry M. Stanley, journalist and explorer, found David Livingstone. Livingston was a missing Scottish missionary in central Africa. Stanley delivered his famous greeting: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1879 - Western Union and the National Bell Telephone Company reached a settlement over various telephone patents.

1917 - 41 suffragists were arrested in front of the White House.

1919 - The American Legion held its first national convention, in Minneapolis, MN.

1928 - Michinomiya Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.

1951 - Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began when Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, NJ, called his counterpart in Alameda, CA.

1954 - The Iwo Jima Memorial was dedicated in Arlington, VA.

1957 - 102,368 people attended the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams game. The crowd was the largest regular-season crowd in NFL history.

1969 - "Sesame Street" made its debut on PBS.

1970 - The Great Wall of China opened for tourism.

1975 - The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution that equated Zionism with racism. The resolution was repealed in December of 1991.

1975 - The Edmund Fitzgerald, an ore-hauling ship, and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake Superior.

1976 - The Utah Supreme Court gave approval for Gary Gilmore to be executed, according to his wishes. The convicted murderer was put to death the following January.

1977 - The Major Indoor Soccer League was officially organized in New York City. (New York)

1980 - CBS News anchor Dan Rather claimed he had been kidnapped in a cab. It turned out that Rather had refused to pay the cab fare.

1982 - Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev died of a heart attack at age 75. He was suceeded by Yuri V. Andropov.

1982 - In Washington, DC, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to visitors.

1984 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1986 - Camille Sontag and Marcel Coudari, two Frenchmen were released by the captors that held them in Lebanon.

1988 - The U.S. Department of Energy announced that Texas would be the home of the atom-smashing super-collider. The project was cancelled by a vote of the U.S. Congress in Oct. 1993.

1990 - Chandra Shekhar was sworn in as India's new prime minister.

1991 - Robert Maxwell was buried in Israel, five days after his body was recovered off the Canary Islands.

1993 - John Wayne Bobbitt was acquitted on the charge of marital sexual assault against his wife who sexually mutilated him. Lorena Bobbitt was later acquitted of malicious wounding her husband.

1993 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Brady Bill, which called for a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.

1994 - U.S. officials announced that it planned to stop enforcing the arms embargo against the Bosnian government the following week. The U.N. Security Council was opposed to lifting the ban.

1994 - Iraq recognized Kuwait's borders in the hope that the action would end trade sanctions.

1995 - Nigeria's military rulers hanged playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa along with several other anti-government activists.

1995 - In Katmandu, Nepal, searchers rescued 549 hikers after a massive avalanche struck the Himalayan foothills. The disaster left 24 tourists and 32 Nepalese dead.

1996 - Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) became the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 50,000 yards. (Florida)

1997 - WorldCom Inc. acquired MCI Communication Corporation. It was the largest merger in U.S. history valued at $37 billion.

1997 - A jury in Virginia convicted Mir Aimal Kasi of the murder of two CIA employees in 1993.

1997 - A judge in Cambridge, MA, reduced Louise Woodward's murder conviction to manslaughter and sentenced the English au pair to time served. She had served 279 days in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

1998 - At the White House, "The Virtual Wall" website (www.thevirtualwall.org) was unveiled. The site allows visitors to experience The Wall through the Internet.

1999 - Ted Danson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2001 - The World Trade Organization approved China's membership.

2001 - The musical "Lady Diana - A Smile Charms the World" opened in Germany.

2004 - Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) was awarded the "Man for Peace" prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

November 11, 2014

1620 - The Mayflower Compact was signed by the 41 men on the Mayflower when they landed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. The compact called for "just and equal laws."

1831 - Nat Turner, a slave and educated minister, was hanged in Jerusalem, VA, after inciting a violent slave uprising.

1851 - The telescope was patented by Alvan Clark.

1868 - The first indoor amateur track and field meet was held by the New York Athletic Club.

1880 - Australian outlaw and bank robber Ned Kelly was hanged at the Melbourne jail at age 25.

1887 - Labor Activists were hanged in Illinois after being convicted of being connected to a bombing that killed eight police officers.

1889 - Washington became the 42nd state of the United States.

1918 - World War I came to an end when the Allies and Germany signed an armistice. This day became recognized as Veteran's Day in the United States.

1918 - Poland was reestablished shortly after the surrender of Germany.

1920 - The body of an unknown British soldier was buried in Westminster Abbey. The service was recorded with the first electronic recording process developed by Lionel Guest and H.O. Merriman.

1921 - The Tomb of the Unknowns was dedicated at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia by U.S. President Harding.

1938 - Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on network radio.

1940 - The Jeep made its debut.

1942 - During World War II, Germany completed its occupation of France.

1946 - The New York Knickerbockers (now the Knicks) played their first game at Madison Square Garden.

1952 - The first video recorder was demonstrated by John Mullin and Wayne Johnson in Beverly Hills, CA.

1965 - The government of Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain. The country later became known as Zimbabwe.

1965 - Walt Disney announced a project in Florida.

Disney movies, music and books

1966 - The U.S. launched Gemini 12 from Cape Kennedy, FL. The craft circled the Earth 59 times before returning.

1972 - The U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Bihn to the South Vietnamese army. The event symbolized the end of direct involvement in the Vietnam War by the U.S. military.

1975 - Civil war broke out when Angola gained independence from Portugal.

1981 - Stuntman Dan Goodwin scaled the outside of the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago in about six hours.

1981 - The U.S.S. Ohio was commissioned at the Electric Boat Division in Groton, CT. It was the first Trident class submarine.

1984 - The Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. died in Atlanta at age 84.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan accepted the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a gift to the nation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

1984 - Gary Coleman, at age 13, underwent his second kidney transplant in Los Angeles. He had his first transplant at age 5.

1986 - Sperry Rand and Burroughs merged to form "Unisys," becoming the second largest computer company.

1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Irises" was sold for a then record 53.9 million dollars in New York.

1988 - Police in Sacramento, CA, found the first of seven bodies buried on the grounds of a boardinghouse. Dorothea Puente was later charged in the deaths of nine people, convicted of three murders and sentenced to life in prison.

1990 - Stormie Jones, the world's first heart-liver transplant recipient, died at a Pittsburgh hospital at age 13.

1991 - The U.S. stationed its first diplomat in Cambodia in 16 years to help the nation arrange democratic elections.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin told U.S. senators in a letter that Americans had been held in prison camps after World War II. Some were "summarily executed," but others were still living in his country voluntarily.

1992 - The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.

1993 - Walt Disney Co. announced plans to build a U.S. history theme park in a Virginia suburb of Washington. The plan was halted later due to local opposition.

Disney movies, music and books

1993 - In Washington, DC, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated to honor the more than 11,000 women who had served in the Vietnam War.

1994 - In Gaza, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at an Israeli military checkpoint killing three soldiers.

1996 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund unveiled "The Wall That Heals." The work was a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that would tour communities throughout the United States.

1997 - The Eastman Kodak Company announced that they were laying off 10,000 employees.

1997 - Roger Clemens (Toronto Blue Jays) became the third major league player to win the Cy Young Award four times.

1998 - Jay Cochrane set a record for the longest blindfolded skywalk. He walked on a tightrope between the towers of the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas, NV. The towers are 600 feet apart.

1998 - Vincente Fernandez received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Israel's Cabinet ratified a land-for-peace agreement with the Palestinians.

November 12, 2014

1799 - Andrew Ellicott Douglass witnesses the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys.

1815 - American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, NY.

1840 - Sculptor Auguste Rodin was born in Paris. His most widely known works are "The Kiss" and "The Thinker."

1859 - The first flying trapeze act was performed by Jules Leotard at Cirque Napoleon in Paris, France. He was also the designer of the garment that is named after him.

1892 - William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became the first professional football player when he was paid a $500 bonus for helping the Allegheny Athletic Association beat the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.

1915 - Theodore W. Richards, of Harvard University, became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

1918 - Austria and Czechoslovakia were declared independent republics.

1920 - Judge Keneshaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of the American and National Leagues.

1921 - Representatives of nine nations gathered for the start of the Washington Conference for Limitation of Armaments.

1927 - Joseph Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union. Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party leading to Stalin coming to power.

1931 - Maple Leaf Gardens opened in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was to be the new home of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL).

1933 - In Philadelphia, the first Sunday football game was played.

1940 - Walt Disney released "Fantasia."

Disney movies, music and books

1942 - During World War II, naval battle of Guadalcanal began between Japanese and American forces. The Americans won a major victory.

1944 - During World War II, the German battleship "Tirpitz" was sunk off the coast of Norway.

1946 - The first drive-up banking facility opened at the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, IL.

1948 - The war crimes tribunal sentenced Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and six other World War II Japanese leaders to death.

1953 - The National Football League (NFL) policy of blacking out home games was upheld by Judge Allan K. Grim of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

1954 - Ellis Island, the immigration station in New York Harbor, closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since 1892.

1964 - Paula Murphy set the female land speed record 226.37 MPH.

1972 - Don Shula, coach of the Miami Dolphins, became the first NFL head coach to win 100 regular season games in 10 seasons.

1975 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas retired because of failing health, ending a record 36½-year term.

1979 - U.S. President Carter ordered a halt to all oil imports from Iran in response to 63 Americans being taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran on November 4.

1980 - The U.S. space probe Voyager I came within 77,000 miles of Saturn while transmitting data back to Earth.

1982 - Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.

1984 - Space shuttle astronauts Dale Gardner and Joe Allen snared the Palapa B-2 satellite in history's first space salvage.

1985 - In Norfolk, VA, Arthur James Walker was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a spy ring run by his brother, John A. Walker Jr.

1987 - The American Medical Association issued a policy statement that said it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV-positive.

1990 - Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne.

1991 - In the U.S., Robert Gates was sworn in as CIA director.

1995 - The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

1997 - Four Americans and their Pakistani driver were shot to death in Karachi, Pakistan. The Americans were oil company employees.

1997 - The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iraq for constraints being placed on UN arms inspectors.

1997 - Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

1998 - Daimler-Benz completed a merger with Chrysler to form Daimler-Chrysler AG.

2001 - American Airlines flight 587 crashed just minutes after take off from Kennedy Airport in New York. The Airbus A300 crashed into the Rockaway Beach section of Queens. All 260 people aboard were killed.

2001 - It was reported that the Northern Alliance had taken the Kabul, Afghanistan, from the ruling Taliban. The Norther Alliance at this point was reported to have control over most of the northern areas of Afghanistan.

2002 - Stan Lee filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment Inc. that claimed the company had cheated him out of millions of dollars in movie profits related to the 2002 movie "Spider-Man." Lee was the creator of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil.

2013 - A series of portraits of Lucian Freud by the British painter Francis Bacon known as Three Studies of Lucian Freud sold for $142.4 million at an auction in New York City.

November 13, 2014

1775 - During the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal.

1789 - Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

1805 - Johann George Lehner, a Viennese butcher, invented a recipe and called it the "frankfurter."

1927 - The Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

1933 - In Austin, MN, the first sit-down labor strike in America took place.

1940 - The Walt Disney movie "Fantasia" had its world premiere at New York's Broadway Theater.

Disney movies, music and books

1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

1971 - The U.S. spacecraft Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, Mars.

1977 - The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.

1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

1984 - A libel suit against Time, Inc. by former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to trial in New York.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged that the U.S. had sent "defensive weapons and spare parts" to Iran. He denied that the shipments were sent to free hostages, but that they had been sent to improve relations.

1991 - Roger Clemens won his third Cy Young Award for the American League.

1994 - Sweden voted to join the European Union.

1995 - Greg Maddox (Atlanta Braves) became the first major league pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young Awards.

1997 - Iraq expelled six U.N. arms inspectors that were U.S. citizens.

1998 - "The Wizard of Oz" was released on the big screen by Warner Bros. 59 years after its original release.

1998 - Monica Lewinsky signed a deal with St. Martin's Press for the North American rights to her story about her affair with U.S. President Bill Clinton.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order that would allow for military tribunals to try any foreigners captured with connections to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. It was the first time since World War II that a president had taken such action.

2009 - NASA announced that water had been discoved on the moon. The discovery came from the planned impact on the moon of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).

November 14, 2014

1832 - The first streetcar went into operation in New York City, NY. The vehicle was horse-drawn and had room for 30 people.

1851 - Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the U.S.

1881 - Charles J. Guiteau's trial began for the assassination of U.S. President Garfield. Guiteau was convicted and hanged the following year.

1889 - New York World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) began an attempt to surpass the fictitious journey of Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg by traveling around the world in less than 80 days. Bly succeeded by finishing the journey the following January in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began domestic radio service.

1935 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth after its new constitution was approved. The Tydings-McDuffie Act planned for the Phillipines to be completely independent by July 4, 1946.

1940 - During World War II, German war planes destroyed most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe bombers attacked.

1951 - The first telecast of a world lightweight title fight was seen coast to coast. Jimmy Carter beat Art Aragon in Los Angeles.

1956 - The USSR crushed the Hungarian uprising.

1968 - Yale University announced it was going co-educational.

1969 - Apollo 12 blasted off for the moon from Cape Kennedy, FL.

1969 - During the Vietnam War, Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, commander of the Third Marine Division, became the first general to be killed in Vietnam by enemy fire.

1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 1,000 (1,003.16) level for the first time.

1972 - Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike.

1973 - Britain's Princess Anne married a commoner, Capt. Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. They divorced in 1992, and Princess Anne re-married.

1979 - U.S. President Carter froze all Iranian assets in the United States and U.S. banks abroad in response to the taking of 63 American hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran.

1983 - The British government announced that U.S.-made cruise missiles had arrived at the Greenham Common air base amid protests.

1988 - Israeli President Chaim Herzog formally asked Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to form a new government.

1989 - The U.S. Navy ordered an unprecedented 48-hour stand-down in the wake of a recent string of serious accidents.

1990 - Simon and Schuster announced it had dropped plans to publish Bret Easton Ellis novel "American Psycho."

1991 - After 13 years in exile Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to his homeland.

1994 - U.S. experts visited North Korea's main nuclear complex for the first time under an accord that opened such sites to outside inspections.

1995 - The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while most government offices operated with skeleton crews.

November 15, 2014

1777 - The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, precursor to the U.S. Constitution.

1806 - Explorer Zebulon Pike spotted the mountaintop that became known as Pikes Peak.

1867 - the first stock ticker was unveiled in New York City.

1889 - Brazil's monarchy was overthrown.

1901 - Miller Reese patented an electrical hearing aid.

1902 - Anarchist Gennaro Rubin failed in his attempt to murder King Leopold II of Belgium.

1920 - The League of Nations met for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland.

1926 - The National Broadcasting Co. (NBC) debuted with a radio network of 24 stations. The first network radio broadcast was a four-hour "spectacular."

1939 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.

1940 - The first 75,000 men were called to Armed Forces duty under peacetime conscription.

1965 - The Soviet probe, Venera 3, was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. On March 1, 1966, it became the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet when it crashed on Venus.

1966 - The flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

1969 - In Washington, DC, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War.

1985 - Britain and Ireland signed an accord giving Dublin an official consultative role in governing Northern Ireland.

1986 - A government tribunal in Nicaragua convicted American Eugene Hasenfus of charges related to his role in delivering arms to Contra rebels. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was pardoned a month later.

1986 - Ivan F. Boesky, reputed to be the highest-paid person on Wall Street, faced penalties of $100 million for insider stock trading. It was the highest penalty ever imposed by the SEC.

1988 - The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, proclaimed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state at the close of a four-day conference in Algiers.

1992 - Richard Petty drove in the final race of his 35-year career.

1993 - A judge in Mineola, NY, sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher. Fisher was serving a prison sentence for shooting and wounding Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo.

1995 - Texaco agreed to pay $176 million to settle a race-discrimination lawsuit.

1999 - Representatives from China and the United States signed a major trade agreement that involved China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).

2000 - Three police officers from the Rampart division of the Los Angeles police department were convicted on several counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. One other officer was acquitted. The case was the first major case against the anti-gang unit.

2005 - In Amiens, France, Isabelle Dinoire became the first person to undergo a partial face transplant. She had been attacked by a dog earlier in the year.

2006 - Andy Warhol's painting of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong sold for $17.4 million. At the same auction "Orange Marilyn" sold for $16.2 million and "Sixteen Jackies" sold for $15.6 million.

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