Today In History...

In 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh is executed in London.
In 1682 The founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, lands at what is now Chester, PA.
In 1811 The first Ohio River steamboat leaves Pittsburgh for New Orleans.
In 1833 The first college fraternity is founded.
In 1863 The International Committee of the Red Cross founded.
In 1901 Leon Czolcosz, the assassin of President McKinley, is electrocuted.
In 1911 American newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer dies in Charleston, SC.
In 1917 The thermometer drops to 33 below zero at Soda Butte, WY, the U.S.'s lowest October temperature record.
In 1923 The Republic of Turkey is proclaimed.
In 1929 "Black Tuesday," descends on the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapse amid panic selling, thousands of investors are wiped out, and American's Great Depression begins.
In 1940 Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson draws the first number (158) in the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.
In 1945 The first American made ball-point pens are marketed.
In 1947 Former first lady Frances Cleveland dies in Baltimore at age 83.
In 1947 The first modern weather experiment, a cloud seeding operation drops rain on New Hampshire and puts out a forest fire.
In 1956 The Huntley-Brinkley Report premieres as NBC's nightly newscast, replacing "The Camel News Caravan."
In 1956 During the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launches an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
In 1964 Thieves make off with the Star of India and several other priceless gems from the American Museum Of Natural History in New York.
In 1966 The National Organization of Women is founded.
In 1977 A Boeing 747 sets the speed record for flying around the world over the North and South Poles. (Average speed: 487 mph)
In 1979 On the 50th anniversary of the stock market crash, anti-nuclear protestors try to shut down the NYSE, but trading continues.
In 1982 John DeLorean, indicted for drug trafficking, is acquitted.
In 1985 Major General Samuel K. Doe, ruler of Liberia since 1980, wins the presidency in the country's first multiparty election.
In 1986 Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister is dismissed after serving since 1962.
In 1987 Following the confirmation defeat of Robert H. Bork to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, President Reagan chooses Douglas H. Ginsburg, a nomination that would fall apart over revelations of Ginsburg's past marijuana use.
In 1988 The maiden voyage of the Soviet Union's space shuttle is delayed because of problems with ground equipment.
In 1989 At least 20,000 East Berliners observe a minute of silence for those killed fleeing over the Berlin Wall.
In 1990 The UN Security Council votes to hold Saddam Hussein's regime liable for human rights abuses and war damages during its occupation of Kuwait.
In 1991 President Bush imposes trade sanctions against Haiti to pressure its leaders to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
In 1993 A group of U.S. luge athletes is attacked by right-wing skinheads in Oberhof, Germany.
In 1994 Francisco Martin Duran, of Colorado Springs, CO, fires more than two dozen shots from a semiautomatic rifle at the White House while standing on Pennsylvania Avenue. (Duran was later convicted of trying to assassinate President Clinton.)
In 1995 Palestinians burn American and Israeli flags and swore revenge for the assassination of Islamic Jihad leader Dr. Fathi Shakaki, the top architect of terror attacks against Israel.
In 1996 Workers at two key General Motors plants, in Indianapolis and Janesville, WI, go on strike.
In 1997 Chinese President Jiang Zemin meets in his first summit with President Clinton in Washington, clashing over human rights but agreeing to end the diplomatic chill.
In 1997 The Baghdad government bars Americans from the UN disarmament effort in Iraq, a move that prompted chief weapons inspector Richard Butler to suspend inspections.
In 1998 John Glenn, 77, returns to orbit after 36 years.
In 1998 South Africa's truth commission condemns white apartheid government and black freedom movement violence.
In 1998 The oldest known copy of Archimedes' work sells for $2 million at New York auction.
In 2000 The wounded destroyer USS Cole (attacked by suicide bombers on October 12 killing 17 sailors) departs Aden, Yemen, to be taken home to repair the gaping hole in its side.
In 2001 The FBI issues a terrorism warning asking Americans and law enforcement to be on the highest alert for possible attacks.
In 2002 The federal government files charges against Washington sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad.
In 2004 European leaders sign the first constitution for the European Union.

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