Oct. 16
1793: Marie Antoinette, queen of France, was beheaded during the French Revolution.
1859: Abolitionist John Brown led a failed raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
1934: Chinese Communists, under siege by the Nationalists, began their “Long March,” a year-long retreat from southeastern to northwestern China.
1987: Eighteen-month-old Jessica (“Baby Jessica”) McClure was pulled from an abandoned well in Midland, Texas.
Oct. 17
1777: British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York, marking a turning point in the Revolutionary War.
1931: Mobster Al Capone was convicted in Chicago of income tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined $50,000.
1979: Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oct. 18
1867: The United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
1931: Inventor Thomas Edison died at age 84.
1977: Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in Game 6 of the World Series to lead the New York Yankees to an 8-4 win and a 4-2 Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. His performance earned him the nickname “Mr. October.”
Oct. 19
1987: The stock market crashed as the Dow Jones plunged 508 points, or 22.6%, on “Black Monday.”
1781: British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia.
1914: The First Battle of Ypres began in World War I.
1960: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a sit-in at a segregated Atlanta lunch counter.
1977: The supersonic Concorde made its first New York landing, completing the flight from France in 3 hours and 44 minutes.
Oct. 20
1944: Gen. Douglas MacArthur waded ashore in the Philippines, fulfilling his World War II promise to return after being ordered to evacuate in 1942.
1803: The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
1947: The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings on alleged Communist influence in Hollywood.
1977: Three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed in a plane crash near McComb, Mississippi.
Oct. 21
1797: The U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides,” was christened in Boston Harbor.
1805: A British fleet commanded by Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar.
1940: Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published.
1959: The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum opened in New York.
1966: A coal waste landslide engulfed a school and 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales, killing 144 people, including 116 children.
Oct. 22
1836: Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, which won independence from Mexico earlier that year.
1934: Bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed by federal agents and local police.
1962: President John F. Kennedy revealed Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba and announced a naval blockade.
2012: Cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from Olympic sports after the International Cycling Union upheld doping charges.
