Today in History
Listings for Friday, October 18, 2019.
Birthdays:
- 1777 Heinrich von Kleist, German dramatist, poet
- 1900 Lotte Lenya
- 1919 Pierre Trudeau, Canadien
- 1921 Jesse Helms
- 1923 Melina Mercouri
- 1926 Chuck Berry Rock 'n' roll star
- 1927 George C. Scott, actor (Patton)
- 1939 Lee Harvey Oswald
- 1939 Mike Ditka
- 1947 Laura Nyro
- 1951 Pam Dawber
- 1956 Martina Navratilova, tennis champ, in Prague Czechoslovakia
- 1960 Jean-Claude Van Damme
- 1961 Wynton Marsalis
Events:
- Orionid meteor shower, radiant in Orion.
- The start of the Moslem New Year.
- 1685 Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, outlaws Protestantism.
- 1867 US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia ($7.2 million).
- 1869 The United States take possession of Alaska.
- 1873 The Ivy League establishes rules for college football.
- 1892 1st commercial long-distance phone line opens (Chicago - NYC)
- 1922 British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, is established.
- 1962 Watson of US, Crick & Wilkins of Britain win Nobel Prize for Medicine for work in determining the structure of DNA.
- 1968 Robert Beaman of US broad jumps a record 8.90 m. Still stands.
- 1968 US Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith & John Carlos, for giving `black power' salute as a protest during victory ceremony
That's all for today.
