Today in History

439		Carthage, the leading Roman city in North Africa, falls to Genseric and the Vandals.
1531		Bavaria, despite being a Catholic region, joins the League of Schmalkalden, a Protestant group which opposes Charles V.
1648		The signing of the Treaty of Westphalia ends the German Thirty Years’ War.
1755		A British expedition against the French held Fort Niagara in Canada ends in failure.
1812		Napoleon’s original plans for retreating from Moscow are thwarted by the Imperial Russian Army at the Battle of Maloyaroslavets. His battle-fatigued Grande Armée, forced to withdraw through heavily ravaged areas, will be hobbled by the lack of supplies, the onset of the brutal Russian winter, and constant attacks by Russian peasants and irregular troops.
1836		The match is patented.
1861		Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line, putting the Pony Express out of business.
1863		General Ulysses S. Grant arrives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to find the Union Army there starving.
1897		The first comic strip appears in the Sunday color supplement of the New York Journal called the ‘Yellow Kid.’
1901		Annie Edson Taylor, 63, is the first woman to go safely over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She made the attempt for the cash award offered, which she put toward the loan on her Texas ranch.
1916		Henry Ford awards equal pay to women.
1917		The Austro-German army routs the Italian army at Caporetto, Italy.
1929		Black Thursday takes place–the first day of the stock market crash which began the Great Depression.
1930		John Wayne debuts in his first starring role in The Big Trail .
1931		Al (Alphonse) Capone, the prohibition-era Chicago gangster, is sent to prison for tax evasion.
1934		Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called Mahatma or “Great Soul,” resigns from Congress in India.
1938		The Fair Labor Standards Act becomes law, establishing the 40-hour work week.
1944		The aircraft carrier USS Princeton is sunk by a single Japanese plane during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
1945		The United Nations comes into existence with the ratification of its charter by the first 29 nations.
1945		Vidkun Quisling, Norway’s wartime minister president, is executed by firing squad for collaboration with the Nazis.
1952		Presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that if elected, he will go to Korea.
1970		Leftist Salvador Allende is elected president of Chile.
1973		The Yom Kippur War ends.
1980		Poland’s government legalizes the Solidarity Trade Union.
1992		The Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves in the 11th inning of the 6th game, to become the first Major League Baseball team from outside the US to win the series.
2003		The supersonic Concorde jet made its last commercial passenger flight from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport, traveling at twice the speed of sound.
2008		Many stock exchanges worldwide suffer the steepest declines in their histories; the day becomes known as “Bloody Friday.”