Today in History

1270		The Seventh Invasion ends by the Treaty of Barbary.
1485		Henry VII of England crowned.
1697		The Treaty of Ryswick ends the war between France and the Grand Alliance.
1838		Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Lorain County, Ohio becomes the first college in the U.S. to admit female students.
1899		Two battalions of British troops are cut off, surrounded and forced to surrender to General Petrus Joubert’s Boers at Nicholson’s Nek.
1905		The czar of Russia issues the October Manifesto, granting civil liberties and elections in an attempt to avert the burgeoning support for revolution.
1918		The Italians capture Vittorio Veneto and rout the Austro-Hungarian army.
1918		Turkey signs an armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon, October 31.
1922		Mussolini sends his black shirts into Rome. The Fascist takeover is almost without bloodshed. The next day, Mussolini is made prime minister. He centralizes all power in himself as leader of the Fascist party and attempts to create an Italian empire, ultimately in alliance with Hitler‘s Germany.
1925		Scotsman John L. Baird performs first TV broadcast of moving objects.
1938		H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds is broadcast over the radio by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre. Many panic believing it is an actual newscast about a Martian invasion.
1941		The U.S. destroyer Reuben James, on convoy duty off Iceland, is sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of 96 Americans.
1950		The First Marine Division is ordered to replace the entire South Korean I Corps at the Chosin Reservoir area.
1953		US Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves a top secret document to maintain and expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.
1961		The USSR detonates “Tsar Bomba,” a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb; it is still (2016) the largest explosive device of any kind over detonated.
1965		US Marines repel multiple-wave attacks by Viet Cong within a few miles of Da Nang where the Marines are based; a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old boy who had been selling the Americans drinks the previous day.
1973		The Bosphorus Bridge is completed at Istanbul, Turkey, connecting Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus Strait.
1974		The “Rumble in the Jungle,” a boxing match in Zaire that many regard as the greatest sporting event of the 20th century, takes place; challenger Muhammad Ali knocks out previously undefeated World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman.
1975		Prince Juan Carlos becomes acting head of state in Spain, replacing the ailing dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.
1985		The Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for its final successful mission.
1991		BET Holdings Inc., becomes the first African-American company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
2005		The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (Cult of Our Lady) that was destroyed during the firebombing of Dresden in WWII is rededicated.