Monday, October 24

This Day In History

• 1537   Jane Seymour, the third wife of England's King Henry VIII, died 12 days after giving birth to the future King Edward VI.
  
• 1648   The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire.
  
• 1836   Alonzo D. Phillips of Springfield, Massachusetts received a patent for the phosphorous friction safety match.
  
• 1861   The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent as Justice Stephen J. Field of California transmitted a telegram to President Abraham Lincoln.
  
• 1901   Anna Edson Taylor, a 43-year-old widow, became the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
  
• 1929   This day became known as Black Thursday after Wall Street investors panicked and ordered their stock brokers to sell, sell, sell! Nearly 13 million shares traded hands and stock prices plummeted. Many stocks recovered late in the afternoon, but the stage had been set for the October 29th stock market crash -- and the beginning of the Great Depression.
  
• 1931   The George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, opened to traffic.
  
• 1939   Nylon stockings were sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Del.
  
• 1940   The 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
  
• 1952   Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, ''I shall go to Korea'' as he promised to end the conflict.
  
• 1962   The U.S. blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis began under a proclamation signed by President John F. Kennedy.
  
• 1987   Thirty years after it was expelled for refusing to answer allegations of corruption, the Teamsters union was welcomed back into the AFL-CIO by a vote of the labor federation's executive council in Miami Beach, Fla.
  
• 1992   The Toronto Blue Jays became the first team outside the United States to win the World Series as they defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in Game 6.
  
• 1999   Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., died at age 77.
  
• 2001   The House passed a $100 billion economic stimulus package in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
  
• 2002   Authorities arrested Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks.
  
• 2003   The era of supersonic jet travel came to an end as three British Airways Concordes landed at London's Heathrow Airport.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1788   Sarah Hale (poet: Mary Had a Little Lamb; magazine editor; died Apr 30, 1879)
  
• 1830   Belva Lockwood (women’s rights advocate, attorney, 1st woman formally nominated to run for president of the U.S.; died May 19, 1917)
  
• 1936   David Nelson (actor: The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet)