Sunday, October 23

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.
  
• 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.
  
• 1910   Blanche S. Scott became the first woman aviator. Blanche was known, not as an aviator, but an aviatrix. She soared to an altitude of 12 feet over Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
  
• 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

• 1749   Nicolas Appert (chef, confectioner, chemist, inventor: invented canning process of heating foods and sealing them in airtight containers; died in 1841)
  
• 1835   Adlai Ewing Stevenson (23rd Vice President of the U.S. [1893-1897]; grandfather of U.S. presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson [1952, 1956]; died June 14, 1914)
  
• 1892   (Milton) ‘Gummo’ Marx (theatrical agent; vaudeville with his four brothers (Marx Brothers): The Four Nightingales, Fun in Hi Skule, Mr. Green’s Reception, Home Again; died Apr 21, 1977)
  
• 1925   Johnny Carson (Emmy Award-winning comedian, TV host: The Tonight Show)