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October 31 |
In
1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was
assassinated near her residence by two Sikh
security guards.
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October 30 |
In 1974, Muhammad Ali knocked
out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round bout in Kinshasa,
Zaire, to regain his world heavyweight title.
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October 29 |
In
1929, Black Tuesday descended upon the New York
Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling
and thousands of investors were wiped out as
America's Great Depression began.
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October 28 |
In
1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the
people of France, was dedicated in New York
Harbor by President Cleveland.
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October 27 |
In 1904, the
first rapid transit subway, the IRT, opened in New York
City.
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October 26 |
In 1994, Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel
Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty in a ceremony
attended by President Clinton.
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October 25 |
In 1971,
the United Nations General Assembly voted to admit
mainland China and expel Taiwan.
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October 24 |
In 1945, the
United Nations officially came into existence as its charter
took effect.
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October 23 |
In 1983, a
suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International Airport in
Lebanon killed 241 United States Marines and sailors; a
near-simultaneous attack on French forces killed 58
paratroopers.
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October 22 |
In 1962, President Kennedy
announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of
Soviet missile bases on the island.
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October 21 |
In 1879, Thomas
Edison invented a workable electric light at his laboratory
in Menlo Park, N.J.
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October 20 |
In 1973, in the
so-called Saturday Night Massacre, President Nixon abolished
the office of special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox,
accepted the resignation of Attorney General Elliot L.
Richardson and fired Deputy Attorney General William B.
Ruckelshaus.
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October 19 |
In 1987,
the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial
Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value -
its biggest-ever percentage drop.
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October 18 |
In 1968, the
United States Olympic Committee suspended two black
athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for giving a "black
power" salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in
Mexico City.
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October 17 |
In 1931, mobster Al
Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11
years in prison. He was released in 1939. |
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October 16 |
In 1964,
China detonated its first atomic bomb.
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October 15 |
In 1964, it was
announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been
removed from office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei
N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary by Leonid I.
Brezhnev.
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October 14 |
In 1964, civil
rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize.
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October 13 |
In 1943,
Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis
partner.
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October 12 |
In 1870, Gen.
Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.
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October 11 |
In 1968, Apollo
7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with
astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter
Cunningham aboard.
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October 10 |
In 1973,
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest to one
count of federal income tax evasion and resigned his
office.
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October 9 |
In 1967, Latin
American guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia
while attempting to incite revolution.
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October 8 |
In 1982, all labor
organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned.
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October 7 |
In 1985, Palestinian
gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the
Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard.
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October 6 |
In 1981,
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by
extremists while reviewing a military parade.
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October 5 |
In 1947, in the first
televised White House address, President Truman asked Americans to
refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to
help stockpile grain for starving people in Europe.
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October 4 |
In 1957, the Space
Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first
man-made satellite, into orbit.
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October 3 |
In 1990, West
Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division,
declaring the creation of a new unified country.
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October 2 |
In 1967,
Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an associate justice of
the United States Supreme Court; he was the first
African-American appointed to the nation's highest court.
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October 1 |
In 1961, Roger
Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run of the
season, breaking Babe Ruth's record of 60 set in 1927.
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