TODAY IN HISTORY: First roller coaster

In 1884, the world’s first roller coaster opened at Coney Island, N.Y.

In 1886, fire razed the city of Vancouver. It started when flames from a brush-clearing fire blew into tinder-dry brush in the west of the city. Accounts of the fire itself vary — some say it took 20 minutes, some say 45, to destroy the 1,000 or so wood buildings that constituted the city; it killed at least eight people but as many as 28 may have died. “The city did not burn, it was consumed by flame,” said one witness.

In 1993, Kim Campbell was chosen to succeed Brian Mulroney as Conservative leader and prime minister. On Oct. 25th, four months to the day after she was sworn in as Canada’s first woman PM, Campbell and the Tories were humiliated in a general election. They went from a substantial majority to just two seats in the Commons.

In 2000, Italy pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who wounded Pope John Paul in a 1981 assassination attempt. Agca was returned to Turkey to serve a prison sentence for a killing. (He was released in January 2010)

In 2005, entertainer Michael Jackson was found not guilty by a jury of child molestation, conspiracy and other criminal counts.

In 2008, nearly 1,100 inmates, including about 400 Taliban, escaped from a prison in Kandahar during a spectacular prison break. About 30 insurgents using suicide attacks, rocket-propelled grenades and guns broke into the prison.

In 2010, the last “Annie” comic strip was published. Tribune Media Services said it would continue the character though in digital media and entertainment. “Little Orphan Annie” made its newspaper debut in 1924.