TODAY IN HISTORY

In 1920, controversial American sportscaster and author Howard Cosell was born.

In 1957, the European Common Market was set up by the Treaty of Rome.

In 1958, the first test flight of the Canadian Avro Arrow fighter plane was carried out. But the Arrow program was cancelled by the federal government nearly a year later.

In 1961, the Soviet Union launched “Sputnik 10” with a dog aboard.

In 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to American blacks.

In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. The killer was beheaded in June.

In 1982, North America’s first test-tube twins, Colin and Gregory Rankin, were born in Oakville, Ont.

In 1982, Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky notched two goals and two assists against Calgary to become the first NHL player to accumulate 200 points in a season.