HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Tuesday, October 24, the 297th day of 2017. There are 68 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1954 – Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support
to South Vietnam. 1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the Republic of Zambia (Southern Rhodesia remained a colony until the next year, with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence). 1973 – The Yom Kippur War ends. 1980 – The government of Poland legalizes the Solidarity
trade union. 1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow. After the verdict, the United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, claiming that Hindawi is helped by Syrian officials. 1990 – Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian “stay-behind” clandestine paramilitary NATO army, which was implicated in false flag terrorist attacks implicating communists and anarchists as part of the strategy of tension from the late 1960s to early 1980s. 1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series. 1998 – Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission. 2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C. 2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight. 2004 – Arsenal Football Club loses to Manchester United, ending a row of unbeaten matches at 49 matches, which is the record in the Premier League. 2005 – Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in Florida resulting in 35 direct 26 indirect fatalities and causing $20.6B USD in damage. 2007 – Chang’e 1, the first satellite in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, is launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. 2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices. 2014 – The China National Space Administration launches an experimental lunar mission, Chang’e 5-T1, which will loop behind the Moon and return to Earth.