TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SUNDAY, OCT. 27, the 300th day of 2019. There are 65 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE IN 1787, the first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, was published.

In 1858, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was born in New York City.

In 1904, the first rapid transit subway, the IRT, was inaugurated in New York City.

In 1914, author-poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales.

In 1947, “You Bet Your Life,” a comedy quiz show starring Groucho Marx, premiered on ABC Radio. (It later became a television show on NBC.)

In 1954, U.S. Air Force Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was promoted to brigadier general, the first black officer to achieve that rank in the USAF. Walt Disney’s first television program, titled “Disneyland” after the yet-to-be completed theme park, premiered on ABC.

In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down while flying over Cuba, killing the pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. Rudolf Anderson Jr.

In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord.

In 1995, a sniper killed one soldier and wounded 18 others at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. (Paratrooper William J. Kreutzer was convicted in the shootings and condemned to death; the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.)

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch cut through the western Caribbean, pummeling coastal Honduras and Belize; the storm caused several thousand deaths in Central America in the days that followed.

In 2002, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in a runoff, becoming the country’s first elected leftist leader.

In 2004, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4, 3-0.

In 2013, Lou Reed, 71, who radically challenged rock’s founding promise of good times and public celebration as a leader of the Velvet Underground, was a solo artist and was a founder of indie rock, died in Southampton, New York.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor-comedian John Cleese is 80. Author Maxine Hong Kingston is 79. Country singer Lee Greenwood is 77. Producer-director Ivan Reitman is 73. Country singer-musician Jack Daniels and rock musician Garry Tallent (Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band) are 70. Author Fran Lebowitz is 69. Rock musician K.K. Downing is 68. Actor-director Roberto Benigni is 67. Actors Peter Firth and Robert Picardo are 66. World Golf Hall-of-Famer Patty Sheehan is 63. Singer Simon Le Bon is 61. Country musician Jerry Dale McFadden (The Mavericks) is 55. Internet news editor Matt Drudge is 53. Actor Sean Holland is 51. Actor Channon Roe is 50. Actress Sheeri Rappaport is 42. Actor David Walton and violinist Vanessa-Mae are

41. Actress-singer Kelly Osbourne is

35. Actress Christine Evangelista is

33. Actor Bryan Craig is 28. Actor Troy Gentile is 26.