TODAY IN HISTORY

On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. ("Chuck") Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.

On this date:

In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

In 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas.

In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for the White House as the Progressive ("Bull Moose") candidate, went ahead with a speech in Milwaukee after being shot and wounded in the chest by New York saloonkeeper John Schrank, declaring, "It takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose."

In 1926, "Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A. Milne was first published by Methuen & Co. of London.

In 1939, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the HMS Royal Oak, a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland's Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.

In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

In 1959, actor Errol Flynn died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at age 50.

In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested the idea of a Peace Corps while addressing an audience of students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was toppled from power; he was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

In 1977, singer Bing Crosby died outside Madrid, Spain, at age 74.

In 1987, a 58-hour drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down a narrow abandoned well at a private day care center; she was rescued Oct. 16.

In 1997, novelist Harold Robbins died in Palm Springs, California, at age 81.

Ten years ago: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened an intense round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy. Three University of Texas students exploring Airman's Cave were rescued after getting lost inside a day earlier. The reality TV show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" premiered on E! Entertainment Television.