Today In History
Today is Monday, Oct. 19, the 293rd day of 2020. There are 73 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1781: British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, as the American Revolution neared its end.
ON THIS DATE
› 1765: The Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, adopted a declaration of rights and liberties, which the British Parliament ignored.
› 1812: French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
› 1944: The U.S. Navy began accepting Black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).
› 1960: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a sit-down protest at a lunch counter in Atlanta. (Sent to prison for a parole violation over a traffic offense, King was released after three days following an appeal by Robert F. Kennedy.)
› 1977: The supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
› 1987: The stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6% in value (its biggest daily percentage loss), to close at 1,738.74 in what came to be known as “Black Monday.”
› 1994: Twenty-two people were killed as a terrorist bomb shattered a bus in the heart of Tel Aviv’s shopping district.
› 2001: U.S. special forces began operations on the ground in Afghanistan, opening a significant new phase of the assault against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
› 2002: In York, Pennsylvania, former mayor Charlie Robertson was acquitted and two other men were convicted in the shotgun slaying of Lillie Belle Allen, a young Black woman, during race riots that tore the city apart in 1969.
› 2003: Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.
› 2005: A defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture as his trial opened under heavy security in the former headquarters of his Baath Party in Baghdad.
› 2014: Peyton Manning broke Brett Favre’s NFL record of 508 career touchdown passes as he threw four TD passes in Denver’s 42-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. ( The record would later be broken by Drew Brees and Tom Brady.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Author John le Carre is 89. Actor Tony Lo Bianco is 84. Artist Peter Max is 83. Author and critic Renata Adler is 83. Actor Michael Gambon is 80. Actor John Lithgow is 75. Feminist activist Patricia Ireland is 75. Singer Jeannie C. Riley is 75. Rock singer-musician Patrick Simmons (The Doobie Brothers) is 72. Actor Annie Golden is 69. Talk show host Charlie Chase is 68. Rock singer-musician Karl Wallinger (World Party) is 63. Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is 62. Singer Jennifer Holliday is 60. Retired boxer Evander Holyfield is 58. Host Ty Pennington (TV: “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”) is 56. Rock singer-musician Todd Park Mohr (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 55. Actor Jon Favreau is 54. Amy Carter is 53. “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker is 51. Comedian Chris Kattan is 50. Rock singer Pras Michel (The Fugees) is 48. Actor Omar Gooding is 44. Country singer Cyndi Thomson is 44. Writer-director Jason Reitman is 43. Actor Benjamin Salisbury is 40. Actor Gillian Jacobs is 38. Actor Rebecca Ferguson is 37. Singer-actor Ciara Renee (TV: “Legends of Tomorrow”) is 30. Actor Hunter King is 27.