ON THIS DATE
In 1492 (according to the Old Style calendar),
Christopher Columbus’ expedition arrived in the present-day Bahamas.
In 1792, the first recorded U.S. celebration of Columbus Day was held to mark the tricentennial of Christopher Columbus’ landing.
In 1870, General Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63.
In 1942, during World War
II, American naval forces defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance. Attorney General Francis Biddle announced during a Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.
In 1971, the rock opera“Jesus Christ Superstar” opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.
In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.
In 1986, the superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.
In 1997, singer John Denver was killed in the crash of
his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, California; he was 53.
In 2001, NBC announced that an assistant to anchorman Tom Brokaw had contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a“threatening” letter to her boss containing powder.
FIVE YEARS AGO: Cyclone Phailin struck the east coast of India, destroying hundreds of thousands of homes and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in crop damage; some four dozen people are believed to have died. Belgian authorities nabbed alleged pirate kingpin Mohamed Abdi Hassan on his arrival in Brussels (he’d been lured from Somalia with promises of work on a documentary about piracy). Anibal Sanchez and four Detroit Tigers relievers came within two outs of the first combined nohitter in postseason history, striking out 17 to beat the Boston Red Sox 1-0 in the AL championship series opener. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 for a 2-0 lead in the NL championship series.
ONE YEAR AGO: The Trump administration said it would “immediately” halt payments to insurers under the Obamaera health care law. President Donald Trump lashed out at hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico, saying the federal government can’t keep sending help“forever” and suggesting that the U.S. territory was to blame for its financial struggles.