TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, Oct. 24, the 297th day of 2018.
TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT
On Oct. 24, 1972, Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 53.
ON THIS DATE
In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia (west-FAY’-leeuh) ended the Thirty Years War and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.
In 1931, the George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, was dedicated (it opened to traffic the next day).
In 1939, nylon stockings were sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Delaware.
In 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
In 1945, the United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect.
In 1952, Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared in Detroit,“I shall go to Korea” as he promised to end the conflict. (He made the visit over a month later.)
In 1962, a naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy went into effect during the missile crisis.
In 1980, the merchant freighter SS Poet departed Philadelphia, bound for Port Said (sah-EED’), Egypt, with a crew of 34 and a cargo of grain; it disappeared en route and has not been heard from since.
In 1989, former television evangelist Jim Bakker (BAY’kur) was sentenced by a judge in Charlotte, N.C., to 45 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. (The sentence was later reduced to eight years; it was further reduced to four for good behavior.)
In 2002, authorities apprehended Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo near Myersville, Maryland, in the Washington-area sniper attacks. (Malvo was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole; Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.)
In 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92.
Ten years ago: Singer-actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother were found slain in their Chicago home; the body of her 7-year-old nephew was found three days later. (Hudson’s estranged brotherin-law was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.) Five years ago: President Barack Obama made a plea for Republican cooperation on immigration, telling a White House event,“Rather than create problems, let’s prove to the American people that Washington can actually solve some problems.”
One year ago: Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018; he’d been critical of the path the GOP had taken under President Donald Trump.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” — Bertrand Russell, English philosopher (1872-1970).
— ASSOCIATED PRESS