On this date
In 1892, the Dalton Gang, notorious for its train robberies, was practically wiped out while attempting to rob a pair of banks in Coffeyville, Kan.
In 1931, Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon completed the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean, arriving in Washington state some 41 hours after leaving Japan.
In 1953, Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson.
In 1969, the British TV comedy program “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” made its debut on BBC 1.
In 1984, the space shuttle Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on an eight-day mission; the crew included Kathryn D. Sullivan, who became the first American woman to walk in space, and Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut.
In 1990, a jury in Cincinnati acquitted an art gallery and its director of obscenity charges stemming from an exhibit of sexually graphic photographs by the late Robert Mapplethorpe. In 2011, Apple founder Steve Jobs, 56, died in Palo Alto, Calif. Ten years ago:
Track star Marion Jones pleaded guilty in White Plains, N.Y., to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performanceenhancing drugs, and announced her retirement after the hearing. Five years ago:
A month before the presidential election, the Labor Department reported that unemployment fell in September 2012 to its lowest level, 7.8%, since President Barack Obama took office; some Republicans questioned whether the numbers had been manipulated.
One year ago: Portugal’s former prime minister, Antonio Guterres, won the Security Council’s unanimous backing to become the next U.N. secretarygeneral, succeeding Ban Ki-moon.