TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, Oct. 18, the 291st day of 2017. There are 74 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Oct. 18, 1767, the Mason-Dixon line, the boundary between colonial Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware, was set as astronomers Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed their survey.
On this date
1685 — King Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes that had established legal toleration of France’s Protestant population, the Huguenots. 1867 — The United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. 1892 — The first long-distance telephone line between New York and Chicago was officially opened (it could only handle one call at a time). 1944 — Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II. 1954 — Texas Instruments unveiled the Regency TR-1, the first commercially produced transistor radio. 1967 — The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine (with a cover date of Nov. 9) was published. 1969 — The federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats. 1977 — West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers. 1997 — A monument honoring American servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery. 2007 — Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan, ending eight years of self-imposed exile; a suicide bombing in a crowd welcoming her killed more than 140 people, but Bhutto escaped unhurt. (However, she was slain in December 2007.)
Five years ago
In a case that would reach the U.S. Supreme Court, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that a federal law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman was unconstitutional and said the gay population had “suffered a history of discrimination.”
Today’s Birthdays
Actress Dawn Wells is 79. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka is 78. Actress Pam Dawber is 67. Writer-producer Chuck Lorre is 65. Director-screenwriter David Twohy is 62. International Tennis Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova is 61. Actor JeanClaude Van Damme is 57. Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is 56. Actor Vincent Spano is 55. Singer Nonchalant is 44. Country singer Josh Gracin is 37. Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn is 33. Actressmodel Freida Pinto is 33. Actor Zac Efron is 30. Actress Joy Lauren is 28. TV personality Bristol Palin is 27. Actor Tyler Posey is 26. Actor Toby Regbo is 26.
*This birthday is printed late because of a staff error.