TODAY IN HISTORY
On Oct. 18, 1685, King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established legal toleration of France’s Protestant population, the Huguenots.
In 1767 the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon.
In 1867 the United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
In 1892 the first long-distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was formally opened.
In 1898 the American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the United States.
In 1926 rock ’n’ roll performer Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis.
In 1927 actor George C. Scott was born in Wise, Va.
In 1931 inventor Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, N.J.; he was 84.
In 1939 former Bears player and coach Mike Ditka was born in Carnegie, Pa.
In 1944 Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II.
In 1950 Connie Mack, considered to be “the grand old man of Major League Baseball,” announced he was retiring as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.
In 1962 Dr. James Watson of the United States, and Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins of Britain, were named winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
In 1968 the U.S. Olympic Committee suspended Tommie Smith and John Carlos for giving a “black power” salute as a protest during a victory ceremony in Mexico City.
In 1969 the federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they caused cancer in laboratory rats.
In 1982 former first lady Bess Truman died in Independence, Mo.; she was 97.
In 1989, after 18 years in power, Erich Honecker was ousted as leader of East Germany; he was succeeded by Egon Krenz.
In 1993 two defendants were acquitted of most of the felony charges in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny and other motorists at the start of the 1992 Los Angeles riots; the jury convicted Damian Williams of simple mayhem and Henry Watson of simple assault.
In 1997 a monument honoring American servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1999 career prosecutor Robert Ray was sworn in to replace Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and wrap up the wide-ranging investigation of President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Also in
1999 the New York Yankees won a record 36th pennant, beating the Boston Red Sox 6-1 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.
In 2000 singer-actress Julie London died in Los Angeles; she was 74. Also in
2000 Broadway musical star Gwen Verdon died in Woodstock, Vt.; she was 75.
In 2001 CBS News announced that an employee in Dan Rather’s office had tested positive for skin anthrax. Also in 2001 four disciples of Osama bin Laden were sentenced in New York to life without parole for their roles in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
In 2002 the Vatican demanded that America’s Roman Catholic bishops revise their hard-line crackdown policy on sexually abusive priests.
In 2003, in an audiotaped message, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin Laden vowed suicide attacks “inside and outside” the United States and threatened nations that were helping the American occupation of Iraq.
In 2004 an Anglican Communion commission urged the U.S. Episcopal Church not to elect any more gay bishops and called on conservative African bishops to stop meddling in the affairs of other dioceses.
In 2012 U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., said during a televised campaign debate that there’s no medical necessity to use abortion to save a woman’s life. (He lost the race Nov. 6 to Democrat Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran and the first disabled woman elected to the House.)
In 2013 Saurdi Arabia refused to accept a position on the U.N. Security Council.
Also in 2013 former House Speak Tom Foley died in Washington, D.C.; he was 84. Also in 2013 former NFL coach Bum Phillips who coached the Houston Oilers during its heyday of Luy Ya Blue died in Goliad, Texas; he was 90.