TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, Oct. 24, the 297th day of 2018. There are 68 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
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 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 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 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, Egypt, with a crew of 34 and a cargo of grain; it disappeared en route and has not been heard from since.
■ 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.)
Ten years ago: Singeractress Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother were found slain in their Chicago home; the body of her 7-yearold nephew was found three days later. (Hudson’s estranged brother-in-law was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.)
A Russian Soyuz capsule touched down in Kazakhstan after delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space, a Russian and an American, to the international space station.
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.
Today’s Birthdays: Rock musician Bill Wyman is 82. Actor F. Murray Abraham is
79. Movie director-screenwriter David S. Ward is 73. Actor Kevin Kline is 71. Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is 70. Actor Doug Davidson is 64. Actor B.D. Wong is 58. Actor Zahn McClarnon is 52. Singer Michael Trent (Americana duo Shovels & Rope) is 41. Rock musician Ben Gillies (Silverchair) is 39. Singer-actress Monica Arnold is 38. Actress-comedian Casey Wilson is 38. Rhythm-andblues singer Adrienne Bailon (3lw) is 35. Actor Tim Pocock is 33. R&B singer-rapper-actor Drake is 32. Actress Shenae Grimes is 29. Actress Eliza Taylor is 29. Actor Ashton Sanders (Film: “Moonlight”) is
23. Olympic gold medal gymnast Kyla Ross is 22. Actor Hudson Yang is 15.
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).