TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Oct. 13, the 286th day of 2019. There are 79 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Oct. 13, 1775, the United States Navy had its origins as the Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.

On this date:

In 1792, the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid by President George Washington during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

In 1845, Texas voters ratified a state constitution.

In 1943, Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis partner.

In 1944, during World War II, American troops entered Aachen (AH’-kehn), Germany.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon held the third televised debate of their presidential campaign (Nixon was in Los Angeles, Kennedy in New York).

In 1962, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, by Edward Albee, opened on Broadway.

In 1972, a Uruguayan chartered flight carrying 45 people crashed in the Andes; survivors resorted to feeding off the remains of some of the dead in order to stay alive until they were rescued more than two months later.

In 1974, longtime television host Ed Sullivan died in New York City at age 73.

In 1981, voters in Egypt participated in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak (HAHS’-nee mooBAH’-rahk) the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

In 1999, the Senate rejected the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, with 48 senators voting in favor and 51 against, far short of the 67 needed for ratification.

In 2003, The U.N. Security Council approved a resolution expanding the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

In 2010, rescuers in Chile using a missile-like escape capsule pulled 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed mine a half-mile underground.

Ten years ago: The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to extend the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti for a year. Singer Al Martino, who’d played crooner Johnny Fontane in “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part III,” died in Springfield, Pennsylvania, six days after turning 82.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama huddled with some of his senior national security aides and with top administration health officials for the latest assessment on the government’s response to Ebola in the aftermath of a Dallas nurse’s contracting the disease. Frenchman Jean Tirole (zhahn tee-ROHL’) was announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics for showing how to encourage better products and competitive prices in industries dominated by a few companies.