Today in history
Today is Sunday, Oct. 14, the 287th day of 2018. There are 78 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 14, 1960, the idea of a Peace Corps was suggested by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to an audience of students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. On this date: In 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I. (Mary was beheaded in February 1587.)
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for the presidency, was shot in the chest in Milwaukee. Despite the wound, he went ahead with a scheduled speech.
In 1926, “Winnie-thePooh” by A.A. Milne was first published by Methuen & Co. of London.
In 1933, Nazi Germany announced it was withdrawing from the League of Nations.
In 1939, a German Uboat torpedoed and sank the HMS Royal Oak, a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.
In 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. (“Chuck”) Yeager (YAY’-gur) became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.
In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1968, the first successful live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.
In 1977, singer Bing Crosby died outside Madrid, Spain, at age 74.
In 1987, a 58-hour drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down a narrow abandoned well at a private day care center; she was rescued on Oct. 16.
In 2001, as U.S. jets opened a second week of raids in Afghanistan, President George W. Bush sternly rejected a Taliban offer to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a third country.
In 2007, the reality TV show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” premiered on E! Entertainment Television.
Ten years ago: Big banks started falling in line behind a revised bailout plan that was fast becoming more of a buy-in; the Bush administration announced it would fork over as much as $250 billion in exchange for partial ownership. A grand jury in Orlando, Fla. returned charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter against Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-yearold daughter, Caylee. (She was acquitted in July 2011.) Syria formally recognized Lebanon for the first time by establishing diplomatic relations with its neighbor. Canada’s Conservative Party won in national elections but fell short of a parliamentary majority.
Five years ago: Americans Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale University were named recipients of the Nobel prize in economics. The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first game of the NL championship series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in Game 3.
One year ago: A truck bombing in Somalia’s capital killed more than 500 people in one of the world’s deadliest attacks in years; officials blamed the attack on the extremist group al-Shabab and said it was meant to target Mogadishu’s international airport, but the bomb detonated in a crowded street after soldiers opened fire.