TODAY INHISTORY

Today is Sunday, Oct. 25, the 299th day of 2020. There are 67 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 25, 1910, “America the Beautiful,” with words by Katharine Lee Bates and music by Samuel A. Ward, was first published. On this date: In 1760, Britain’s King George III succeeded his late grandfather, George II.

In 1854, the “Charge of the Light Brigade” took place during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600 men charged the Russian army, suffering heavy losses.

In 1881, artist Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain.

In 1957, mob boss Albert Anastasia of “Murder Inc.” notoriety was shot to death by masked gunmen in a barber shop inside the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York.

In 1962, American author John Steinbeck was named winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.

In 1971, the U.N. General Assembly voted to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan.

In 1983, a U.S.-led force invaded Grenada (greh-NAY’duh) at the order of President Ronald Reagan, who said the action was needed to protect U.S. citizens there.

In 1986, in Game 6 of the World Series, the New York Mets rallied for three runs with two outs in the 10th inning, defeating the Boston Red Sox 6-5 and forcing a seventh game; the tie-breaking run scored on Boston first baseman Bill Buckner’s error on Mookie Wilson’s slow grounder. (The Mets went on to win the Series.)

In 1994, Susan Smith of Union, South Carolina, claimed that a Black carjacker had driven off with her two young sons (Smith later confessed to drowning the children in John D. Long Lake, and was convicted of murder). Three defendants were convicted in South Africa of murdering American exchange student Amy Biehl. (In 1998, all three were granted amnesty by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.)

In 1999, golfer Payne Stewart and five others were killed when their Learjet flew uncontrolled for four hours before crashing in South Dakota; Stewart was 42.

In 2002, U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., was killed in a plane crash in northern Minnesota along with his wife, daughter and five others, a week and ahalf before the election. Actor Richard Harris died in London at age 72.