Today in history

On Oct. 19, 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value (its biggest daily percentage loss), to close at 1,738.74 in what came to be known as “Black Monday.”

In 1216, John, King of England, died, more than a year after affixing his royal seal to Magna Carta (“The Great Charter”).

In 1781, British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, as the American Revolution neared its end.

In 1789, John Jay was sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.

In 1864, Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s soldiers attacked Union forces at Cedar Creek, Virginia; the Union troops were able to rally and defeat the Confederates.

In 1914, the U.S. Post Office began delivering mail with government-owned cars, as opposed to using contracted vehicles. The First Battle of Ypres (EE’pruh) began during World War I.

In 1936, H.R. Ekins of the New York World-Telegram beat out Dorothy Kilgallen of the New York Journal and Leo Kieran of The New York Times in a round-the-world race on commercial flights that lasted 18 1/2 days.

In 1944, the U.S. Navy began accepting black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). The play “I Remember Mama” by John Van Druten opened at the Music Box Theater on Broadway.

In 1953, the Ray Bradbury novel “Fahrenheit 451,” set in a dystopian future where books are banned and burned by the government, was first published by Ballantine Books.

In 1967, the U.S. space probe Mariner 5 flew past Venus.

In 1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City. The body of West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer (SHLY’ur), who had been kidnapped by left-wing extremists, was found in Mulhouse, France.

In 1982, automaker John Z. DeLorean was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, accused of conspiring to sell $24 million of cocaine to salvage his business. (DeLorean was acquitted at trial on grounds of entrapment.)

In 1994, 22 people were killed as a terrorist bomb shattered a bus in the heart of Tel Aviv’s shopping district. Entertainer Martha Raye died in Los Angeles at age 78.

Ten years ago: A three-year global manhunt for a Canadian schoolteacher suspected of sexually abusing Asian boys ended when police in northeastern Thailand arrested Christopher Paul Neil.

“It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.” — Fannie Hurst, American author (both this date in 1885, died 1968).