Today in history

On Oct. 25, 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 1929, former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted in Washington, D.C. of accepting a

$100,000 bribe from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny. (Fall was sentenced to a year in prison and fined

$100,000; he ended up serving nine months.) In 1945, Taiwan became independent of Japanese colonial rule.

In 1954, a meeting of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Cabinet was carried live on radio and television; to date, it’s the only presidential Cabinet meeting to be broadcast.

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, during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson II demanded that Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin confirm or deny the existence of Soviet-built missile bases in Cuba; Stevenson then presented photographic evidence of the bases to the Council.

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

Ten years ago: The Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies 2-1 at Fenway to take a 2-0 World Series lead.

One year ago: The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago Cubs 6-0 in the World Series opener.

“Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.”