TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS THURSDAY, OCT. 24, the 297th day of 2019. There are 68 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
In 1861, the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.
In 1931, the George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, was officially dedicated (it opened to traffic the next day).
In 1962, a naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy went into effect during the missile crisis.
In 1972, Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 53.
In 1989, former television evangelist Jim Bakker was sentenced by a judge in Charlotte, North Carolina, to 45 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. (The sentence was later reduced to eight years; it was further reduced to four for good behavior.)
In 1991, “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry died in Santa Monica, California, at age 70.
In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series as they defeated the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, in Game 6.
In 1997, in Arlington, Virginia, former NBC sportscaster Marv Albert was spared a jail sentence after a grudging courtroom apology to the woman he’d bitten during a sexual romp.
In 2002, authorities apprehended Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo near Myersville, Maryland, in the Washington-area sniper attacks. (Malvo was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole; Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.)
In 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92.
In 2008, singer-actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother were found slain in their Chicago home; the body of her 7-year-old nephew was found three days later. (Hudson’s estranged brotherin-law was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Rock musician Bill Wyman is 83. Actor F. Murray Abraham is 80. Movie directorscreenwriter David S. Ward is 74. Actor Kevin Kline is 72. Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is 71. Country musician Billy Thomas (Terry McBride and the Ride) is 66. Actor Doug Davidson is 65. Actor B.D. Wong is 59. Actor Zahn McClarnon is 53. Singer Michael Trent (Americana duo Shovels & Rope) is 42. Rock musician Ben Gillies (Silverchair) is 40. Singer-actress Monica Arnold and actress-comedian Casey Wilson are 39. R&B singer and actress Adrienne Bailon Houghton (3lw) is 36. Actor Tim Pocock is 34. R&B singer-rapper-actor Drake is 33. Actresses Shenae Grimes and Eliza Taylor are 30. Actor Ashton Sanders (Film: “Moonlight”) is 24. Olympic gold medal gymnast Kyla Ross is 23. Actor Hudson Yang is 16.