On this date

In 1792, the first recorded U.S. celebration of Columbus Day was held to mark the tricentennial of Christopher Columbus’ landing.

In 1971, the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.

In 1997, singer-songwriter John Denver was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, Calif.; he was 53.

In 2000, 17 sailors were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen.

In 2001, NBC announced that an assistant to anchorman Tom Brokaw had contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a “threatening” letter to her boss containing powder.

In 2002, bombs blamed on alQaida-linked militants destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

Ten years ago: In Paris, nations in Europe’s single-currency zone agreed to temporarily guarantee bank refinancing and pledged to prevent bank failures amid the expanding global financial crisis.

Five years ago: Belgian authorities nabbed alleged pirate kingpin Mohamed Abdi Hassan on his arrival in Brussels (he’d been lured from Somalia with promises of work on a documentary about piracy).

One year ago: The Trump administration said it would “immediately” halt payments to insurers under the Obama-era health care law.