Today’s highlight in history
On Oct. 24, 1940, the 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
On this date
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 Western Union Telegraph Co.
In 1945, the United Nations officially came into existence as its charter took effect.
In 1962, a naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy went into effect during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1972, Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Conn., at age 53.
In 1989, former television evangelist Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy. (The sentence was later reduced to eight years, and then to four for good behavior.)
In 2002, authorities apprehended Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo near Myersville, Md., 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 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 brother-in-law was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison.)
Ten years ago: Pakistani officials announced that their soldiers had captured Kotkai, the hometown of Pakistan’s Taliban chief.
Five years ago: Jaylen Fryberg, a student at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington state, fatally shot four friends he had invited to lunch and wounded a fifth teen before killing himself.
One year ago: Authorities said they had intercepted pipe bombs packed with shards of glass that had been sent to several prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama; none of the bombs went off, and nobody was hurt.