TODAY IN HISTORY

On Oct. 14, 1066,

Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

In 1644

William Penn, the Quaker leader who founded the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was born in London.

In 1882

Irish politician and patriot Eamon de Valera, who would go on to become Ireland’s prime minister and later president, was born Edward de Valera in New York.

In 1890

Dwight Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas.

In 1893

actress Lillian Gish was born in Springfield, Ohio.

In 1912

former President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for the presidency on the Bull Moose ticket, was shot in the chest by a New York saloonkeeper in Milwaukee; Roosevelt gave his scheduled speech anyway.

In 1944

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

In 1947

Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In 1960

the idea of a Peace Corps was first suggested by Democratic presidential candidate John Kennedy to an audience of students at the University of Michigan.

In 1964

civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1968

the first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.

In 1977

singer-actor Bing Crosby died near Madrid; he was 74.

In 1980

Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan promised that, if elected, he would name a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. (He later nominated Judge Sandra Day O’Connor of Arizona.)

In 1986

Elie Wiesel, the Auschwitz concentration camp survivor who devoted his life to promoting human rights and reminding the world about the Nazis’ atrocities, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1990

composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein died in New York; he was 72.

In 1991

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1994

the Nobel Peace Prize was shared by PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.