This day in history
Today is Thursday, Oct. 19, the 292nd day of 2023. There are 73 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Tony Lo Bianco is 87. Artist Peter Max is 86. Author and critic Renata Adler is 86. Actor John Lithgow is 78. Feminist activist Patricia Ireland is 78. Singer Jeannie C. Riley is 78. Rock singer-musician Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers is 75. Actor Annie Golden is 72. World Party singer-musician Karl Wallinger is 66. Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is 65. Singer Jennifer Holliday is 63. Retired boxer Evander Holyfield is 61. Host Ty Pennington is 59. Rock singer-musician Todd Park Mohr (Big Head Todd and the Monsters) is 58. Actor Jon Favreau is 57. Amy Carter is 56. “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker is 54. Comedian Chris Kattan is 53. The Fugees singer Pras Michel is 51. Actor Rebecca Ferguson is 40. Actor Hunter King is 30.
▶ In 1781, British troops under General Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va., as the American Revolution neared its end.
▶ In 1814, the first documented public performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” took place at the Holliday Street Theater in Baltimore.
▶ In 1924, the largest gathering of the Ku Klux Klan ever in New England took place at the Agricultural Fairgrounds in Worcester. Klansmen in sheets and hoods, new Knights awaiting a mass induction ceremony, and supporters swelled the crowd to 15,000. The KKK had hired more than 400 guards, but when the rally, a riot broke out. Klansmen’s cars were stoned and burned; members were pulled from their cars and beaten.
▶ In 1944, the US Navy began accepting Black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).
▶ In 1950, during the Korean Conflict, United Nations forces entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
▶ In 1953, the Ray Bradbury novel “Fahrenheit 451,” set in a dystopian future where books are banned and burned by the government, was first published by Ballantine Books.
▶ In 1960, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a sit-down protest at a lunch counter in Atlanta. (Sent to prison for a parole violation over a traffic offense, King was released after three days following an appeal by Robert F. Kennedy.)
▶ In 1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
▶ In 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value (its biggest daily percentage loss), to close at 1,738.74 in what came to be known as “Black Monday.”
▶ In 1990, Kevin Costner’s Western epic “Dances with Wolves” had its world premiere in Washington, D.C.
▶ In 2001, US special forces began operations on the ground in Afghanistan, opening a significant phase of the assault against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
▶ In 2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.
▶ In 2010, the Pentagon directed the military to accept openly gay recruits for the first time in the nation’s history.
▶ In 2016, in the third and final 2016 presidential debate, Republican Donald Trump stunned the forum in Las Vegas by refusing to say he would accept the results of the election if he were to lose.
▶ In 2021, a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted unanimously to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after the longtime ally of former president Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony.