306 – Mark Aurelius Valerius Maxentius proclaimed emperor of Rome
969 – Byzantine troops occupy Antioch (in modern Syria)
1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba and claims it for Spain
1636 – Harvard University founded
1746 – Peruvian cities of Lima and Callao demolished by earthquake, 18,000 die
1776 – Battle of White Plains; Washington retreats to New Jersey
1790 – New York gives up claims to Vermont for $30,000
1858 – R. H. Macy & Co opens store at 6th Avenue and 14th Street.
On the company’s first day of business on October 28, 1858 sales totaled $11.08, equal to $301.47 today. From the very beginning, Macy’s logo has included a star in one form or another, which comes from a tattoo that Macy got as a teenager when he worked on a Nantucket whaling ship.
1886 – Statue of Liberty dedicated by US President Grover Cleveland, celebrated by first confetti (ticker tape) parade in New York City
1904 – St. Louis police try a new investigation method – fingerprints
1919 – Volstead Act passed by US Congress, establishing prohibition, despite President Wilson’s veto
1924 – M. de Bruin, a quarryman and miner, discovers an infant fossil skull in a lime quarry in Taung, South Africa. Popularly known as the Taung child, Paleoanthropologist Raymond Dart identifies the fossil as a new hominid species called Australopithecus africanus
1936 – FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
1962 – Radio Moscow reports nuclear missiles in Cuba deactivated
1965 – Pope Paul VI proclaims Jews not collectively guilty for crucifixion
1971 – John and Yoko record “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” in NYC
2006 – Funeral service for the peace of the executed at Bykivnia forest, outside of Kiev, Ukraine, with reburial of 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s – early 1940s.
2012 – Sebastian Vettel wins the 2012 Formula One Indian Grand Prix
Birthdays
1017 – Henry III, Roman Catholic German emperor (1046-56)
1466 – Desiderius Erasmus, Holland, humanist and theologian (The Praise of Folly)
1837 – Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Japan’s last shogun (d. 1913)
1903 – Evelyn A. Waugh, London, author (Brideshead Revisited, Scoop)
1909 – Francis Bacon, Ireland, painter
1930 – Bernie Ecclestone, English motorsports impresario (F1)
1955 – Bill Gates [William Henry], founder/CEO Microsoft
1956 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Aradan, Iran, President of Iran
Deaths
312 – Maxentius, Roman emperor (306-312), drowns at the Battle of Milvian Bridge at 34
900 – Alfred the Great, English monarch, dies
1568 – Ashikaga Yoshihide, Japanese shogun (b. 1539)
1818 – Abigail Adams, 2nd first lady (1797-1801), dies of typhoid fever at 73
1987 – Woody Herman, US jazz clarinetist/composer, dies at 74
1996 – Morey Amsterdam, comedian (Dick Van Dyke Show), dies at 87