This Day in History
1260: France's Chartres Cathedral is consecrated.
1861: Pony Express service ends with the completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line.
1918: In the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in Italy (October 24-November 4), an engagement of World War I, the Allies completely shatter the Austrian army.
1929: On "Black Thursday," stock market prices collapse because of panic selling.
1940: The 40-hour workweek goes into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
1947: Muslim insurgents proclaim a "Provisional Government of Kashmir." Fighting quickly breaks out with India.
1949: The permanent United Nations headquarters is dedicated in New York.
2002: Police arrest former soldier John Allen Williams, 41, and John Cole Malvo, a Jamaican youth, in connection with a string of sniper killings in and around Washington D.C. which killed 10, wounded 3, and terrorized the region between Oct. 3 and Oct. 22.
Today's Birthdays
1632: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, microscope maker and researcher (Delft, Holland; died 1723)
1891: Rafael Molina-Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic; died 1961)
1904: Moss Hart, playwright (New York, NY; died 1961)
1923: Denise Levertov, poet (Essex, England; died 1997)
1926: Y. A. Tittle, football quarterback (Marshall, TX)
1932: Robert Mundell, economist, Nobel Prize winner (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
1936: David Nelson, actor (New York, NY)
1936: Bill Wyman, musician (London, England)
1939: F. Murray Abraham, actor (Pittsburgh, PA)
1947: Kevin Kline, actor (St. Louis, MO)
1948: Kweisi Mfume, NAACP leader and former congressman (Baltimore, MD)
1962: B.D. Wong, actor (San Francisco, CA)
1980: Monica (Arnold), singer (College Park, GA)
