Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
Oct 14, 1947: Yeager breaks sound barrier
U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground. After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.
For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart. All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California. The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude). The rocket plane, nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis," was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet.
Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager's achievement was not announced until June 1948. Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general.
Oct 14, 1964: King wins Nobel Peace Prize
African American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to racial prejudice in America. At 35 years of age, the Georgia-born minister was the youngest person ever to receive the award.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta in 1929, the son of a Baptist minister. He received a doctorate degree in theology and in 1955 organized the first major protest of the civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated nonviolent civil disobedience to racial segregation. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence, but King and his followers persisted, and their nonviolent movement gained momentum.
A powerful orator, he appealed to Christian and American ideals and won growing support from the federal government and northern whites. In 1963, he led his massive March on Washington, in which he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" address. In 1964, the civil rights movement achieved two of its greatest successes: the ratification of the 24th Amendment, which abolished the poll tax, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public facilities. In October of that year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He donated the prize money, valued at $54,600, to the civil rights movement.
In the late 1960s, King openly criticized U.S. involvement in Vietnam and turned his efforts to winning economic rights for poor Americans. By that time, the civil rights movement had begun to fracture, with activists such as Stokely Carmichael rejecting King's vision of nonviolent integration in favor of African American self-reliance and self-defense. In 1968, King intended to revive his movement through an interracial "Poor People's March" on Washington, but on April 4 he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, by escaped white convict James Earl Ray, just a few weeks before the demonstration was scheduled to begin.
Oct 14, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis begins
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins on October 14, 1962, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba—capable of carrying nuclear warheads—were now stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.
Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba had been steadily increasing since the failed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Though the invasion did not succeed, Castro was convinced that the United States would try again, and set out to get more military assistance from the Soviet Union. During the next year, the number of Soviet advisors in Cuba rose to more than 20,000. Rumors began that Russia was also moving missiles and strategic bombers onto the island. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev may have decided to so dramatically up the stakes in the Cold War for several reasons. He may have believed that the United States was indeed going to invade Cuba and provided the weapons as a deterrent. Facing criticism at home from more hard-line members of the Soviet communist hierarchy, he may have thought a tough stand might win him support. Khrushchev also had always resented that U.S. nuclear missiles were stationed near the Soviet Union (in Turkey, for example), and putting missiles in Cuba might have been his way of redressing the imbalance. Two days after the pictures were taken, after being developed and analyzed by intelligence officers, they were presented to President Kennedy. During the next two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union would come as close to nuclear war as they ever had, and a fearful world awaited the outcome.
Oct 14, 1918: Adolf Hitler wounded in British gas attack
Among the German wounded in the Ypres Salient in Belgium on October 14, 1918, is Corporal Adolf Hitler, temporarily blinded by a British gas shell and evacuated to a German military hospital at Pasewalk, in Pomerania.
The young Hitler was drafted for Austrian military service but turned down due to lack of fitness; while living in Munich at the start of the First World War in the summer of 1914, he asked for and received special permission to enlist as a German soldier. As a member of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, Hitler traveled to France in October 1914. He saw heavy action during the First Battle of Ypres, earning the Iron Cross that December for dragging a wounded comrade to safety.
Over the course of the next two years, Hitler took part in some of the fiercest struggles of the war, including the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the Second Battle of Ypres and the Battle of the Somme. On October 7, 1916, near Bapaume, France, Hitler was wounded in the leg by a shell blast. Sent to convalesce near Berlin, he returned to his old unit by February 1917. According to a comrade, Hans Mend, Hitler was given to discourse on the dismal state of morale and dedication to the cause on the home front in Germany: "He sat in the corner of our mess holding his head between his hands in deep contemplation. Suddenly he would leap up, and running about excitedly, say that in spite of our big guns victory would be denied us, for the invisible foes of the German people were a greater danger than the biggest cannon of the enemy."
Hitler earned more citations for bravery in the next year, including an Iron Cross 1st Class for "personal bravery and general merit" in August 1918 for single-handedly capturing a group of French soldiers hiding in a shell hole during the final German offensive on the Western Front. The injury in October, however, put an end to Hitler’s service in World War I. He learned of the German surrender while recovering at Pasewalk. Infuriated and frustrated by the news—"I staggered and stumbled back to my ward and buried my aching head between the blankets and pillow"—Hitler felt he and his fellow soldiers had been betrayed by the German people. In 1941, Hitler as fuhrer would reveal the degree to which his career and its terrible legacy had been shaped by the First World War, writing that "I brought back home with me my experiences at the front; out of them I built my National Socialist community."
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
530 - Discorus ends his reign as Catholic anti-Pope
1066 - Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror and Nornan-French army defeat English forces of Harold II
1322 - Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence
1468 - Treaty of Peronne: Duke Charles the Stoute & French king Louis XI
1492 - Columbus leaves San Salvador; arrives in Santa Maria of Concepcion (Bahamas)
1529 - Sultan Suleiman II ceases Vienna
1586 - Mary Queen of Scots goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth
1700 - Rabbi Judah Hasid & Chayim Molocho arrive in Jerusalem
1745 - French help convoy reaches Montrose Scotland
1758 - Battle at Hochkirk, Saksen: Austrian army beats Prussia
1773 - The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (Polish for Commission of National Education), is formed in Poland.
1773 - American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom's East India Company tea ships' cargo are burned at Annapolis, Maryland.
1774 - 1st Continental Congress makes Declaration of Colonial Rights in Philadelphia
1805 - Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria
1806 - Battle of Auerstadt-French beat Prussians
1812 - Work on London's Regent's Canal starts.
1834 - 1st black to obtain a US patent, Henry Blair, for a corn planter
1834 - In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
1840 - Maronite leader Bashir II surrenders to the British forces and goes into exile in Malta.
Explorer of the New World Christopher ColumbusExplorer of the New World Christopher Columbus 1843 - British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy
1862 - Baseballer James Creighton ruptures bladder hitting HR, dies 10/18
1862 - Excelsiors defeat Unions of Morrisania 13-9
1863 - Battle at Bristoe Station Virginia (about 2000 casualties)
1863 - Skirmish at Catlett's Station, Virginia (Bristoe Campaign)
1865 - Cheyennes & Arapaho's sign "peaces treaty" then chased out Colorado
1867 - 15th & last Tokugawa Shogun resigns in Japan
1882 - University of the Punjab is founded in present day Pakistan.
1884 - George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
1893 - George Edwardes "Gaiety Girl" premieres in London
1893 - Harry Wright suggests umps keep ball-strike count a secret
1899 - Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill departs to South Africa
1901 - Justin Huntly McCarthy's "If I were King," premieres in NYC
1905 - NY Giants beats Phila A's, 4 games to 1 in 2nd World Series
1905 - Giant's Christy Mathewson's 3rd straight World Series shutout
Soldier, author, journalist, politician Winston ChurchillSoldier, author, journalist, politician Winston Churchill 1906 - All Chicago World Series, 1st AL victory, White Sox win 4 games to 2 Cubs losers share of $439.50 is lowest for World Series
1908 - Baseball Writers Association of America, forms
1908 - Cubs beat Tigers 4 games to 1 in 5th World Series, 1st rematch
1908 - Smallest crowd at World Series, 6,210 fans see Cubs beat Tigers
1909 - Pirates beat Tigers, 5-4, forces 1st full 7 game world series
1911 - Largest baseball crowd ever 38,281 (Polo Grounds) see Giants beat A's, 2-1 (gate is record $77,379)
1912 - Bull Moose Teddy Roosevelt shot while campaigning in Milwaukee
1913 - Explosion in coal mine at Cardiff kills 439
1913 - Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, the United Kingdom's worst coal mining accident, which claimed 439 lives.
1914 - German troops occupy Brug
1916 - Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee University refused to play against a black person.
1916 - The Perm State University was founded in Russia.
1920 - Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland
1922 - 1st Thom McAn shoe store opens, on Third Avenue NYC
1922 - 1st automated telephones-Pennsylvania exchange in NYC
1924 - Arnold Schoebergs opera "Die Gluckliche Hand," premieres in Vienna
1925 - Anti-French uprising in Damascus (French inhabitants flee)
1926 - Alan Alexander Milne's book "Winnie-the-Pooh" released
1926 - Walter Johnson retires, signs 2-year contract to manage Newark
1929 - Phila A's beat Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 1 in 26th World Series
1929 - Philadelphia A's set World Series record of 10 runs in an inning
1930 - Ethel Mermans debuts on Broadway in "Girl Crazy"
1930 - George Gershwin/Walter Donaldsons musical premieres in NYC
1931 - 1st broadcast of Dutch Radio Peoples University
1931 - Spanish Cortes agrees to separation of Church & State
1933 - Nazi Germany announces withdrawal from League of Nations
1934 - "Lux Radio Theatre" premieres
1938 - Nazis plan Jewish ghettos for all major cities
1939 - BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) formed
1939 - German U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak, 833 killed
1939 - Sugar rationed in Netherlands
1940 - Balham tube disaster during the Blitz.
1941 - 1st mass deportation of Kowno, Lodz, Minsk & Riga
1942 - Dobbe resistances group overthrows Bonkarten distribution
1942 - German assault on Tractor factory, 1000s killed
1942 - Japanese battleship strikes Henderson Field, Guadalcanal
1943 - 400 Jews escape in uprising at Sobibor extermination Camp in Poland
1943 - Japan declares Philippine Independence (premier/pres Jose Laurel)
1943 - Outbreak attempt in Sobibor Concentration Camp
1943 - US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17 during assault on Schweinfurt
1944 - Allied troops land in Corfu
1944 - British troops march into Athens
1945 - Chicago Cardinals end a record 29-game losing streak, beat Bears
1946 - Netherland & Indonesia sign cease fire
1947 - Chuck Yeager in Bell XS-1 makes 1st supersonic flight (Mach 1.015)
1947 - Dutch Queen Wilhelmina gives golden award to general Eisenhower
1948 - Batavia lt-governor-general Of Mook dismissed
1948 - Large scale fighting between Israel & Egypt
1949 - 14 US Communist Party leaders convicted of sedition
1949 - Chinese Red army occupies Canton
1949 - Ezzard Charles TKOs Pat Valentino in 8 for heavyweight boxing title
1950 - Rev Sun Young Moon liberated from Hung Nam prison
1951 - Det Lion Jack Christiansen returns 2 punts for touchdowns vs LA Rams
1951 - Organization of Central American States forms
1952 - "Buttrio Square" opens at New Century Theater NYC for 7 performances
1953 - 1st 3 Dutch female police officers go into service
1953 - Belgian Convair crashes at Frankfurt, 44 die
1953 - Charley Dressen resigns rather than take 1 year contract as Dodger mgr
1953 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Emu Field Australia
1953 - Ike promises to fire as Red any federal worker taking 5th amendment
1953 - WTEN TV channel 10 in Albany, NY (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 - Israeli act of revenge in Qibiya Jordan, kills 53
1956 - Charles Ives' overture "Robert Browning," premieres in NYC
1956 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Arkansas Golf Open
1957 - Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie" reaches #1
Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth IIQueen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II 1957 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open the Parliament of Canada with the Speech from the Throne.
1958 - Brendan Behan's "Hostage," premieres in London
1958 - Malagasy Republic becomes autonomous republic in French Community
1958 - Paul Osborn's "World of Suzie Wong," premieres in NYC
1958 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1958 - The District of Columbia Bar Association votes to accept black Americans as members.
1959 - WMUB (now WPTO) TV channel 14 in Oxford, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
1960 - Belgian sen Victor Leemans reveals huge gas field in Groningen
1960 - Peace Corps 1st suggested by JFK
1961 - "How to Succeed in Business" opens at 46th St NYC for 1415 perfs
1961 - 14th Ryder Cup: US wins, 14½-9½ at Royal Lytham & St Annes, England
1962 - Houston Oiler George Blanda throws for 6 TD passes vs NY Titans 56-17
1962 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Thunderbird Tourney Golf Tournament
1962 - US U-2 espionage planes locate missile launchers in Cuba
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
US President John F. KennedyUS President John F. Kennedy 1963 - Algeria & Morocco border conflict
1963 - WGHP TV channel 8 in Greensboro-High Point, NC (ABC) begins
1964 - Martin Luther King Jr wins Nobel Peace Prize
1964 - Martin Walser's "Der Schwarze Schwan," premieres in Stuttgart
1964 - Philips begins experimenting with color TV
1964 - Roger Maris & Mickey Mantle hit HRs runs on back-to-back pitches
1964 - Leonid Brezhnev & Alexei Kosygin replace Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev
1965 - Joe Engle in X-15 reaches 80 km
1965 - Sandy Koufax hurls his 2nd shutout of World Series beating Twins 2-0
1966 - 175 US airplanes bomb North Vietnam
1966 - Dutch government of Cals falls by motion of Schmelzer
1968 - 1st live telecast from a manned US spacecraft (Apollo 7)
1968 - Beatles "White Album" completed
1968 - Gruener & Watson (US) set scuba depth record (133 m) in Bahamas
1968 - In NL expansion draft, Expos & Padres choose 30 players each
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita KhrushchevFirst Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev 1968 - J R Hines of US runs 100m in world record 9.95 sec
1968 - A 6.8 earthquake wrecked the Australian town of Meckering, and also ruptured all major roads and railways nearby.
1968 - The rebuilt Euston railway station in London is opened.
1969 - Palme government forms in Sweden
1969 - Race riots in Springfield Mass
1969 - T Agee & Ed Kranepool HR, Tommie Agee makes 2 great catches, Mets win Baseball World Series 5-0
1969 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1969 - The United Kingdom introduces the 50p (fifty-pence) coin, replacing the ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalisation of the currency in 1971.
1970 - 4th Country Music Association Award: Merle Haggard wins
1970 - Cleveland Cavaliers lose to Buffalo Braves in their 1st game 107-92
1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1970 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1971 - 2 killed in Memphis racial disturbances
1971 - John & Yoko appear on "Dick Cavett Show"
1972 - Oakland A Gene Tenace is 1st to homer in 1st 2 World Series at bats
1973 - Egyptian tanks move further into Israel
1973 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA GNA Golf Classic
1973 - Willie Mays last hit, as Mets beat A's in World Series game 2 A's Mike Andrews makes 2 errors, prompting owner Finley to remove him
1974 - 8th Country Music Association Award: Charlie Rich
1975 - Pres Ford escapes injury when his limousine is struck broadside
1976 - Chris Chambliss' 9th inning lead off homer gives NY Yanks pennant #30
Economist Milton FriedmanEconomist Milton Friedman 1976 - Nobel prize for economy awarded to Milton Friedman
1976 - Soyuz 23 carries 2 to Salyut 6, but returns without docking
1977 - Linda Ronstadt sings national anthem at World Series
1977 - Princess Beatrice opens Amsterdam metro
1978 - 1st TV movie from a TV series-"Rescue from Gilligan's Island"
1978 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1978 - NY Yank Reggie Jackson causes World Series controversy by getting in the way of a throw to 1st & deflects the ball away
1978 - Despite Denis Potvin hat trick in 3:21 Islanders lose 7-10 making Islander record when scoring a hat trick-22-2-1
1979 - 100,000 demonstrate in Bonn against nuclear energy
1979 - Amy Alcott wins LPGA United Virginia Bank Golf Classic
1979 - Flyers start 35 game unbeaten streak beating Toronto 4-3
1979 - NHL's greatest scorer Wayne Gretzky scores his 1st NHL goal
1980 - Bob Marley's last concert
1980 - Phils rally from 4-0 deficit to beat the Royals, 7-6 to take WS opener
1980 - Presidential nominee Ronald Reagan promises to name a woman to Supreme Court
US President & Actor Ronald ReaganUS President & Actor Ronald Reagan 1981 - Yank Graig Nettles is 1st to get 2 hits in same inning of an ALSC game
1981 - Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
1982 - 6,000 Unification church couples wed in Korea
1982 - Islanders assessed 108 penality minutes Penguins 125 (233 total)
1982 - NY Islanders greatest shutout margin (9-0) vs Pittsburgh Penguins
1982 - President Reagan proclaims war against drugs
1983 - Grenada leftist coup under vice-premier Coard
1983 - US Marine peacekeeper Sgt Allen Soifert killed by sniper in Beirut
1984 - "Quilters" closes at Jack Lawrence Theater NYC after 24 performances
1984 - Browns' Ozzie Newsome sets club records with 14 receptions for 191 yds
1984 - Detroit Tigers beat SD Padres, 4 games to 1 in 81st World Series
1984 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Smirnoff Ladies Irish Golf Open
1985 - 19th Country Music Association Award: Ricky Skaggs wins
1985 - On Mon Night football, Jets retire Joe Namath's #12, beat Miami 23-7
1986 - Concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize
Author Elie WieselAuthor Elie Wiesel 1986 - IOC decides to stagger Winter & Summer Olympic schedule
1986 - Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Elie Wiesel (against violence/racism)
1986 - Tim Kides of West NY, NJ performs 25,000 leg raises in 11:57:15
1987 - In Midland, Tx 1½-year-old Jessica McClure falls 22' (7m) down a well
1987 - St Louis Cards beat SF Giants, 4 games to 3 in NLCS
1988 - Mike Tyson countersues Robin Givens for divorce & annulment
1988 - NJ Devils raise their 1st pennant (Patrick Div Playoff Champs)
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz is 1st Arabic writer to win Nobel literature prize
1989 - Dave Stewart is 1st since 1976 to start consec World Series openers
1989 - Texas A&I, Johnny Bailey sets NCAA season rush record at 6,085 yards
1990 - Cathy Gerring wins LPGA Trophee Urban World Golf Championship
1990 - Jeff Goldblum & wife Geena Davis file for divorce
1990 - SF 49er Joe Montana passes for 6 touchdowns vs Atlanta (45-35)
1991 - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi wins Nobel Peace Prize
1991 - NY Rangers right wing Mike Gartner scores his 500th NHL goal
Politician Aung San Suu KyiPolitician Aung San Suu Kyi 1992 - Atlanta Braves beat Pittsburgh Pirates in 7 games for NL pennant
1992 - Toronto Blue Jays beats Oakland A's to win their 1st AL pennant
1994 - Nobel Prize awarded to Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin & Shimon Peres
1994 - Space probe Magellan burns up in atmosphere of Venus
1995 - Atlanta Braves become 1st team to sweep in NL playoff (beat Reds)
1996 - Braves blow out St Louis, 14-0 in an NLCS game
1996 - Dow Jones closes over 6,000 for 1st time (6,010)
1996 - Packer Chris Jacke kicks longest field goal to end overtime (53 yds)
1997 - Florida Marlins beat Atlanta Braves 4 games to 1 in NLCS
1998 - NY Islanders beat Tampa Bay, 7-1, to end 11 game winless streak
1998 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
2012 - 20 people are gunned down in a mosque in Dogo Dawa, Nigeria
1066 - The Battle of Hastings occurred in England. The Norman forces of William the Conqueror defeated King Harold II of England. 1879 - Thomas Edison signed an agreement with Jose D. Husbands for the sale of Edison telephones in Chile. 1887 - Thomas Edison and George E. Gouraud reached an agreement for the international marketing rights for the phonograph. 1912 - Theodore Roosevelt was shot while campaigning in Milwaukee, WI. Roosevelt's wound in the chest was not serious and he continued with his planned speech. William Schrenk was captured at the scene of the shooting. 1922 - Lieutenant Lester James Maitland set a new airplane speed record when he reached a speed of 216.1 miles-per-hour. 1926 - The book "Winnie-the-Pooh," by A.A. Milne, made its debut. 1928 - The first televised wedding took place in Des Plains, IL. James Fowlkes and Cora Dennison were married in a radio studio. 1930 - Ethel Merman debuted on Broadway in "Girl Crazy." 1933 - Nazi Germany announced that it was withdrawing from the League of Nations. 1934 - "Lux Radio Theater" began airing on the NBC Blue radio network. 1936 - The first SSB (Social Security Board) office opened in Austin, TX. From this point, the Board's local office took over the assigning of Social Security Numbers. 1943 - The Radio Corporation of America finalized the sale of the NBC Blue radio network. Edward J. Noble paid $8 million for the network that was renamed American Broadcasting Company. 1944 - German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution after being accused of conspiring against Adolf Hitler and the execution that would follow. 1944 - During World War II, the Second British Parachute Brigade liberated the city of Athens. 1947 - Over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California, pilot Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket plane and became the first person to break the sound barrier. 1954 - C.B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments", starring Charlton Heston, began filming in Egypt. The epic had a cast of 25,000 people. 1960 - U.S. presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first suggested the idea of a Peace Corps. 1961 - "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" opened on Broadway. 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis began when U.S. reconnaissance aircrafts photographed Soviet construction of intermediate-range missile sites in Cuba. 1964 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent resistance to racial prejudice in America. He was the youngest person to receive the award. 1968 - The first live telecast to come from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7. 1970 - Anwar el-Sadat became president of Egypt following the death of President Nasser. 1984 - George ‘Sparky’ Anderson became the first baseball manager to win 100 games and a World Series in both leagues. (MLB) 1986 - Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev charged that the U.S. wanted to "bleed the Soviet Union economically" with the arms race in space. 1987 - Jessica McClure, 18 months old, fell down an abandoned well in Midland, TX. The rescue took 58 hours. 2001 - Toys "R" Us introduced the new version of Geoffrey the giraffe in a 60-second commercial before WABC-TV aired Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove." Disney movies, music and books 2002 - Britain stripped power from the Catholic and Protestant politicians of Northern Ireland. Britain resumed sole responsibility for running Northern Ireland. 2011 - The Apple iPhone 4S was released.
1066 The Normans, under William the Conqueror, defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. 1933 Nazi Germany withdrew from the Geneva disarmament conference and the League of Nations. 1947 U.S. Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager became the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound. 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr., was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in civil rights. 1968 The first live telecast from a staffed U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7. 1990 Composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein died in New York at age 72.
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