1631 - Pierre Gassendi observes the transit of Mercury predicted by Kepler.
1775 - Lord Dunmore promises freedom to male slaves who join the British army.
1805 - Lewis & Clark first sight the Pacific Ocean.
1811 - At the Battle of Tippecanoe, Benjamin Harrison gets a presidential slogan ("Tippecanoe and Tyler too!").
1837 - Abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy is murdered by a mob in Alton, IL.
1865 - The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is founded.
1872 - The Mary Celeste sails from NY bound for Genoa; it is found abandoned four weeks later.
1874 - The first cartoon depicting the elephant as the Republican Party symbol, by T. Nast, appears.
1875 - Verney Cameron becomes the first European to cross equatorial Africa.
1876 - Edward Bouchet becomes the first Black to receive a Ph.D. in a U.S. college (Yale); President Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden both claim a presidential victory as the electoral college returns are disputed.
1885 - The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed at Craigellachie.
1916 - Jeannette Rankin (Rep-MT) becomes the first woman Representative; Woodrow Wilson is re-elected as President.
1917 - The British capture Gaza Palestine from the Turks; As the October Revolution (Oct. 26th, O.S.) continues in Russia, Lenin seizes power.
1918 - Goddard demonstrates tube-launched solid propellant rockets; The United Press erroneously reports that a WWI armistice had been signed.
1933 - Pennsylvania voters overturn a blue law, thereby permitting Sunday sports.
1934 - Arthur L. Mitchell becomes the first Black Democratic congressman (IL).
1940 - In Washington State, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge ("Galloping Gertie") collapses.
1942 - FDR becomes the first U.S. President to broadcast in a foreign language (French).
1943 - In the last scoreless tie in the NFL, the Detroit Lions and the NY Giants end their game with nothing on the board.
1944 - FDR wins a fourth term in office.
1951 - The Constitution of Jordan is passed.
1955 - The Baltimore Supreme Court bans segregation in public recreational areas.
1962 - Richard Nixon "quits" politics, stating "You won't have Nixon to kick around."
1966 - Lunar Orbiter-2 is launched by the U.S.
1967 - Carl B. Stokes becomes the first Black mayor of a major city (Cleveland, OH); LBJ signs a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
1972 - President Nixon (back in politics), is re-elected.
1983 - A bomb explodes in the U.S. Capitol, causing heavy damage but no injuries.
1984 - The planned STS 51-A launch is scrubbed due to high shear winds.
1985 - Colombian troops end their 27-hour siege of Bogota's Palace of Justice.
1989 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first Black U.S. governor (VA); NYC elects it's first Black mayor (Dinkins), and first female comptroller (Holtzman).
1991 - Magic Johnson announces that he has the HIV virus, retiring from the Lakers.

Birthdays
0994 - Muhammad ibn Hazm, historian / jurist / writer of Islamic Spain
1096 - Herbert R. O'Connor, (Sen-MD) / TV narrator (Crime Syndicated)
1867 - Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie, discoverer of Radium, Nobel Prize winner (1903, 1911)
1876 - Culbert Olson, (Gov-CA)
1879 - Leon Trotsky, Russian Communist theorist, Bolshevik
1888 - Sir Chandrasekhara Raman India, physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1930)
1903 - Konrad Lorenz, zoologist / ethologist / writer, Nobel Prize winner (1973)
1930 - Rudy Boschwitz (Sen-MN)

Passings
1573 - Solomon Luria (Maharshal) talmudic author (Yam Shel Shelomo), dies
1837 - Elijah P. Lovejoy, publisher / abolitionist, murdered by proslavery mob
1962 - Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady
1980 - Steve McQueen , actor (The Great Escape, Bullitt, Papillon)

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Diehl, William Calvin, USAF (OK); F105 shot down, DIC, remains returned March, 1974

Ellis, Leon F., USAF (GA); F4C shot down (w/Fisher), released by DRV March, 1973 – retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Fisher, Kenneth, USAF (NY); F4C shot down (w/Ellis), released by DRV March, 1973 – retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1972
Brown, Robert M., USAF (VA); F111A shot down (pilot, w/Morrissey)

Carroll, John L., USAF (GA); O1 shot down, KIA, body not recovered

Morrissey, Robert D., USAF (NM); F111A shot down (weapons systems officer, w/Brown)