October 24
1537 - Jane Seymour, the third wife of England’s King Henry VIII, died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward, later King Edward VI.
1648 - The treaties for the Peace of Westphalia were signed, ending the Thirty Years War, ultimately destroying the Holy Roman Empire, and ushering in the modern European state system.
1861 - The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent by Chief Justice Stephen J. Field of California from San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., over a line built by the Western Union Telegraph Co.
1901 - Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
1931 - The George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, opened to traffic.
1939 - Nylon stockings were solid publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Delaware.
1940 - The 40-hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
1945 - The United Nations officially came into being as the charter took effect.
1952 - Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared in Detroit, “I shall go to Korea” as he promised to end the conflict. (He made the visit over a month later.)
1962 - A naval quarantine of Cuba ordered by President John F. Kennedy went into effect during the missile crisis.
1991 - “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry died in Santa Monica, California, at age 70.
1996 - TyRon Lewis, 18, a Black motorist, was shot to death by police during a traffic stop in St. Petersburg, Florida; the incident sparked rioting. (Officer James Knight, who said that Lewis had lurched his car at him several times, knocking him onto the hood, was cleared by a grand jury and the Justice Department.)
2002 - Authorities apprehended John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo near Myersville, Maryland, in the Washington-area sniper attacks. (Malvo was later sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed in 2009.)
2003 - The last Concordes landed in London, ending an era of supersonic commercial air travel.
2005 - Civil rights activist Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92.
2012 - Hurricane Sandy roared across Jamaica and headed toward Cuba, before descending on the eastern United States.
2017 - Fats Domino, the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer whose hits included “Blueberry Hill” and “Ain’t That a Shame,” died in Louisiana at age 89.
2021 - Heavily protected crews in Washington state worked to destroy the first nest of so-called murder hornets discovered in the United States.
2022 - Actor Leslie Jordan, a comedy and drama standout on TV series including “Will & Grace” and “American Horror Story,” died at age 67.
Birthdays
20 - Hudson Yang (actor)
27 - Kyla Ross (gymnast)
29 - Krystal Jung (actress)
28 - Ashton Sanders (actor)
34 - Eliza Taylor (actress)
34 - Shenae Grimes (actress)
37 - Drake (rapper)
38 - Tim Pocock (actor)
40 - Adrienne Bailon Houghton (actress/singer)
42 - Tila Tequila (reality star)
43 - Casey Wilson (actress/comedian)
43 - Monica Arnold (actress/singer)
46 - Michael Trent (singer)
57 - Zahn McClarnon (actor)
63 - B.D. Wong (actor)
69 - Doug Davidson (actor)
76 - Kevin Kline (actor)
84 - F. Murray Abraham (actor)
=====================================
Today in Sports History - October 24
1857 - Recognized by FIFA as oldest existing club still playing football in the world, Sheffield FC is founded in Yorkshire, England; now based in Dronfield, Derbyshire
1943 - The Green Bay Packers intercepted nine passes in a 27-6 victory over the Detroit Lions.
1970 - In Athens, Christo Papanikolaou (Greece) pole vaulted 18' 1/4". He was the first pole vaulter to clear the 18-foot mark.
1972 - Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who’d broken Major League Baseball’s modern-era color barrier in 1947, died in Stamford, Connecticut, at age 53.
1988 - Mike Bossy plays his final game of his NHL career.
1992 - The Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-U.S. team to win the World Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves in six games.
1997 - In Arlington, VA, former NBC sportscaster Marv Albert was spared a jail sentence after a courtroom apology to the woman he'd bitten during a sexual encounter.
1998 - Ricky Williams (University of Texas) became the leading scorer in NCAA Division I history. At the end of the game he had a total of 428 points.
2004 - Ten people including NASCAR driver Ricky Hendrick and 4 family members are killed in a plane crash near Martinsville Speedway in Virginia; plane owned by NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports.
2021 - A pair of Michael Jordan's 1984 Nike Air Ships sell for $1.472 million at auction at Sotheby's, a record price for a pair of sneakers.
2021 - Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers becomes the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 600 career touchdown passes.
