Today's
Highlight in History:
On Oct. 20, 1944, during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, 2 1/2 years after he had said, "I shall return."
On this date:
In 1740, Maria Theresa became ruler of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia upon the death of her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.
In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1903, a joint commission ruled in favor of the United States in a boundary dispute between the District of Alaska and Canada.
In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence and infiltration within the American motion picture industry.
In 1964, the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, died in New York at age 90.
In 1967, seven men were convicted in Meridian, Miss., of violating the civil rights of three slain civil rights workers.
In 1968, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
In 1973, in the so-called "Saturday Night Massacre," special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed and Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus resigned.
In 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Miss.
In 1987, 10 people were killed when an Air Force jet crashed into a Ramada Inn hotel near Indianapolis International Airport after the pilot, who was trying to make an emergency landing, ejected safely.
