On This Day in History - October 24th - Almanac

Today is Saturday, Oct. 24, the 298th day of 2020 with 68 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include journalist Sarah Josepha Hale, author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," in 1788; attorney Belva Lockwood, the first woman candidate for U.S. president, in 1830; cartoonist Bob Kane, creator of Batman, in 1915; football Hall of Fame member Y.A. Tittle in 1926; entertainer J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson in 1930; former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman in 1936 (age 84); actor David Nelson in 1936; actor F. Murray Abraham in 1939 (age 81); actor Kevin Kline in 1947 (age 73); former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume in 1948 (age 72); singer Monica Arnold in 1980 (age 40); model Tila Tequila, born Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen, in 1981 (age 39); pop singer Adrienne Bailon in 1983 (age 37); singer Drake Graham in 1986 (age 34); actor Oliver Jackson Cohen in 1986 (age 34); American Olympic gold medal-winning ice dancer Charlie White in 1987 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War in Europe.

In 1861, the first telegram was transmitted across the United States from California Chief Justice Stephen Field to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Washington.

In 1901, daredevil Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

In 1929, $5 billion in market values were swept away in the greatest selling wave in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 would mark the beginning of a 10-year Depression which would affect the entire Western world.

In 1931, New York City's George Washington Bridge opened to public traffic.

In 1962, the blockade of Cuba was in effect, with a ring of U.S. warships and planes under orders to block by whatever means, further aggressive arm deliveries to Fidel Castro.

In 1992, the Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series.

In 2002, police arrested two suspects in a three-week series of Washington-area sniper attacks that killed 10 people and wounded three others. John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, were found sleeping in a car at a rest stop near Frederick, Md. Both were convicted. Muhammad was executed and Malvo sentenced to life in prison.

In 2003, an era in aviation history ended when the supersonic Concorde took off from New York to London on its final flight.

In 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks died at age 92. Parks gave new impetus to the rights movement in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama declared a national emergency related to the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus, also known as swine flu, to aid local authorities in dealing with the pandemic. Medical officials put the American death toll at 530 with thousands hospitalized.

In 2012, a 41-mile final stretch of Texas Highway 130, a toll road from Mustang Ridge, south of Austin, to Seguin, opened with the highest speed limit in the United States -- 85 mph.

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall for the first time, in Jamaica, killing two people there. The storm would go on to cause tens of billions of dollars in the northeast United States and kill more than 200 people along its path.

In 2018, one person in South Carolina won the biggest lottery jackpot in U.S. history -- $1.6 billion -- after three months of no Mega Millions winners.

In 2019, the body of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen in San Lorenzo de El Escorial to be moved to Mingorrubio-El Pardo.

A thought for the day: "There is always room at the top." -- American statesman Daniel Webster