October 181469 - Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The marriage united all the dominions of Spain. 1685 - King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration of the Protestant population. 1767 - The Mason-Dixon line was agreed upon. It was the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. 1842 - Samuel Finley Breese Morse laid his first telegraph cable. 1860 - British troops burned the Yuanmingyuan at the end of the Second Opium War. 1867 - The U.S. took formal possession of Alaska from Russia. The land was purchased of a total of $7 million dollars (2 cents per acre). 1873 - The first rules for intercollegiate football were drawn up by representatives from Rutgers, Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities. 1892 - The first long-distance telephone line between Chicago, IL, and New York City, NY, was opened. 1898 - The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico only one year after the Caribbean nation won its independence from Spain. 1929 - The Judicial Committee of England’s Privy Council ruled that women were to be considered as persons in Canada. 1943 - The first broadcast of "Perry Mason" was presented on CBS Radio. The show went to TV in 1957. 1944 - Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviets during World War II. 1944 - "Forever Amber", written by Kathleen Windsor, was first published. 1950 - Connie Mack announced that he was going to retire after 50 seasons as the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics. 1956 - NFL commissioner Bert Bell disallowed the use of radio-equipped helmets by NFL quarterbacks. 1958 - The first computer-arranged marriage took place on Art Linkletter's show. 1961 - Henri Matiss' "Le Bateau" went on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art. It was discovered 46 days later that the painting had been hanging upside down. 1967 - The American League granted permission for the A's to move to Oakland. Also, new franchises were awarded to Kansas City and Seattle. 1968 - Two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee for giving a "black power" salute during a ceremony in Mexico City. 1969 - The U.S. government banned artificial sweeteners due to evidence that they caused cancer. 1970 - Quebec's minister of labor was found strangled to death after eight days of being held captive by the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ). 1971 - After 34 years, the final issue of "Look" magazine was published. 1977 - Reggie Jackson tied Babe Ruth's record for hitting three homeruns in a single World Series game. Jackson was only the second player to achieve this. 1983 - General Motors agreed to hire more women and minorities for five years as part of a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 1985 - South African authorities hanged black activist Benjamin Moloise. Moloise had been convicted of murdering a police officer. 1989 - Egon Krenz became the leader of East Germany after Erich Honecker was ousted. Honeker had been in power for 18 years. 1989 - The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a mission that included the deployment of the Galileo space probe. 1990 - Iraq made an offer to the world that it would sell oil for $21 a barrel. The price level was the same as it had been before the invasion of Kuwait. 1997 - A monument honoring U.S. servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery. 2006 - Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7.0. 2013 - Saudi Arabia became the first nation to reject a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Jordan took the seat on December 6. |