On this date in

1648 The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War and, effectively, the Holy Roman Empire.

1857 The world's first football club was founded.

1861 The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from California to President Abraham Lincoln.

1901 Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1917 The October Revolution.

1926 Harry Houdini gave his final performance.

1929 The Black Thursday stock market crash.

1931 The George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, was dedicated.

1940 The 40-hour work week went into effect in the United States.

1945 The United Nations charter took effect.

1952 Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, "I shall go to Korea" as he promised to end the war.

1954 President Eisenhower pledged U.S. support to South Vietnam.

1962 The U.S. blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis began under a proclamation signed by President John F. Kennedy.

1987 Thirty years after it was expelled for refusing to answer allegations of corruption, the Teamsters union was welcomed back into the AFL-CIO.

1992 The Toronto Blue Jays became the first team outside the United States to win a World Series as they defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in Game 6.

1999 Rhode Island Republican Senator John Chafee died of congestive heart failure at age 77, just a few months after he announced he would not seek re-election in 2000.

2002 Authorities arrested Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks. Muhammad was later sentenced to death, Malvo to life in prison.

2005 Civil rights activist Rosa Parks died at age 92 in her Detroit apartment.

Born on this date:
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Alban Butler (1710-1773)
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879)
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (1830-1917)
James Schoolcraft Sherman (1855-1912)
Dame Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976)
Rafael Trujillo (1891-1961)
Melvin Purvis (1903-1960)
Moss Hart (1904-1961)
Sonny Terry (1911-1986)
Bob Kane (1915-1998)
J.P. Richardson (1930-1959)
Ronald and Reginald Kray (born 1933; Ronald died in 1995, Reginald in 2000)