On this date in

1831 Escaped slave Nat Turner was captured after leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in U.S. history.

1922 Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy.

1938 The radio play "The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS. The live drama, which employed fake news reports, panicked some listeners who thought its portrayal of a Martian invasion was true.

1945 Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color barrier.

1953 George C. Marshall, who, as secretary of state following World War II, engineered a massive economic aid program for Europe, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1961 The Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb.

1973 The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul was completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia.

1974 Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round bout in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain his world heavyweight title.

1997 A jury in Cambridge, Mass., convicted British au pair Louise Woodward of second-degree murder in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. The judge later reduced the verdict to manslaughter and set Woodward free.

1998 A mudslide caused by Hurricane Mitch killed at least 2,000 people in Nicaragua.

2000 Comedian, TV host, author and composer Steve Allen died at age 78.

2002 Rapper Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was killed in a shooting in New York at age 37.

2005 The body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil rights pioneer became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda.

Born on this date:
John Adams (1735-1826)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
Georges Gilles de la Tourette (1857-1904)
Louis Winslow Austin (1867-1932)
William F. Halsey Jr. (1882-1959)
Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
Charles Atlas (1892-1972)
Dickinson Woodruff Richards (1895-1973)
Ruth Gordon (1896-1985)
Bill Terry (1898-1989)
Patsy Montana (1908-1996)
Ruth Hussey (1911-2005)
Fred Friendly (1915-1998)
Joe Adcock (1927-1999)
Daniel Nathans (1928-1999)
Nestor Almendros (1930-1992)
Louis Malle (1932-1995)