On This Day in History

• الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري‎ (Baibars) seizes power in Egypt and begins the Bahri Mamluk dynasty that dominates the eastern Mediterranean (1260)
• The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years’ War (1648)
• William Lassell discovers the Uranian moons Umbriel and Ariel (1851)
• The first transcontinental telegraph across the United States is completed, dooming the 18-month old Pony Express (1861)
• Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first known person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive (1901)
• Harry Houdini gives his last performance (1926)
• Wall Street: Black Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange begins the Great Depression (1929)
• The George Washington Bridge in New York City opens to traffic (1931)
• The United Nations is founded (1945)
• The first photograph of Earth from outer space is taken (1946)
• Walt Disney names employees he thinks are Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1947)
• The Polish trade union Solidarność is legalized (1980)
• The Toronto Blue Jays become the first non-US team to win the World Series (1992)
• NASA launches Deep Space 1 (1998)
• The Beltway snipers are arrested (2002)
• The Concorde makes its last commercial flight (2003)
• The Chinese launch the lunar orbiter 嫦娥一号 (Chang’e 1) (2007)
• Wall Street: Bloody Friday sees many stock exchanges around the world hit their worst declines in history (2008)

Birthdays

• Domitian, Roman emperor (51)
• Anthony Babington, plotted to assassinate English monarch Elizabeth I on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots (1561)
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, microbiologist and microscope developer (1632)
• Annie Edson Taylor, went over Niagara Falls in a barrel (1838)
• Ned Williamson, baseball player (1857)
• Rafael Trujillo, Dominican Republic el jefe (1891)
• Gilda Gray, popularized the “shimmy” (1901)
• Melvin Purvis, FBI agent (1903)
• Moss Hart, playwright and director (1904)
• John (Jock) Tuzo Wilson, geophysicist, pioneer of plate tectonics theory (1908)
• Bill Carr, American runner, Olympic gold medalist (1909)
• Sonny Terry, blind blues harmonica player (1911)
• Tito Gobbi, operatic baritone (1913)
• Bob Kane, co-creator of Batman (1915)
• Frank Piasecki, helicopter designer (1919)
• Ieng Sary, co-founder of the Khmer Rouge (1925)
• Willie Mabon, R&B singer-songwriter (1925)
• Y.A. Tittle, football player (1926)
• The Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson, Jr.), disk jockey and singer (1930)
• Stephen Covey, self-help author (1932)
• Reginald and Ronald Kray, English gangsters (1933)
• Antonino Calderone, mafioso (1935)
• Jimmy Dawkins, blues guitarist (1936)
• Bill Wyman, Rolling Stone bassist (1936)
• F. Murray Abraham, actor (1939)
• Kevin Kline, actor (1947)
• Kweisi Mfume, politician and activist (1948)
• Chester Marcol, football placekicker (1949)
• Doug Davidson, The Young and the Restless cast member (1954)
• BD Wong, actor (1960)
• Mary Bono Mack, politician (1961)
• Jay Novacek, football player (1962)
• Monica, singer-songwriter (1980)
• Casey Wilson, comedienne (1980)
• Tila Tequila (Tila Nguyen), media personality (1981)
• Brian Vickers, NASCAR racer (1983)

Deaths

• Jane Seymour, wife of English monarch Henry VIII
• Tycho Brahe, astronomer (1601*)
• Alessandro Scarlatti, composer (1725)
• Daniel Webster, American politician (1852)
• George Cadbury, Quaker chocolatier (1839)
• Dutch Schultz, mobster (1935)
• Louis Renault, carmaker (1944)
• Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian Nazi collaborationist (1945)
• G.E. Moore, philosopher (1958)
• Carl Ruggles, composer (1971)
• Jackie Robinson, baseball player (1972)
• Claire Windsor, silent film star (1972)
• Richie Evans, NASCAR driver (1985)
• Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek creator (1991)
• Raúl Juliá, actor (1994)
• Don Messick, voice of Scooby-Doo and other Hanna-Barbera characters (1997)
• Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (2005)
• Mike Esposito, comic book artist (2010)
• Margaret Osborne duPont, tennis player (2012)

*According to my friends Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder in their 2005 book Heavenly Intrigue, Tycho Brahe was poisoned by astronomer Johannes Kepler, a long-time associate.

Holidays

• Independence Day (Zambia)
• National Bologna Day (US)
• Suez Day (Egypt)
• United Nations Day (International)
• World Development Information Day (International)
• World Polio Day (International)

Photo: Wall Street sign. Credit: Alex Proimos, CC BY-SA 2.0.

October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years). There are 68 days remaining until the end of the year.