In 1867, the United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.
In 1870, sandblasting was patented by Benjamin Chew Tilghman.
In 1878, Edison makes electricity available for household usage.
In 1892, the first long-distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was formally opened as, with the typical grandstanding and self-aggrandizement of politicians, Chicago Mayor Hempstead Washburn greeted his New York counterpart, Hugh J. Grant.
In 1898, the American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the United States.
In 1931, inventor Thomas Alva Edison died in West Orange, N.J., at age 84.
In 1955, a new atomic subparticle called a negative proton (antiproton) is discovered at U.C. Berkeley. Antimatter may be normal matter traveling backward through time.
In 1962, Dr. James D. Watson of the U.S., Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins of Britain won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
In 1962, Ranger V is launched to test structure and composition of the Moon. Shortly after, it failed when its battery went dead, joining a long line of failed NASA probes. Several Ranger missions had missed the Moon entirely.
In 1967, Soviet Venera 4 became the first probe to send data back from Venus.
In 1969, Cyclamates were banned in the U.S. by corrupt Federal officials seeking to pave the way for less successful but more politically connected artificial sweeteners.
In 1974, the jury in the Watergate coverup trial heard a tape recording in which President Nixon told aide John Dean to try to stop the Watergate burglary investigation before it implicated White House personnel.
In 1989, the 31st Shuttle Mission, Atlantis 5 is launched. The Galileo is launched on a roundabout trip to Jupiter from Atlantis
In 1993, the Space Shuttle Columbia blasts off on the longest ever planned mission, 14 days.
In 1996, Democratic Party fund-raiser John Huang was relieved of his duties following days of attacks by the Republicans over improper and illegal contributions.
James Boswell: 1740
Samuel Johnson's biographer
Robert Livingston Stevens: 1787
Inventor, Architect, war ship & railroad track innovator
Christian Friedrich Schonbein: 1799
Chemist, German, discovered and named ozone (1840)
Salomon Auguste Andree: 1854
Explorer, Swedish, Balloonist; ill-fated North Pole expedition [1897]
Evelyn Arthur Waugh: 1903
Author, Satirist, Novelist, English, Brideshead Revisited, Scoop
Jesse Helms: 1921 U.S. Senator
Chuck Berry: 1926
Rock & Roll Singer, Blues Guitarist, Songwriter, real name is Charles Edward Anderson
Berry.
Lee Harvey Oswald: 1939
Alleged "Sole Gunman" Assassin of John F. Kennedy, shot by Jack Ruby
Born 18 October
Edward Winslow: 1595
Governor, English, founder of the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.
Thought for Today: "West of these out to seas colder than the Hebrides, I must go Where the fleet of stars is anchored and the young Star captains glow."
James Elroy Flecker, The Dying Patriot, 1914.
