
1793 - French queen Marie Antoinette was guillotined for treason.
1859 - Abolitionist John Brown his men captured the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis began.
1964 - China detonated its first atomic bomb.
1978 - John Paul II was elected pope.
2001 - Twelve Senate offices were closed when a letter to Sen. Tom Daschle was found to contain anthrax.
2002 - The White House announced that North Korea had disclosed the existence of a secret nuclear weapons program.