On Oct. 10, 1813, composer Giuseppe Verdi was born in Le Roncole, Italy.
In 1845 the U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Md.
In 1886 the tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut.
In 1911 China’s Manchu dynasty was overthrown.
In 1930 Adlai Stevenson III, later a U.S. senator from Illinois, was born in Chicago. Also, playwright Harold Pinter was born in London.
In 1935 George Gershwin’s opera “Porgy and Bess” opened on Broadway.
In 1938 Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.
In 1943 Chiang Kai-shek took office as president of China.
In 1964 the 18th Summer Olympic Games opened in Tokyo.
In 1970 Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped by the Quebec Liberation Front, a militant separatist group. (His body was found a few days later.) Also, Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.
In 1973 Vice President Spiro Agnew, linked to bribes, pleaded no contest to income tax evasion and resigned.
In 1978 President Jimmy Carter signed a bill authorizing the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
In 1981 funeral services were held in Cairo for Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, who had been assassinated by Muslim extremists.
In 1985 filmmaker Orson Welles died at 70 in Los Angeles. Also actor Yul Brynner died at 65 in New York.
In 1990 the Oakland A’s won the American League pennant and reached their third straight World Series.
In 1992 the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator, Jody Williams, were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1995 University of Chicago professor Robert Lucas was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for demonstrating how people’s fears and expectations can frustrate policymakers’ efforts to shape the economy.
In 2002 the House voted 296-133 to give President Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, with or without UN support.
In 2003 radio commentator Rush Limbaugh announced on his show that he was addicted to painkillers and was checking into a rehabilitation center.
In 2004 Ken Caminiti, the National League’s 1996 most valuable player who later admitted using steroids during his major league baseball career, died at 41 in New York.
In 2005 Angela Merkel struck a power-sharing deal that made her the first woman and politician from the ex-communist east to serve as Germany’s chancellor.
