On Oct. 20, 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
In 1903 a joint commission ruled in favor of the United States in a boundary dispute between the District of Alaska and Canada.
In 1926 Eugene Debs, who ran for president five times as a Socialist, died in an Elmhurst sanitarium; he was 70.
In 1944, during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, 21/2 years after he had said, ”I shall return.”
In 1947 the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged communist influence and infiltration within the American motion picture industry.
In 1981 three members of the radical Weather Underground were arrested following a bungled armored truck robbery in Nyack, N.Y.
In 1991 fire broke out in the hills above Oakland; the blaze killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes.
In 1992, in the first World Series game to be played outside the U.S., the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2.
In 1994 actor Burt Lancaster died in Los Angeles; he was 80.
In 1995 France, the United States and Britain announced a treaty banning atomic blasts in the South Pacific.
