On Oct. 30, 1938 ”The War of the Worlds,” starring Orson Welles, aired on CBS radio. (The live drama, which employed fake news reports, panicked some listeners who thought its portrayal of a Martian invasion was true.)
In 1944 the Martha Graham ballet ”Appalachian Spring,” with music by Aaron Copland, premiered.
In 1945 wartime shoe rationing ended.
In 1953 Gen. George Marshall (the Marshall Plan) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1961 the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb. Also, the Soviet Party Congress ordered the removal of Josef Stalin’s body from Lenin’s tomb.
In 1974 Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in the eighth round of a 15-round match in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain the world heavyweight boxing title.
In 1975 Prince Juan Carlos became king of Spain after the death of Francisco Franco. Also, The New York Daily News ran the headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead” a day after President Gerald Ford said he would veto any proposed federal bailout of New York.
In 1984 police in Poland found the body of kidnapped pro-Solidarity priest Jerzy Popieluszko, whose death was blamed on four security officers.
In 1989 Mitsubishi Estate Co., a Japanese real estate concern, announced it was buying 51 percent of Rockefeller Group Inc. of New York.
In 1996, after a four-hour trial, a Chinese court sentenced democracy activist Wang Dan to 11 years in prison for ”conspiring to subvert the Chinese government.” (Wang was freed in April 1998 and exiled to the United States.)
In 1997 a jury in Cambridge, Mass., convicted British au pair Louise Woodward of second-degree murder in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen. (The judge later reduced the verdict to manslaughter and set Woodward free.)
In 1998, 2,000 Nicaraguans died when a mudslide caused by Hurricane Mitch destroyed homes on the slopes of Casitas volcano in Posoltega.
In 2000 entertainer Steve Allen died at 78 in Encino, Calif.
In 2001 Ford Motor Co. Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. took over as chief executive after the ouster of Jacques Nasser.
