On Oct. 25, 1400, author Geoffrey Chaucer died in London.
In 1760 George III ascended the British throne after the death of his grandfather, King George II.
In 1838 composer Georges Bizet was born in Paris.
In 1891 Charles Coughlin, the Roman Catholic priest who gained fame through his radio commentaries in the 1930s, was born in Hamilton, Ontario.
In 1912 Grand Ole Opry comic Minnie Pearl was born Sarah Cannon in Centerville, Tenn.
In 1918 the Canadian steamship Princess Sophia foundered off the Alaskan coast; nearly 400 people died.
In 1929 former Interior Secretary Albert Fall was convicted of accepting a $100,000 bribe in connection with the Elk Hills Naval Oil Reserve in California.
In 1940 college basketball coach Bob Knight was born in Orrville, Ohio.
In 1951 peace talks aimed at ending the Korean War resumed in Panmunjom.
In 1962 Adlai E. Stevenson II, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, presented photographic evidence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba to the Security Council. Also in 1962 writer John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 1971 the United Nations seated mainland China and expelled Taiwan.
In 1983 a U.S.-led force invaded Grenada at the order of President Ronald Reagan, who said the action was needed to protect U.S. citizens there.
In 1986 the Boston Red Sox lost game 6 of the World Series to the New York Mets when a routine ground ball rolled through the legs of Boston first baseman Bill Buckner, allowing the winning run to score in the 10th inning.
In 1993 actor Vincent Price died in Los Angeles; he was 82.
In 1994 Susan Smith of Union, S.C., claimed that an African-American carjacker had driven off with her two sons. (Smith later confessed to drowning the children and was convicted of murder.)
In 1995 a Metra commuter train slammed into a school bus in Fox River Grove, killing seven McHenry County high school students.
In 1999 pro golfer Payne Stewart, 42, and five others were killed when their Learjet flew uncontrolled for four hours before crashing in South Dakota. Also in 1999 Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan bolted the GOP to mount a bid for the Reform Party nomination.
In 2000, laboring in the frigid murk of the Barents Sea, divers found and removed the first bodies from the wreckage of the nuclear submarine Kursk, which sank on Aug. 12, 2000, with the loss of all 118 sailors aboard.
In 2002 U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) was killed with his wife, daughter and five others in a plane crash in northern Minnesota 11 days before Election Day; he was 58.
In 2003 Florida State’s Bobby Bowden became the winningest coach in major college football history with his 339th victory as the Seminoles beat Wake Forest 48-24.
In 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court announced that Chief Justice William Rehnquist had thyroid cancer.
In 2005 U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached the 2,000 mark. Also in 2005 the White Sox and the Houston Astros began playing Game 3 of the World Series, which turned into a 14-inning marathon that did not end until well after midnight; Chicago won, 7-5.
