Today:
312: Constantine I defeats Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, becoming the sole Roman emperor in the West.
1492: Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba during his first voyage to the New World.
1636: The Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony votes to establish a college, which later becomes Harvard University.
1726: The novel “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift is published in London.
1886: U.S. President Grover Cleveland formally dedicates the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
1918: Czechoslovakia is founded and declares its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
1919: The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act, which implemented the 18th Amendment (Prohibition), over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto.
1922: Italian Fascists, led by Benito Mussolini, begin their “March on Rome,” which results in Mussolini taking power.
1962: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1965: The 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is completed.