Who was born on this date?

1492 - Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the New World. His crew landed in the Bahamas after a 33-day voyage from the Canary Islands, initially believing they had found Asia.

1518 - After proceedings began against Martin Luther for heresy, he was summoned to the Diet of Augsburg and in theological discussions on this day with Cardinal Cajetan, Luther refused to recant his views.

1702 - As part of the War of the Spanish Succession, Admiral Rooke, with 30 British ships defeated the Spanish at the battle of Vigo Bay and seized 11 ships full of treasure.

1792 - In Baltiomore, Maryland, the first monument honoring Christopher Columbus was dedicated.

1810 - Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The festivities became an annual event and evolved into the present-day Oktoberfest celebration of beer and bratwurst.

1811 - Paraguay declared its independence from Spain and Argentina.

1822 - Brazil formally became independent of Portugal.

1895 - In Newport, Rhode Island, the first amateur golf tournament was held. Charles Blair McDonald beat 31 others to win the event.

1915 - British nurse Edith Cavell was shot for helping allied soldiers escape from German occupied Brussels during World War I.

1920 - The leading money winner of race horses, Man o' War ran for the last time. He beat Sir Barton in Canada’s Kenilworth Park bringing his career earnings to nearly $250,000.

1920 - Construction of the Holland Tunnel began. The tunnel would provide a direct path from Twelfth Street in Jersey City, New Jersey to Canal Street in New York. The tunnel includes two tubes over 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) long. On November 13, 1927, it opened to traffic. It was named for the civil engineer who died directing the tunnel’s construction, Clifford Milburn Holland (1883-1924).

1923 - At over 62,000, the largest crowd to watch a World Series game saw Casey Stengel hit the winning homer as the New York Giants defeated the New York Yankees 1-0.

1928 - The first "iron lung" was used at Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts on a patient suffering from poliomyelitis.

1934 - Peter II becomes King of Yugoslavia following assassination of his father, King Alexander.

1937 - Radio's longest running detective show debuted. "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" stayed on air until 1955. The main character, Mr. Keen, was played by three different actors, Bennett Kilpack was Keen the longest, followed by Phil Clark, and Arthur Hughes who was in the final show.

1940 - Tom Mix, a United States film actor in the silent era, was killed in a car crash in Arizona. He had become a huge success and the silent cinema's most popular cowboy star.

1944 - Frank Sinatra returned to famed Paramount Theatre, where he had played for eight weeks beginning on December 30, 1942. In what was called the "Columbus Day Riot," 25,000 mostly-female teenagers, blocked streets, screaming and fainting.

1945 - Allied Control Council in Germany orders dissolution of Nazi Party after World War II.

1950 - To investigate interstate organized crime, the Kefauver Crime Commission convened in New York. The next year, television coverage showed Frank Costello’s hands for a very long time, as he told Senator Estes Kefauver’s committee he would refuse to testify on television if his face was shown. So lucky viewers got to watch his hands instead.

1950 - The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show debuted on CBS. It was one of the few radio shows to move successfully to television, and it was on the air for eight seasons. Burns and Allen, married in real life, portrayed a married couple who are entertainers. The show, which showcased Allen's comic gifts as a scatterbrain and Burns's laid-back style as the straight man, also featured their real-life teenage son, Ronnie Burns.

1960 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, angered during a debate on colonialism at the United Nations General Assembly, took off his shoe and pounded his desk with it several times.

1961 - The first video memoirs to be created by a United States president were made when CBS showed a three-hour discussion with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Reportedly, 11 hours of film were taken, but were later edited down to the final print. Walter Cronkite was the interviewer.

1964 - The Soviet Union launched Voskhod-1 into orbit around the Earth. It was the first spaceship to carry a multiple crew.

1968 - Equatorial Guinea became independent after 190 years of Spanish rule, its first president being Francisco Macias Nguema.

1969 - Soviet Union launches Soyuz VII spacecraft with three men aboard to join two men in orbit in Soyuz VI.

1971 - "Jesus Christ Superstar" premiered on Broadway. The Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Weber collaboration became a hit, running on Broadway for 720 shows, and introducing several hit songs.

1973 - Juan Peron was inaugurated as Argentine president, with his wife, Isabel, as vice-president.

1975 - Pope Paul VI canonizes an Irish archbishop, Oliver Plunkett, who was executed by British in 1681.

1976 - Chinese Prime Minister Hua Guofeng was appointed Chairman of the Communist Party.

1978 - Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty negotiations were opened in Washington by United States President Jimmy Carter.

1981 - For the second consectuive year, Barbara Mandrell won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award.

1983 - In Bryant Park, Maine, the fianl crank telephone call was made, ending the community’s hand-operated telephone system.

1983 - The last wringer-washer by Maytag was made. Maytag was one of the last companies to make the hand-operated washers.

1983 - Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for his part in the Lockheed bribery scandal.

1984 - Five people were killed when an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, during the annual Conservative Party conference.

1986 - On Broadway, "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" closed. Tickets cost $100 a seat, but included refreshments and food. The show ran for 8.5 hours.

1986 - A summit conference between United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ended in Reykjavik without reaching any agreement on arms control.

1989 - Christer Pettersson, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, was freed by the Court of Appeal.

1989 - The United States House of Representatives approved a statutory federal ban on the destruction of the American flag.

1990 - Motorcycle gunmen killed Egyptian parliamentary speaker Rifaat Mahjoub and three of his bodyguards in a machine-gun ambush in Cairo.

1992 - An earthquake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale, struck Cairo killing 552 people were killed and injuring almost 10,000. The epicenter was not far from the great pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.

1994 - Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras was granted political asylum by Panama.

1995 - Panama grants asylum to Haiti's Raoul Cedras, who had taken power in a 1991 coup.

1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro endorses his brother Raul to succeed him when he dies.