Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine the Great defeats the forces of Maxentius. Roman emporer Constantine converts himself and the empire to Christianity
1492 - Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba
1868 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder
1886 - In New York Harbor, US President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty
1918 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary
1936 - US President Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
1942 - The Alaska Highway is completed
1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba
1965 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall catenarian steel Gateway Arch is completed
1970 - land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket powered automobile called the Blue Flame
1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor

Births
1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian geographer (d. 1793)
1793 - Eliphalet Remington, firearm manufacturer (d. 1861)
1846 - Georges Auguste Escoffier, chef
1903 - Evelyn Waugh, novelist (d. 1966)
1914 - Dr. Jonas Salk, scientist, discoverer of polio vaccine (d. 1995)
1937 - Charlie Daniels, musician
1944 - Dennis Franz, actor
1964 - Paul Wylie, figure skating champion

Deaths
1704 - John Locke, philosopher
1794 - John Smeaton, civil engineer

Holidays & Observances
Feast day of Saint Jude Thaddaeus
Greece - National Day
Czech Republic - Independence Day (Founding Day)