Today in History....October 18

On this day in …

1469, Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile in Valladolid, thus beginning a cooperative reign that would unite all the dominions of Spain and elevate the nation to a dominant world power

1648, Boston shoemakers were authorized to form a guild to protect their interests; it's the first American labor organization on record
1767, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon complete their survey of the boundary between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland as well as areas that would eventually become the states of Delaware and West Virginia. The Penn and Calvert families had hired Mason and Dixon, English surveyors, to settle their dispute over the boundary between their two proprietary colonies, Pennsylvania and Maryland

1867, the United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia

1892, the first long-distance telephone line between New York and Chicago was officially opened (it could only handle one call at a time)

1898, the American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the U.S.

1940, Britain reopened the Burma Road linking Myanmar with China, three months after closing it

1944, Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia during World War II

1962, Dr. James D. Watson of the U.S., and Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins of Britain, were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA

2001,


CBS News announced that an employee in anchorman Dan Rather's office had tested positive for skin anthrax

Four disciples of Osama bin Laden were sentenced in New York to life without parole for their roles in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa