Today in History....October 11

On this day in …

* 1492, Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached East Asia

* 1582, because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain

* 1773, America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia

* 1792, first celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York

* 1793, the cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina

* 1823, Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat.

* 1892, the Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in unison by students in US public schools

* 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.

* 1928, an iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston

* 1932, the first American political telecast took place as the Democratic National Committee sponsored a program from a CBS television studio in New York

* 1933, the United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice

* 1942, World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo
Goto- dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack

* 1960, Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonialist policy being conducted in Eastern Europe

* 1984, Margaret Thatcher survives an IRA bomb, which shredded her bathroom barely two minutes after she had left it

* 1999, the Day of Six Billion: The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born

* 2000, the USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, practitioners of that "religion of peace"; 17 crew members were killed and at least 39 were wounded

* 2002, the Senate joined the House in approving, 77-23, use of America's military might against Iraq

* 2006, a plane carrying New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and flight instructor Tyler Stanger crashed into a high-rise apartment building in New York City, killing both men. ALSO: The charge of treason was used for the first time in the U.S. war on terrorism, filed against Adam Yehiye Gadahn, who'd appeared in propaganda videos for al-Qaida