Today in History: Sunday, October 14, 2012
On Oct. 14, 1947 Air Force test pilot Charles E. Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier when he flew the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.
1890 Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas.
1910 Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach John Wooden was born near Martinsville, Ind.
1933 Nazi Germany announced it was withdrawing from the League of Nations.
1944 German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
1960 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested formation of a Peace Corps during a talk at the University of Michigan.
1964 Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1968 The first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.
1977 Singer Bing Crosby died at age 73.
1979 Hockey Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scored the first of his record 894 goals in a home game against the Vancouver Cancucks.
1986 Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1987 A 58-hour drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down an abandoned well at a private day care center.
1990 Composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein died at age 72.
1991 Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
2006 The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose punishing sanctions on North Korea for carrying out a nuclear test.