Today in History October 18

320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sun and writes a commentary on The Great Astronomer (Almagest).

1009 – The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church’s foundations down to bedrock.

1081 – The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.

1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland.

1386 – Opening of Heidelberg University. Founded in 1386, Heidelberg University is a public research university and is Germany’s oldest.

1851 – Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million.

1898 – The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.

1922 – The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1945 – The USSR’s nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Mr. Edison was born in 1847 and died in 1931

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio.

1130 – Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher (d. 1200)

1679 – Ann Putnam, Jr., American witness in the Salem witch trials (d. 1716)

1836 – Frederick August Otto Schwarz, American businessman, founded FAO Schwarz (d. 1911)

1904 – A. J. Liebling, American journalist and author (d. 1963)

1919 – Pierre Trudeau, Canadian lawyer, academic, and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)

1927 – George C. Scott, American actor and director (d. 1999)

1947 – Laura Nyro, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1997)

1950 – Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright and author (d. 2006)

1141 – Leopold, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1108)

1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician and engineer, invented the mechanical computer (b. 1791)

1931 – Thomas Edison, American engineer and businessman, invented the light bulb and phonograph (b. 1847)

1966 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (b. 1867)

2013 – Tom Foley,  57th Speaker of the US House of Representatives (b. 1929)