OCTOBER 24th

On this date in:
1648	The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War and, effectively, the Holy Roman Empire.
1861	The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from California to President Abraham Lincoln.
1931	The George Washington Bridge, connecting New York and New Jersey, was dedicated. (It opened to traffic the next day.)
1940	The 40-hour work week went into effect in the United States.
1952	Republican presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, "I shall go to Korea" as he promised to end the conflict.
1962	The U.S. blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis began under a proclamation signed by President John F. Kennedy.
1987	Thirty years after it was expelled for refusing to answer allegations of corruption, the Teamsters union was welcomed back into the AFL-CIO.
1992	The Toronto Blue Jays became the first team outside the United States to win a World Series as they defeated the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in Game 6.
1999	Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., died at age 77.
2001	The House passed a $100 billion economic stimulus package in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
2002	Authorities arrested Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks. (Muhammad was later sentenced to death, Malvo to life in prison.)
2003	The era of supersonic jet travel came to an end as three British Airways Concordes landed at London's Heathrow Airport.
2005	Civil rights activist Rosa Parks died at age 92.
2007	Rapidly rising Internet star Facebook Inc. sold a 1.6 percent stake to Microsoft Corp. for $240 million, spurning a competing offer from online search leader Google Inc.

Article of the day

First barrel ride down Niagara Falls

On this day in 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

After her husband died in the Civil War, the New York-born Taylor moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City, Michigan, around 1898. In July 1901, while reading an article about the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of the growing popularity of two enormous waterfalls located on the border of upstate New York and Canada. Strapped for cash and seeking fame, Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt: She would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Taylor was not the first person to attempt the plunge over the famous falls. In October 1829, Sam Patch, known as the Yankee Leaper, survived jumping down the 175-foot Horseshoe Falls of the Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border. More than 70 years later, Taylor chose to take the ride on her birthday, October 24. (She claimed she was in her 40s, but genealogical records later showed she was 63.) With the help of two assistants, Taylor strapped herself into a leather harness inside an old wooden pickle barrel five feet high and three feet in diameter. With cushions lining the barrel to break her fall, Taylor was towed by a small boat into the middle of the fast-flowing Niagara River and cut loose.

Knocked violently from side to side by the rapids and then propelled over the edge of Horseshoe Falls, Taylor reached the shore alive, if a bit battered, around 20 minutes after her journey began. After a brief flurry of photo-ops and speaking engagements, Taylor's fame cooled, and she was unable to make the fortune for which she had hoped. She did, however, inspire a number of copy-cat daredevils. Between 1901 and 1995, 15 people went over the falls; 10 of them survived. Among those who died were Jesse Sharp, who took the plunge in a kayak in 1990, and Robert Overcracker, who used a jet ski in 1995. No matter the method, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, and survivors face c

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Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=5464

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