QUOTE UNQUOTE
“We are not on earth as museum keepers, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life and to prepare a glorious future.”
ANGELO GIUSEPPE RONCALLI,
ELECTED POPE ON THIS DATE IN 1958, TAKING THE NAME JOHN XXIII
Today’s highlight in history
On Oct. 28, 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of missile bases in Cuba; in return, the U.S. secretly agreed to remove nuclear missiles from U.S. installations in Turkey.
On this date
In 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a legislative act establishing Harvard College.
In 1726, the original edition of “Gulliver’s Travels,” a satirical novel by Jonathan Swift, was first published in London.
In 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.
In 1940, Italy invaded Greece during World War II.
In 1958, the Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected pope; he took the name John XXIII.
In 1965, Pope Paul VI issued a Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions which, among other things, absolved Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In 1991, what became known as “The Perfect Storm” began forming hundreds of miles east of Nova Scotia; lost at sea during the storm were the six crew members of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat from Gloucester, Mass.
Ten years ago: Stacy Peterson, the 23-year-old fourth wife of police sergeant Drew Peterson, disappeared in suburban Chicago. (Her fate has never been determined; Drew Peterson was convicted in September 2012 of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio.)
Five years ago: Airlines canceled more than 7,000 flights in advance of Hurricane Sandy, transit systems in New York, Philadelphia and Washington were shut down and forecasters warned the New York area could see an 11-foot wall of water.
One year ago: The FBI announced it was investigating whether emails on a device belonging to disgraced excongressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of one of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, Huma Abedin, might contain classified information.