MOMENTS IN TIME

* On Oct. 28, 1775, the commander in chief of the British army, Major Gen. Sir William Howe, forbids Boston residents to leave the city. He ordered citizens to organize into military companies for the preservation of order.

* On Oct. 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city's new subway, which traveled 9.1 miles through 28 stations. More than 100,000 people paid a nickel each to take their first ride.

* On Oct. 26, 1944, after four days of fighting, the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, the largest air-naval battle in history, ends with a decisive American victory over the Japanese.

* On Oct. 22, 1962, in a televised address, President John F. Kennedy announces that the Soviet Union has placed nuclear weapons in Cuba and, in response, the United States will establish a blockade around the island.

* On Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. The Marines were part of a multinational force sent to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon.

* On Oct. 25, 1994, Susan Smith reports that she was carjacked in South Carolina by a man who took her two small children in the backseat of her car. After nine days, Smith confessed that the carjacking tale was false and that she had driven her Mazda into a lake in order to drown her children. Smith, though married, was involved with another man who did not want children.

* On Oct. 24, 2003, the British Airways supersonic Concorde jet makes its last commercial passenger flight, traveling from New York to London. The Concorde, developed jointly by the British and French governments, began commercial service in 1976.

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