On This Day:
Monday October 28, 2013 This is the 301st day of the year, with 64 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: Swiss Army Knife Tools There are hundreds of models of this multibladed pocketknife which evolved from the knives issued to Swiss soldiers beginning in 1886. Although the knives were originally made in Germany, Swiss cutler Karl Elsener began making soldiers' knives in 1891, equipping them with a blade, reamer, screwdriver, and can opener. The officer's knife, with a second blade and corkscrew, appeared in 1897. The knives continue to be supplied by two Swiss manufacturers, Victorinox (Elsener's firm) and Wenger; both the military and civilian models bear the Swiss federal cross logo.
Holidays Feast day of Saints Anastasia and Cyril, St. Faro, St. Abraham of Ephesus, St. Salvius or Saire, St. Simon, St. Jude or Thaddeus, and St. Fidelis of Como.
Czech Republic: Foundation of the Republic Anniversary.
Greece: Ohi Day/Day of the No.
Saint Jude's Day.
Events 969 - The Byzantines siege ended 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.
1636 - The college that later was known as Harvard University was founded by an act of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin.
1831 - English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday demonstrated the first dynamo.
1886 - The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France designed by sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. It was originally named Liberty Enlightening the World.
1914 - George Eastman, of Eastman Kodak Company, announced the introduction of a color photographic process.
1919 - Congress passed the Volstead Act, or National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.
1922 - Benito Mussolini took control of the government and fascism was instituted.
1940 - Italy invaded Greece during World War II.
1949 - Helen Eugenie Moore Anderson was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, becoming the first female American ambassador.
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis effectively ended as Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announced his government's intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons from Cuba.
1965 - Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
1965 - The Gateway Arch was completed as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri.
1970 - Senator James William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused the Nixon administration of conducting an illegal war in Laos without congressional knowledge or approval.
1982 - Felipe González became Spain's first Socialist prime minister.
1990 - Non-Communist parties triumphed in elections in Georgia, USSR.
2002 - American diplomat Laurence Foley was assassinated in front of his house in Amman, Jordan.
Births 1467 - Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch author and scholar.
1846 - Georges August Escoffier, French culinary artist and author.
1875 - Gilbert Grosvenor, American geographer, credited with transforming "National Geographic" into a renowned magazine.
1903 - Evelyn Waugh, English novelist.
1907 - Edith Head, American costume designer.
1914 - Jonas Salk, American medical researcher and inventor of polio vaccine.
1933 - Suzy Parker, American model and actress.
1955 - William Gates, American computing entrepreneur, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation.
Deaths 1704 - John Locke, English philosopher.
1996 - Morey Amsterdam, American veteran television actor and comedian.
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