October 20th

Today's Highlight in History:
On October 20th, 1968, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

On this date:
In 1803, the US Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1892, the city of Chicago dedicated the World's Columbian Exposition.

In 1903, a joint commission ruled in favor of the United States in a boundary dispute between the District of Alaska and Canada.

In 1944, during World War Two, General Douglas MacArthur stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, two and a-half years after he'd said, "I shall return."

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence and infiltration within the American motion picture industry.

In 1964, the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, died in New York at age 90.

In 1967, seven men were convicted in Meridian, Mississippi, of violating the civil rights of three murdered civil rights workers.

In 1973, in the so-called "Saturday Night Massacre," special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed and Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus resigned.

In 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.

In 1979, the John F. Kennedy Library was dedicated in Boston.

Ten years ago: Three members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were acquitted by a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of violating obscenity laws with an adults-only concert in nearby Hollywood the previous June. The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, 2-to-1, sweeping the Oakland A's in four games.

Five years ago: France, the United States and Britain announced a treaty banning atomic blasts in the South Pacific -- but only after France finished testing there the following year. NATO Secretary General Willy Claes resigned to face corruption charges in his native Belgium (he later received a three-year suspended jail sentence). Space shuttle "Columbia" was launched on a research flight that had been delayed six times.

One year ago: The government laid out new rules to protect children's privacy on the Internet and to shield them from commercial e-mail. Elizabeth Dole abandoned her Republican bid to be America's first woman president.

"Next to ingratitude, the most painful thing to bear is gratitude."

-- Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (1813-1887).