Today in History, 10/14

1066: At the Battle of Hastings, the forces of William the Conqueror defeat the Saxon army and kill King Harold II of England. In this scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, you can see Harold yanking an arrow out of his eye! Still, getting an arrow in the eye is enough to take the wind out of the sails of even a badass Saxon king and he wound up losing.

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1322: Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.
1586: Mary I of Scotland goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England.
1644: William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, is born.
1789: George Washington proclaims the first Thanksgiving Day.
1834: In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
1863: At the Battle of Bristoe Station, Confederate General Robert E. Lee forces fail to drive the Union Army out of Virginia.
1884: George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film.
1887: Bernard Law Montgomery is born. He and Patton were the Punch and Judy of the Allied war effort of WWII.1890: General Dwight Eisenhower is born.1894: E.E. Cummings is born.1910: English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman biplane on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House. I wouldn't advise that stunt today.1912: While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
1916: C. Everett Koop is born.1926: Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, is first published.
1927: Roger Moore is born.

1933: Nazi Germany withdraws from The League of Nations.
1938: John Dean, Watergate figure is born.1939: German U-Boat U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
1943: Prisoners at the Sobibor death camp in Poland revolt, resulting in the death of 11 SS. About half of the camp's 600 prisoners escape; about 50 survive the war.
1944: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face execution for conspiring against Adolf Hitler.1944: Udo Kier is born.
1947: Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.1948: Harry Anderson is born.

1949: Katy Manning is born. She played the hippie companion Jo, of the Jon Pertwee Doctor Who.1957: Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open the Parliament of Canada with the Speech from the Throne.
1958: Thomas Dolby is born. He did the seminal 80's video "She Blinded Me With Science." Good heavens, Miss Yakamoto, you're beautiful!

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis begins as a U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.
1964: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1967: Folk singer Joan Baez is arrested in a blockade of the military induction center in Oakland, California.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.