In 1825, the Erie Canal, the United States' first man-made waterway, was opened, linking the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River. The 500-mile waterway officially joined the National Park Service in 2000 as the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.

In 1881, the storied gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred in Tombstone, Ariz.

In 1920, the lord mayor of Cork, Ireland, Terence McSwiney, demanding independence for Ireland, died after a 2 1/2-month hunger strike in a British prison cell.

In 1942, Allied troops moving through the Egyptian front captured 1,450 Axis prisoners, routed Nazi tanks in the armored clash and pulverized the enemy line.

In 1944, after four days of furious fighting, the World War II battle of Leyte Gulf, largest air-naval clash in history, ended with a decisive U.S. victory over the Japanese.

In 1951, British voters placed Winston Churchill's Conservative Party at the helm of government today after six years of socialism.

In 1979, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was assassinated by the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.

In 1984, doctors in California performed the first baboon-to-human heart transplant in a 14-day-old girl, known as Baby Fae. The baby died of heart failure Nov. 15.

In 1990, District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $5,000 for his conviction on misdemeanor drug charges. Barry became mayor again in 1995.

In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty at a desert site along the Israeli-Jordanian border.