Today in History - History - October 18th

2007After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland Pakistan. The same night, suicide attackers blow themselves up near Bhutto's convoy, killing over 100 in the cheering crowd, including 20 police officers. Bhutto escaped uninjured.

1685French King Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes cancelling rights of French Protestants

1926Frankfurter Zeitung publishes Lenin's political testament

1977Reggie Jackson hits 3 consecutive homers tying Ruth's series record

1950Connie Mack retires as manager of A's after 50 years

1942Hitler orders captured allied commandos to be killed

1969Rod Stewart joins Small Faces

1962JFK meets Soviet minister of foreign affairs Andrei Gromyko

1962Tony Sheridan & Beat Brothers record "Let's Dance"

1775African-American poet Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery.

1919Pierre Trudeau, Montreal Quebec, 15th Prime Minister of Canada

1956Martina Navratilova, Revnice Czech, tennis (Wimbledon 1989,79,82-87)

1960Jean-Claude Van Damme, Brussels Belgian, actor (Kickboxer, No Retreat)

1939Mike Ditka, Carnegie Pennsylvania, NFL coach/tight-end (Bears, Cowboys, NFL rookie year 1961)

1935Peter Boyle, Norristown Pennsylvania, American actor (Joe, Candidate, Everybody Loves Raymond)

1939Lee Harvey Oswald, New Orleans, Louisiana, assassin (JFK), (d. 1963)

1869Sardinia king Victor Emmanuel II (49) weds his mistress Rosa Vercellana (36) in Italy

1986"Fleetwood Mac" member Christine McVie (43) weds keyboardist Eduardo Quintela

2008Tennis player Michael Chang (35) weds fellow tennis player Amber Liu (24) at Lake Hills Community Church in Laguna Hills, California

1926Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh (36) weds midwife Zeng Xueming (21) in Guangzhou

1982Bess Truman, 1st lady (1945-53), dies in Independence, Mo at 97

1931Thomas Alva Edison, inventor, dies in West Orange, NJ, at 84