Today in History
On Oct. 26, 1861, the legendary Pony Express officially ceased operations, giving way to the transcontinental telegraph.
In 1944, the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf ended in a major Allied victory over Japanese forces, whose naval capabilities were badly crippled.
In 1965, The Beatles received MBE medals as Members of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
In 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty during a ceremony at the Israeli-Jordanian border attended by President Bill Clinton.
In 2001, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.
Former nurse's aide Chante Mallard (SHAHN'-tay MAL'-urd) struck a homeless man, Gregory Biggs, with her car on a Fort Worth, Texas, highway; Biggs, who became lodged in the windshield, died in Mallard's garage after she refused to seek assistance for him and instead enlisted the help of a friend and his cousin to dispose of the body.
President Barack Obama recalled his struggles with student loan debt as he unveiled a plan at the University of Colorado Denver that could give millions of young people some relief on their payments.
In a verdict that disappointed pro-democracy activists, two Egyptian policemen who beat a man to death were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter and given a relatively light sentence in a case that helped spark Egypt's uprising.
The World Health Organization, throwing its global weight behind years of experts' warnings, declared that processed meats raised the risk of colon and stomach cancer and that red meat was probably harmful, too.
Olympic silver medal figure skater Sasha Cohen is 32.