Today is Saturday, Oct. 18, the 291st day of 2025. There are 74 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Oct. 18, 1977, Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in Game 6 of the World Series to lead the New York Yankees to an 8-4 win and a 4-2 Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers; his success in the Fall Classic earned him the nickname “Mr. October.”
Also on this date:
In 1867, the United States took formal possession of Alaska from Russia.
In 1898, the American flag was first raised in Puerto Rico, shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the U.S.
In 1931, inventor Thomas Edison died at his home in West Orange, New Jersey, at the age of 84.
In 1954, Texas Instruments unveiled the Regency TR-1, the first commercially produced transistor radio.
In 1962, James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
In 1968, American Bob Beamon shattered the previous long jump world record by nearly two feet, leaping 29 feet, 2 1/4 inches (8.90 meters) at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City.
In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, overriding President Richard Nixon’s veto.
In 1977, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 87 hostages and four crew members and killing three of the four hijackers; the Lufthansa flight had been hijacked five days earlier by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and made multiple stops before the rescue raid.
In 2007, two bombs exploded near a motorcade carrying former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi hours after her return from eight years in exile, killing more than 130 people; Bhutto herself was unhurt but would be assassinated in December 2007.
In 2018, President Donald Trump threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico if authorities could not stop a caravan of migrants from Central America.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka is 86.
- Composer Howard Shore is 79.
- Actor Joe Morton is 78.
- Author Terry McMillan is 74.
- Tennis Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova is 69.
- Boxing Hall of Famer Thomas Hearns is 67.
- Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme is 65.
- Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is 64.
- Musician Ne-Yo is 46.
- Olympic gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn is 41.
- Jazz singer-musician Esperanza Spalding is 41.
- Actor Freida Pinto is 41.
- Actor Zac Efron is 38.
- WNBA center Brittney Griner is 35.
- Actor Tyler Posey is 34.
- Actor Barry Keoghan is 33.