TODAY IN HISTORY - OCTOBER 20TH

1632 – Christopher Wren, English physicist, mathematician, and architect, designed St Paul's Cathedral (d. 1723) is born.

1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The Convention of 1818 is signed between the United States and the United Kingdom, which settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.

1882 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (d. 1956) is born.

1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1927 – Joyce Brothers, American psychologist, author, and actress (d. 2013) is born.

1936 – Bobby Seale, American activist, co-founded the Black Panther Party is born.

1944 – Liquefied natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland and then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.

1944 – American general Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

1947 – The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.

1953 – Richard McWilliam, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded the Upper Deck Company (d. 2013) is born.

1964 – Herbert Hoover, American engineer and politician, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874) dies.

1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.

1973 – The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction work.

1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die, and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.

1977 – Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashes.

1981 – Two police officers and an armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery in Rockland County, New York, carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground.

1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

2014 – Oscar de la Renta, Dominican-American fashion designer (b. 1932) dies.