Cuban Missile Crisis begins – Chicago Tribune

Today is Thursday, October 16, the 289th day of the year 2025. There are 76 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On October 16, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began when President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba.

Also on this date:

In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1793, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, was beheaded during the French Revolution.

In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then West Virginia. The raid failed to spark Brown’s planned slave rebellion, but deepened North-South animosities leading to the Civil War. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed, others fled, and Brown and six followers were captured and executed.)

In 1934, the Chinese Communists, under siege by the Nationalists, began their year-long “long march” from the southeast to the northwest of China.

In 1964, China launched its first atomic bomb, codenamed “596”, at the Lop Nur testing ground.

In 1968, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos caused controversy at the Mexico Olympics by saluting “Black power” during a victory ceremony after winning gold and bronze medals in the 200 meters.

In 1978, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Karol Wojtyla as the new pope; he took the name John Paul II.

In 1984, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu was named a Nobel Peace Prize winner for his decades of nonviolent struggle for racial equality in South Africa.

In 1987, 18-month-old Jessica McClure was pulled from an abandoned well in Midland, Texas, after being stuck there for more than two days. Efforts to save “Baby Jessica” captured the attention of the nation.

In 1991, a gunman opened fire at a Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 people before killing himself.

In 1995, the Million Man March, a gathering of black men intended to foster unity in the face of economic and social issues affecting African Americans, was held in Washington, DC.