An incident that brings America closer to Civil War. Abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on a Federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry in what’s now West Virginia, hoping to spark a slave revolt. Brown later surrenders and is executed.

1793During the French Revolution Queen Marie Antoinette who was said to have told France starving people, “Let them eat cake” is beheaded.

1978The Roman Catholic Church chooses its first non-Italian Pope in more than 450 years. He is Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who takes the name of John Paul II.

1973American Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. They are honored for negotiating a cease-fire in the Vietnam War. But Le declines the award saying he can’t accept because the Vietnamese don’t have peace.

1998In London British police arrest Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet. They detain him for questioning about the allegations that he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years in power. Pinochet eventually returns to Chile but he faces investigations and court cases there until he dies 8 years later.

1916Margaret Sanger opens the first birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. She is later arrested and serves 30 days in jail after police raid the clinic.

1987End of a 58-and-a-half-hour drama in Midland, Texas. That’s where rescuers free Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old girl trapped in an abandoned well.

And 1997Novelist James Michener whose South Pacific tales inspired Broadway musical, dies in Austin, Texas.

Today in History, October 16th, Tim Maguire, the Associate Press.