Today in history, Oct. 16

Today in history

1793: During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded.

1846: Dentist William T. Morton demonstrated the effectiveness of ether as an anesthetic by administering it to a patient undergoing jaw surgery before an audience of doctors in Boston.

1859: Radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of 21 men in a raid on Harpers Ferry in western Virginia.

1916: Planned Parenthood had its beginnings as Margaret Sanger and her sister, Ethel Byrne, opened a birth control clinic in Brooklyn, N.Y.

1946: Ten Nazi war criminals condemned at the Nuremberg trials were hanged.

1978: The College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose Cardinal Karol Wojtyla to be the new pope; he took the name John Paul II.

Associated Press