#Middlebury
On Oct. 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, is taken to the guillotine and beheaded nine months after her husband, the former King Louis XVI of France. Marie Antoinette and Louis, unpopular and accused of high treason due to France’s financial woes, had been caught trying to flee to Austria.- On Oct. 10, 1845, the United States Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland. The curriculum for the 50 midshipmen students included French, English, gunnery and steam and chemistry. In 1850, the name was changed from the Naval School to the U.S. Naval Academy, and students were required to serve on ships during summers for four years.
- On Oct. 14, 1857, engineer and inventor Elwood Haynes is born in Portland, Indiana. Haynes designed one of the very first American automobiles using a gas engine he saw in use at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The finished product weighed 820 pounds and moved on 28-inch bicycle wheels.
- On Oct. 12, 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I. Cavell was honored with a statue in St. Martin’s Place, just off London’s Trafalgar Square.
- On Oct. 11, 1925, novelist Elmore Leonard is born in New Orleans. After publishing numerous Western novels (including “Hombre”), Leonard turned to suspense and crime fiction. Best known of these are “Get Shorty” and “The Big Bounce.”
- On Oct. 13, 1953, the 45-foot Artmobile, the world’s first art museum on wheels, arrives in Virginia carrying 16 paintings by 15th- and 16th-century masters. It attracted 5,000 visitors in the first few weeks. Art objects were loaned for exhibit by famous museums across the country until the Artmobile was canceled in 1994 due to budget cuts.
- On Oct. 15, 1965, in one of several identical events across the country, Catholic priest David Miller burns his draft card in New York. For violating the recent law banning the burnings, Miller was arrested and sentenced to two years in jail.
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