On Oct. 25, 1859, American evangelist and radical abolitionist John Brown went on trial in Charles Town, Virginia, for his failed raid at Harpers Ferry. (He was convicted and later hanged.)

In 1962, during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson II demanded that Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin confirm or deny the existence of Soviet-built missile bases in Cuba. Stevenson then presented photographic evidence of the bases to the council.

In 1983, a U.S.-led force invaded Grenada at the order of President Ronald Reagan.

In 1999, golfer Payne Stewart and five others were killed when their Learjet crashed in a field in South Dakota; Stewart was 42.

In 2022, Rishi Sunak became Britain’s first prime minister of color after being chosen to lead a governing Conservative Party.