This Day in History: Oct. 10

On this day, Oct. 10 …

1845: the U.S. Naval Academy is established in Annapolis, Md.

Also on this day:

1913: The Panama Canal is effectively completed as President Woodrow Wilson sends a signal from the White House by telegraph, setting off explosives that destroyed a section of the Gamboa dike.
1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after the official is refused seating in a Howard Johnson's restaurant near Dover, Del.
1962: President John F. Kennedy, responding to the Thalidomide birth defects crisis, signs an amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act requiring pharmaceutical companies to prove that their products are safe and effective prior to marketing.
1964: The first Summer Olympics to be held in Asia are opened in Tokyo by Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
1967: The Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, enters into force.
1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, pleads no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion, and resigns his office.
1985: U.S. fighter jets forces an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the gunmen are taken into custody.
1985: Actor-director Orson Welles dies in Los Angeles at age 70; actor Yul Brynner dies in New York at age 65.

(Warner Bros. c/o Everett Collection))

2004: Christopher Reeve, best known for his portrayal of "Superman" on the big screen and who became a quadriplegic after a May 1995 horse riding accident, dies in Mount Kisco, N.Y., at age 52.
2014: Malala Yousafzai, a 17-year-old Pakistani girl, and Kailash Satyarthi, a 60-year-old Indian man, are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for risking their lives for the right of children to receive an education and to live free from abuse.
2018: Stocks plunge as investors fear that rising interest rates and trade tensions could hurt company profits; the Dow industrials fall 831 points, the worst loss for the index in eight months.