Today in History: October 14, Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier

On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier as he flew a Bell X-1 rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California. In 2012, Yeager, at the age of 89, marked the 65th anniversary of that flight by smashing through the sound barrier again, this time in the backseat of an F-15.

Also on this date:

In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.

In 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I. (Mary was beheaded in February 1587.)

In 1910, aviator Claude Grahame-White flew his biplane over Washington, D.C., and landed it on West Executive Avenue, next to the White House.

In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took his own life rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1964, in one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history, American Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota, won the 10,000-meter race at the Tokyo Summer Games, setting a new Olympic record.

In 1981, the new president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak (HOHS’-nee moo-BAH’-rahk), was sworn in to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat.

In 1986, Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel (EL’-ee vee-ZEHL’) was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2008, a grand jury in Orlando, Florida, returned charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and aggravated manslaughter against Casey Anthony in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. (She was acquitted in July 2011.)

In 2024, a Space X rocket launched the NASA spacecraft Europa Clipper on a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to determine whether conditions there could support life; the spacecraft will arrive in 2030.

Today’s Birthdays: Former White House counsel John W. Dean III is 87. Fashion designer Ralph Lauren is 86. Football Hall of Famer Charlie Joiner is 78. Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel is 69. Musician Thomas Dolby is 67. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is 64. Actor Steve Coogan is 60. TV host Stephen A. Smith is 58. Country singer Natalie Maines (The Chicks) is 51. Actor Chang Chen is 49. Singer Usher is 47. Actor-comedian Jay Pharoah is 38.