Today’s Highlight in History:

On October 14, 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas.

On this date:

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

In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for the White House as the Progressive (“Bull Moose”) candidate, went ahead with a speech in Milwaukee after being shot in the chest by New York saloonkeeper John Schrank, declaring, “It takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose.”

In 1939, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the HMS Royal Oak, a British battleship anchored at Scapa Flow in Scotland’s Orkney Islands; 833 of the more than 1,200 men aboard were killed.

In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face trial and certain execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.

In 1947, Air Force test pilot Charles E. (“Chuck”) Yeager broke the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California.

In 1959, actor Errol Flynn died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at age 50.

In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested the idea of a Peace Corps while addressing an audience of students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

In 1964, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev was toppled from power; he was succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

In 1977, singer Bing Crosby died outside Madrid, Spain, at age 74.

In 1987, a 58-hour drama began in Midland, Texas, as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down an abandoned well at a private day care center; she was rescued on October 16.

In 1990, composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein died in New York at age 72.

Ten years ago: The Treasury Department reported that the federal deficit hit $319 billion for just-ended budget year 2005, down from the previous year, but still the third highest to that time. Blond, blue-eyed British actor Daniel Craig was named the star of the next James Bond film, “Casino Royale.”

Five years ago: Chile’s 33 rescued miners posed with President Sebastian Pinera and were examined by doctors a day after they were freed from their underground prison. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taunted archenemy Israel from just across the tense border in Lebanon, rallying tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters.

One year ago: A second nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas came down with Ebola after contracting it from a dying patient. (The nurse, Amber Joy Vinson, was later declared free of the disease.) After a conspicuous public absence of nearly six weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared in images released by state media attending a pair of events, dispelling rumors that he was gravely ill, deposed — or worse. Cuban-American actress Elizabeth Pena, 55, died in Los Angeles. The San Francisco Giants topped the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 for a 2-1 lead in the NL Championship Series. The Kansas City Royals a commanding 3-0 lead in their AL Championship Series with a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

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