Highlight: In 1983, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1829, the 21st president of the United States, Chester Alan Arthur, was born in North Fairfield, Vermont.

In 1931, Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon completed the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, arriving in Washington some 41 hours after leaving Japan.

In 1947, President Harry Truman delivered the first televised White House address as he spoke on the world food crisis.

In 1953, Earl Warren was sworn in as the 14th chief justice of the United States, succeeding Fred M. Vinson.

In 1958, racially desegregated Clinton High School in Clinton, Tennessee, was mostly leveled by an early-morning bombing.

In 1969, the British TV comedy program “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” made its debut on BBC 1.

In 1984, the space shuttle Challenger blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on an 8-day mission; the crew included Kathryn Sullivan, who became the first American woman to walk in space, and Marc Garneau, the first Canadian astronaut.

In 1988, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen lambasted Republican Dan Quayle during their vice presidential debate, telling Quayle, “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

In 1989, a jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, convicted former P-T-L evangelist Jim Bakker of using his television show to defraud followers.

In 1999, two packed commuter trains collided near London’s Paddington Station, killing 31 people.

In 2001, tabloid photo editor Robert Stevens died from inhaled anthrax, the first of a series of anthrax cases in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

In 2011, Apple founder Steve Jobs, 56, died in Palo Alto, California.

Ten years ago: Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin defended her claim that Barack Obama “pals around with terrorists,” referring to his association on a charity board a few years earlier with 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

Five years ago: A monster truck went out of control at an “Extreme Aeroshow” in Chihuahua, Mexico, killing eight people and injuring ten times as many.

One year ago: Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein announced that he was taking a leave of absence from his company after a New York Times article detailed decades of alleged sexual harassment against women including actress Ashley Judd.