Today is Monday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2010. There are 67 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Oct. 25, 1910, “America the Beautiful,” with words by Katharine Lee Bates and music by Samuel A. Ward, was first published.

On this date

In 1760, Britain’s King George III succeeded his late grandfather, George II.

In 1854, the “Charge of the Light Brigade” took place during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600 men, facing hopeless odds, charged the Russian army and suffered heavy losses.

In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown went on trial in Charles Town, Va., for his failed raid at Harpers Ferry. (Brown was convicted and hanged.)

In 1918, the Canadian steamship Princess Sophia foundered off the coast of Alaska; some 350 people perished.

In 1929, former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted in Washington, D.C., of accepting a $100,000 bribe from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny. (Fall was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000; he ended up serving nine months.)

In 1957, mob boss Albert Anastasia of “Murder Inc.” notoriety was shot to death in a barber shop inside the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York.

In 1962, U.S. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson presented photographic evidence of Soviet-built missile bases in Cuba to the U.N. Security Council.

In 1971, the U.N. General Assembly voted to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan.

In 1983, a U.S.-led force invaded Grenada at the order of President Ronald Reagan, who said the action was needed to protect U.S. citizens there.

Ten years ago

Laboring in the frigid murk of the Barents Sea, divers found and removed the first bodies from the wreckage of the nuclear submarine Kursk, which sank on Aug. 12, 2000, with the loss of all 118 sailors aboard.

Five years ago

U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached the 2,000 mark. Iraq’s election commission declared that final results from the Oct. 15 referendum showed the new constitution was ratified by a huge margin, paving the way for elections.

One year ago

A pair of suicide car bombings devastated the heart of Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, killing 155 people, including 24 children. Philanthropist Jeffry Picower, accused of profiting more than $7 billion from the investment schemes of his longtime friend Bernard Madoff, drowned after suffering a heart attack in the swimming pool of his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion; he was 67.

Today’s Birthdays

Actress Jeanne Cooper is 82. Actress Marion Ross is 82. Country singer Jeanne Black is 73. Basketball Hall of Famer Bobby Knight is 70. Political strategist James Carville is 66. Actor Brian Kerwin is 61. Actor Mark L. Taylor is 60. Movie director Julian Schnabel is 59. Rock musician Matthias Jabs is 54. Actress Nancy Cartwright (“The Simpsons”) is 53. Country singer Mark Miller (Sawyer Brown) is 52. Rock musician Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers; Chickenfoot) is 49. Actress Tracy Nelson is 47. Actor Michael Boatman is 46. Actor Kevin Michael Richardson is 46. Singer Speech is 42. Actor Adam Goldberg is 40. Actor-singer Adam Pascal is 40. Rock musician Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies) is 40. Actress Persia White is 40. Country singer Chely Wright is 40. Violinist Midori is 39. Actor Craig Robinson is 39. Actor Michael Weston is 37. Actor Zachary Knighton is 32. Actor Mehcad Brooks is 30. Actor Ben Gould is 30. Rhythm-and-blues singer Young Rome is 29. Pop singer Katy Perry is 26. Rock singer Austin Winkler (Hinder) is 26. Singer Ciara is 25. Actress Conchita Campbell (“The 4400”) is 15.

Thought for Today

“Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.”

— Mary McCarthy, author and critic (born 1912, died this date in 1989)