Today

· 1792 The cornerstone of the White House was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.

· 1974 Television host Ed Sullivan died in New York City at age 72.

· 1999 In Boulder, Colo., the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months of work, with prosecutors saying there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old's strangulation.

Tuesday

· 1964 Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

· 1912 Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for president of the United States, was shot in the chest in Milwaukee. Despite the wound, he went ahead with a scheduled speech.

· 1968 The first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.

Wednesday

· 1860 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, N.Y., wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard.

· 1969 Peace demonstrators staged activities across the country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part of a demonstration against the Vietnam War.

Thursday

· 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the French Revolution.

· 1987 Rescuers freed Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old girl trapped in an abandoned well for 58 hours in Midland, Texas.

· 1999 A New York Air National Guard plane rescued Dr. Jerri Nielsen from a South Pole research center after she'd spent five months isolated by the Antarctic winter. During her isolation, she was forced her to treat herself for a breast lump.

Friday

· 1933 Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

· 1979 Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her years of work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta.

· 1989 An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck northern California, killing 67 people and causing $7 billion worth of damage during game one of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.