Tuesday, Oct. 14, is the 287th day of 2014. There are 78 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Roger Moore is 87. Former White House counsel John Dean is 76. Designer Ralph Lauren is 75. Singer Sir Cliff Richard is 74. Singer Justin Hayward (Moody Blues) is 68. Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel is 58. Singer-musician Thomas Dolby is 56. MLB manager Joe Girardi is 50. Actor Steve Coogan is 49. Country singer Natalie Maines (The Dixie Chicks) is 40. Singer Usher is 36. Director Benh Zeitlin is 32.
In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at Hastings.
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In 1586, Mary, Queen of Scots, went on trial in England, accused of committing treason against Elizabeth I. (Mary was beheaded in February.)
In 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president, was born in Denison, Texas.
In 1944, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face trial for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
In 1947, Air Force test pilot 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 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, succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev as first secretary and by Alexei Kosygin as premier.
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 Oct. 16.