25 YEARS AGO

October 3, 1977 The United States threatens to impose punitive tariffs on five Japanese companies found to be “dumping” steel plate in the American market at prices below cost.

October 18, 1977 Reggie Jackson homers in three consecutive at-bats, on the first pitch each time, as the New York Yankees defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 to win the World Series four games to two.

50 YEARS AGO

October 2, 1952 Great Britain becomes the third nation to explode an atomic bomb, after the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

October 3, 1952 The Soviet Union declares Ambassador George Kennan persona non grata after he has indiscreetly compared the U.S.S.R. to Nazi Germany at an airport press conference. Two days later, at the first Communist-party congress since 1939, Georgi Malenkov, the party secretary, accuses the United States of seeking a third world war in order to dominate the world.

October 24, 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower, the World War II hero now running for President, vows to go to Korea and seek an end to the war there if he is elected.

125 YEARS AGO

October 5, 1877 In Montana Territory, near the Canadian border, Army troops surround Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians and force him to surrender. He wearily accepts the confinement of his people to a reservation, declaring, “I will fight no more forever.”

200 YEARS AGO

October 19,1802 Philadelphia’s municipal water system begins operation. It is the first such utility in a major American city.

225 YEARS AGO

October 4, 1777 At German-town, British troops defeat Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army, which suffers 152 killed, 521 wounded, and about 400 captured.

October 17, 1777 At Saratoga, Gen. John Burgoyne surrenders more than 5,500 redcoats and Hessians to Gen. Horatio Gates.