On Oct. 18, 1867, the United States completed its purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million, taking possession of the territory from Russia.

The United States formally took possession of Alaska, a vast territory purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, which was roughly two cents per acre.

It was already a terrible hurricane season in several ways. Then Wilma formed, and would soon explode into the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. Here's what happened 20 years ago.

On Oct. 16, 1793, following her conviction for treason, French Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, was beheaded on the Place de la Revolution.

Elvis Presley’s appearance on the live radio show in Shreveport was considered to be one of his first big breaks.

On this day in 1979, the Department of Education was created. President Jimmy Carter made the decision to create the department and signed it into law. President Carter wanted to address systemic inequities and ensure equal access to quality education for all students. The department unified federal education programs under one roof.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - On this date in 1859, John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, WV, began. It ended up being a failed attempt by abolitionists to start a nationwide slave uprising by seizing the entire armory at Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle.

On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager climbed into the experimental Bell X-1 rocket-propelled aircraft for a test flight over the Mojave Desert.

Oct. 15, 1920, Detroit made traffic history. The first-every four-way stoplight was installed at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Michigan Avenue. The invention transformed driving, setting the standard for intersections around the globe and proving that Motor City’s innovation extended beyond the car itself.

October 13, 1923 - The Nebraska Cornhuskers Football team played the University of Oklahoma in Memorial Stadium on Oct. 13, 1923. It was the first game in the new stadium after years of planning and fundraising.

The State Board of Education refused to stop work for the day and school remained open, saying “it failed to discover any reason why it should quit business because Columbus went out on a cruise 408 years ago and sighted land.”

Columbus Day is a US federal holiday commemorating Italian explorer Christopher Columbus’s landing in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Celebrated annually on the second Monday of October, the holiday honors Columbus’s contributions to exploration,