Today is Tuesday, Oct. 19, the 292nd day of 2010. There are 73 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Oct. 19, 1960, the United States began a limited embargo against Cuba as President Dwight Eisenhower banned exports to the communist-ruled nation covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.

ON THIS DATE

In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.

In 1781, British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va., as the American Revolution neared its end.

In 1951, President Harry S. Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.

In 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a sit-down protest at a lunch counter in Atlanta. (Sent to prison for a parole violation over a traffic offense, King was released after three days following an appeal by Robert F. Kennedy.)

In 1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.

In 1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value.

In 2000, a government advisory panel of scientists declared that PPA, an ingredient used in dozens of popular over-the-counter medicines, could not be classified as safe, saying it could be the cause of several hundred hemorrhagic strokes suffered annually by people under 50.

In 2005, a defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture as his trial opened in Baghdad. The Houston Astros clinched their first World Series berth with a 5-1 win over St. Louis in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

In 2009, the Justice Department told prosecutors that pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that allow medical marijuana.

Associated Press