On Oct. 14, 1947, U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier as he flew a Bell X-1 rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California. In 2012, Yeager, at the age of 89, marked the 65th anniversary of that flight by smashing through the sound barrier again, this time in the backseat of an F-15.
Also on this date: In 1792, the cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid by President George Washington during a ceremony in the District of Columbia. In 1932, President Herbert Hoover and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington. In 1943, Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis partner.