October 21, 1854: Florence Nightingale with a staff of 38 nurses was sent to the Crimean War.

October 22, 1797: The first successful parachute descent was made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who jumped from a balloon at about 2,200 feet over Paris.

October 23, 1952: The Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Ukranian-born microbiologist Selmart A. Waksman for his discovery of an effective treatment of tuberculosis.

October 24, 1945: The United Nations came into existence with the ratification of its charter by the first 29 nations.

October 25, 1881: Artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was born in Malaga, Spain.

October 26, 1967: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowned himself Shah (Emperor) of Iran.

October 27, 1904: World's first underground and underwater subway opened in New York. The New York City Subway is one of the world's oldest public transit systems, one of the world's most used metro systems, and the metro system with the most stations and the most trackage.