Today is Thursday, Oct. 28, the 301st day of 2021. There are 64 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Oct. 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.

On this date:

In 1636, the General Court of Massachusetts passed a legislative act establishing Harvard College.

In 1858, Rowland Hussey Macy opened his first New York store at Sixth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan.

In 1914, medical researcher Jonas Salk, who developed the first successful polio vaccine, was born in New York.

In 1922, fascism came to Italy as Benito Mussolini took control of the government.

In 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the United States that he had ordered the dismantling of missile bases in Cuba; in return, the U.S. secretly agreed to remove nuclear missiles from U.S. installations in Turkey.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter and Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan faced off in a nationally broadcast, 90-minute debate in Cleveland.

In 1991, what became known as “The Perfect Storm” began forming hundreds of miles east of Nova Scotia; lost at sea during the storm were the six crew members of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat from Gloucester, Massachusetts.

In 1996, Richard Jewell, cleared of committing the Olympic park bombing, held a news conference in Atlanta in which he thanked his mother for standing by him and lashed out at reporters and investigators who’d depicted him as the bomber, who turned out to be Eric Rudolph.

In 2013, Penn State said it would pay $59.7 million to 26 young men over claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Jane Alexander is 82. Actor Dennis Franz is 77. Caitlyn Jenner is 72. Actor Annie Potts is 69. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is 66. Actor Lauren Holly is 58. Actor Julia Roberts is 54. Country singer Brad Paisley is 49. Actor Joaquin Phoenix is 47.