TODAY N HISTORY

OCTOBER 16

1978:Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is elected pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church by the College of Cardinals at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Polish-born Wojtyla is the first non-Italian pope in more than 400 years; he takes the name John Paul II, after his immediate predecessor.

1847: Charlotte Bronte, writing under the pen name Currer Bell, has her first novel, Jane Eyre, published in London by Smith, Elder and Co.

1859: Abolitionist John Brown leads 21 armed men in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia in an attempt to incite an insurrection against slavery. Brown's rebellion will be put down three days later, and he will be executed for treason on Dec. 2, 1859. Before his execution, he will prophetically declare that "the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.