On this date in . . .

1905: James Blackstone of Seattle set a world record by bowling 299½. On the last roll, one pin broke in half and half of it remained standing. Honest.

1938: Robert George Pickett was born in Somerville,: Massachusettes. Bobby was known by his nickname "Boris" when he hit it big with the graveyard smash, "Monster Mash," at Halloween in 1962, 1970 and 1973. Pickett also charted with " Monsters' Holiday" in 1962 and "Graduation Day" in 1963. He died of leukemia in 2007 at age 69.

1942: The Archie comic book debuted, featuring Riverdale High’s Archie Andrews, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and the rich, conniving Reggie. Archie had debuted two months earlier in Pep comics. Spinoffs included a long-time radio show, two TV cartoon series, and a rock group called The Archies.

1966: Willie Mays became the highest-paid baseball player, signing a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants for about $130,000 a year.

1977: History’s fattest lobster was caught off the Nova Scotia coast. It weighed 44 pounds 6 ounces and measured 3½ feet from claw tip to tail fan.

1989: In a Boston ceremony, the Rev. Barbara C. Harris became the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal church.

1990: In a stunning upset, heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was knocked out in the tenth round of his fight with Buster Douglas in Tokyo. Douglas went into the fight a 35-1 underdog.

1990: Georges de Mestral died in Switzerland at age 82. He invented Velcro and the asparagus peeler.

1993: President Bill Clinton announced his choice of Miami prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation's first female attorney general.

1994: Former Arkansas state clerical worker Paula Jones accused Bill Clinton of making improper sexual advances three years earlier in a Little Rock hotel room. The President said it never happened.

1998: The Church of England voted temptation out of the Lord’s Prayer. Meeting in London, senior clerics approved a modern version of the prayer, deleting the words "Lead us not into temptation" and substituting "Save us from the time of trial."

2001: Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh was demolished to make way for new baseball and football stadiums.

2003: A deli worker in New York caught a butcher's knife after it was thrown at her by a robber. Rosa Dela Cruz managed to grab the knife by its handles, stopping it just inches from her face. Police, who caught the robber outside the store, said it was incredible Cruz wasn't hurt.

2004: Cable TV giant Comcast Corporation launched a hostile bid to buy The Walt Disney Company for more than $54 billion. Comcast later withdrew the bid.