Today, 20 October 2011, is the 293rd day of the year, with 72 days remaining of the year and 65 days, 13 hours and 51 minutes until Christmas, but who's counting?
On this Day:

• 1720: Calico Jack, the Caribbean pirate, is captured by England's Royal Navy.
• 2003: Kirk Jones became the first person to ever intentionally go over the Niagara Falls and survive. Even though the Falls rush at 570000 litres a second, he survived with only bruised ribs. He was fined and barred from entering Canada for life.
• 1982: The world's worst soccer tragedy occurred in Moscow when 340 fans were killed during a game because of a crush on a staircase.
  
• 1671: Jean Talon, Intendent of New France, as Canada was called at the time, ordered the Quebec colony's bachelors to marry the French women brought over for them, or they would lose their hunting, fishing and fur-trading rights.