MOMENTS IN TIME

• On Oct. 25, 1912, comedian Minnie Pearl is born. Pearl was famous for her Grand Ole Opry comic monologues about hillbilly life and was featured on the longrunning syndicated show "Hee Haw" from 1970 to 1990. Pearl died in 1996.

• On Oct. 26, 1825, an ingenious method of communication is used to inform New York City that the Erie Canal is complete. Cannons were arranged along the length of the canal, each within hearing distance of the next cannon. As each cannon was fired, it signaled the next. Within 81 minutes, the word was relayed to New York, the fastest communication the world had ever known.

•On Oct. 27, 1858, entrepreneur Roland Macy finally hits the jackpot when he opens his own department store. The New York store, Macy's, became an immediate success.

• On Oct. 28, 1950, popular radio personality Jack Benny moves to television with "The Jack Benny Show." The TV version of the show ran for the next 15 years. Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in 1894.

• On Oct. 29, 1962, actor Sidney Poitier testifies before the House Committee on Education and Labor, condemning the lack of opportunities for black actors in Hollywood. In 1964, Poitier became the first black actor to win the Best Actor Oscar, for his role in "Lilies of the Field" (1963).

• On Oct. 30, 1938, radio program "Mercury Theater on the Air" presents Orson Welles' production of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds," a fictional drama about a Martian invasion in Grovers Mill, N.J. The program sparked a panic among 1.7 million listeners who believed the play was an actual news broadcast.

• On Oct. 31, 1892, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," by Arthur Conan Doyle, is published. Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he met Dr. Joseph Bell, a teacher with extraordinary deductive powers. Bell partly inspired Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes.