On this date in...

1891...The Episcopal Church purchases 11 acres in Morningside Heights to build the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

1926...Magician Harry Houdini dies from a ruptured appendix on Halloween, and is buried four days later in Cypress Hills, Queens. Fans have flocked there ever since to pay homage to the world's greatest escape artist – who is presumably still buried there.

1956...With subways and buses crisscrossing the city, the Metropolitan Transit Authority shuts down the last two trolley lines on McDonald and Church Avenues in Brooklyn.

1991...Joseph Papp, the producer and founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, dies of cancer at age 70.

Today's New Yorker birthdays include former CBS newsman Dan Rather, born in 1931; and former NBC newswoman Jane Pauley, born in 1950.