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October
in History
October 1, 1908 - Henry Ford's Model T, a "universal car" designed
for the masses, went on sale for the first time.
October 1, 1938 - Hitler's troops occupied the Sudetenland portion
of Czechoslovakia. In an effort to avoid war, Britain and France had
agreed to cede the German speaking area to Hitler, who later occupied all
of Czechoslovakia.
October 1, 1946 - Twelve Nazi leaders were sentenced to death at
the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
October 1, 1949 - The People's Republic of China was founded with
Mao Zedong as Chairman.
October 1, 1979 - After 70 years of American control, the Panama
Canal Zone was formally handed over to Panama.
October 2, 1862 - An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrived
in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga.
'Fighting Joe' Hooker is commemorated with an equestrian statue in front
of the Massachusetts state house. It is this General after whom 'Hooker's
ladies' were named: later simply referred to as 'hookers'.
October 2, 1935 - Mussolini's Italian forces invaded Abyssinia,
beginning an occupation lasting until 1941.
October 2, 1967 - Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) was sworn in as the
first African American associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He
served until 1991 and was known for opposing discrimination and the death
penalty, and for championing free speech and civil liberties.
October 2, 1968 - California's Redwood National Park was
established. Redwoods are the tallest of all trees, growing up to 400 feet
(120 meters) during a lifetime that can span 2,000 years.
October 2, 1975 - Japanese Emperor Hirohito made his first visit
to the White House.
October 3, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation
designating the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
October 3, 1929 - Yugoslavia became the official name of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
October 3, 1932 - Iraq gained independence from Britain and joined
the League of Nations.
October 3, 1974 - Frank Robinson was hired by the Cleveland Indians
as baseball's first African American major league manager.
October 3, 1990 - After 45 years of Cold War division, East and
West Germany were reunited as the Federal Republic of Germany.
October 3, 1995 - The O.J. Simpson double-murder trial ended with
the former American football star acquitted of the murders. In June of
1994, Simpson had been arrested and charged in the stabbing deaths of his
ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her male friend.
October 4, 1636 - The General Court of the Plymouth
Colony instituted a legal code, the first composed in North America. It
guaranteed citizens a trial by jury and stipulated that all laws were to
be made with the consent of the freemen of the colony.
October 4, 1777 - At Germantown PA, General Sir William Howe
repelled George Washington's last attempt to retake Philadelphia,
compelling Washington to spend the winter at Valley Forge. In an attempt
to push the invading British out of Philadelphia, Washington attacked
their camp at Germantown. What could have been an American victory quickly
turned sour as an impending fog created confusion among the men.
Nevertheless, news of the American near-victory at Germantown, against the
best-trained men of the British army, strengthened the American cause.
October 4, 1943 - The Island of Corsica became the first French
territory in Europe freed from Nazi control as Free French troops
liberated the city of Bastia.
October 4, 1957 - The Space Age began as the Soviets launched the
first satellite into orbit. Sputnik I weighed just 184 lbs. and
transmitted a beeping radio signal for 21 days. The Soviet accomplishment
sent a shockwave through the American political leadership resulting in
U.S. efforts to be the first on the moon.
October 4, 1970 - Rock singer Janis Joplin was found dead from a
drug overdose.
October 4, 1976 - U.S. agriculture secretary Earl Butz was forced
to resign after making offensive racial remarks.
October 4, 1993 - Russian tank-soldiers loyal to President Boris
Yeltsin shelled the Russian White House, crushing a hardline Communist
rebellion. Yeltsin then fired vice-president Alexander Rutskoi and jailed
other opposition leaders.
October 5, 1813 - Shawnee Indian Chief Tecumseh was defeated and
killed during the War of 1812. Regarded as one of the greatest American
Indians, he was a powerful orator who defended his people against white
settlement. When the War of 1812 broke out, he joined the British as a
brigadier general and was killed at the Battle of the Thames in Ontario.
October 5, 1877 - Following a 1,700-mile retreat, Chief Joseph of
the Nez Perce Indians surrendered to U.S. Cavalry troops at Bear's Paw
near Chinook, Montana. "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no
more forever," he stated.
October 5, 1964 - The largest mass escape since the construction of
the Berlin Wall occurred as 57 East German refugees escaped to West Berlin
after tunneling beneath the wall.
October 5, 1986 - Former U.S. Marine Eugene Hasenfus was captured
by Nicaraguan Sandinistas after a plane carrying arms for the Nicaraguan
rebels (Contras) was shot down over Nicaragua. This marked the beginning
of the "Iran-Contra" controversy resulting in Congressional hearings and a
major scandal for the Reagan White House after it was revealed that money
from the sale of arms to Iran was used to fund covert operations in
Nicaragua.
October 6, 1927 - The first "talkie" opened in New York. The Jazz
Singer starring Al Jolson was the first full-length feature film using
spoken dialogue.
October 6, 1928 - Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek became president
of the Republic of China upon the introduction of a new constitution.
October 6, 1949 - "Tokyo Rose" (Iva Toguri d'Aquino) was sentenced
in San Francisco to 10 years imprisonment and fined $10,000 for treason.
She had broadcast music and Japanese propaganda to American troops in the
Pacific during World War II. She was pardoned by President Gerald Ford in
1977.
October 6, 1973 - The Yom Kippur War started as Egypt and Syria
launched attacks on Israeli positions on the East Bank of the Suez and the
Golan Heights.
October 6, 1978 - Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini was
granted asylum in France after being expelled from Iran for his opposition
to the Shah.
October 6, 1981 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) was
assassinated in Cairo by Muslim fundamentalists while watching a military
parade. He had shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Begin of
Israel. He had signed an American-sponsored peace accord with Israel, but
had been denounced by other Arab leaders.
October 7, 1765 - The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York City
with representatives from nine of the colonies meeting in protest to the
British Stamp Act which imposed the first direct tax on Americans.
October 7, 1806 - The first carbon paper was patented by its
English inventor, Ralph Wedgwood
October 7, 1849 - Author Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore MD at
age 40. Poe was born in Boston, the child of two actors. He served in the
army in Boston, being stationed at Fort Independence in South Boston.
October 7, 1940 - During World War II in Europe, German troops
invaded Romania to take seize strategic oil fields.
October 7, 1949 - Soviet controlled East Germany came into
existence as the German Democratic Republic. It lasted until reunification
in 1990.
October 7, 1985 - Palestinian terrorists seized the Italian
passenger ship Achille Lauro carrying about 440 persons, threatening to
blow it up if Israel did not free 50 Palestinian prisoners. Leon
Klinghoffer, an elderly wheelchair-bound American, was murdered.
October 8, 1871 - The Great Fire of Chicago broke out. According to
legend, it started when Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern in her
barn on DeKoven Street. Over 300 persons were killed and 90,000 were left
homeless as the fire leveled 3.5 square miles, destroying 17,450
buildings. Financial losses totaled over $200 million.
October 8, 1993 - The U.N. General Assembly lifted economic
sanctions against South Africa following the end of racial apartheid. The
sanctions had been imposed since the 1960s.
October 8, 1996 - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat made his
first public visit to Israel for talks with Israeli President Ezer Weizman
at his private residence.
October 8, 1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted 258-176
to approve a resolution launching an impeachment inquiry of President Bill
Clinton. It was only the third time in U.S. history the House launched a
formal impeachment inquiry of a sitting president. (The other two - Andrew
Johnson and Richard Nixon).
October 9, 1635 - Religious dissident Roger Williams was banished
from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He became a founder of Rhode Island.
October 9, 1776 - A group of Spanish missionaries settled in
present-day San Francisco.
October 9, 1779 - The first Luddite riots, against the introduction
of machinery for spinning cotton, began in Manchester, England. Although
the Luddites can be portrayed as reactionaries against progress, they were
also resisting the enormous social upheaval as weavers were forced by
economic conditions from being their own masters into becoming factory
workers totally under the control of the mill owners. This indeed was a
radical move from what was basically a barter economy to a cash economy;
one in which the concept of time and timekeeping became important to the
masses of the population.
Cotton was expensive until the invention of the cotton gin, and then
mechanized cotton spinning and weaving. By the early 1800s, cotton fabrics
became much more common and affordable.
October 10, 1789 - In Versailles, Joseph Guillotin stated that the
most humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a
single blow of a blade. Though not an original idea (it had been employed
previously in Edinburgh) the instrument was built and used to great effect
during the Revolution.
October 10, 1845 - The US Naval Academy was founded at Annapolis
MD.
October 10, 1850 - The Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was completed and
opened for business along its entire 185 mile length from Washington DC to
Cumberland MD. Sections of the canal had opened for navigation as they
were completed.
Before the C&O Canal was built, there were many attempts to improve
transportation along the Potomac River. The Potomac was the only river on
the East Coast to bisect the Appalachian mountain barrier, and was
considered the best route for Western trade.
Another project begun before the C&O Canal was the Potomac Company canal
project. In 1772, George Washington founded the Potomac Company and
proposed the construction of skirting canals along the Potomac to bypass
the river's worst obstacles to transportation. Washington finally received
the support of both Virginia and Maryland, and as the first president of
the Potomac Company, he oversaw the building of skirting canals, locks,
and channels on the Potomac River. The project was completed in 1802, but
Washington died in 1799, never seeing his foresighted project completed.
October 10, 1886 - The dinner jacket was first worn in New York by
its creator at the Autumn Ball at Tuxedo Park Country Club NY, after which
it was named.
October 10, 1954 - Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi, Vietnam, after the
withdrawal of French troops, in accordance with armistice terms ending the
seven year struggle between Communist Vietnamese and the French.
October 10, 1973 - Spiro T. Agnew (1918-1996) resigned the office
of Vice President of the United States amid charges of income tax evasion
on illegal payments allegedly received while he was governor of Maryland
and after he became Vice President. He was later given a $10,000 fine and
sentenced to serve three years probation. He was succeeded as Vice
President by Gerald R. Ford, who went on to become President after the
resignation of Richard M. Nixon.
October 11, 1776 - The Battle of Valcour Island, Lake Champlain –
Canada. General Burgoyne's plan to connect Carleton's Canadian army with
Howe's New York army was fouled by Benedict Arnold. His naval standoff at
Valcour Island, though an American defeat, fatally delayed the British
campaign.
October 11, 1795 - In gratitude for putting down a rebellion in the
streets of Paris, France's National Convention appointed Napoleon
Bonaparte second in command of the Army of the Interior.
October 11, 1811 - The first steam-powered ferryboat in America,
the "Juliana," was put into operation between New York City and Hoboken
NJ.
October 11, 1939 - Albert Einstein warned President Franklin D.
Roosevelt that his theories could lead to Nazi Germany's development of an
atomic bomb. Einstein suggested the U.S. develop its own bomb. This
resulted in the top secret "Manhattan Project."
October 11, 1976 - The "Gang of Four," including the widow of Mao
Zedong, was arrested in China, charged with plotting a coup. They were
subsequently tried and convicted of various crimes against the state.
October 12, 1492 - After a 33 day voyage, Christopher Columbus made
his first landfall in the New World in the Bahamas. He named the first
land sighted as El Salvador, claiming it in the name of the Spanish Crown.
Columbus was seeking a western sea route from Europe to Asia and believed
he had found an island of the Indies. He thus called the first island
natives he met, 'Indians.'
October 12, 1609 - The song "Three Blind Mice" was published in
London, and is believed to be the earliest printed secular song.
October 12, 1960 - During a debate over colonialism in the United
Nations, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev took off his shoe and pounded his
desk repeatedly.
October 13, 1775 - The U.S. Navy was born after the Second
Continental Congress authorized the acquisition of a fleet of ships.
October 13, 1792 - The cornerstone of the White House
was laid by George Washington in a Masonic ceremony. The building, located
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is three stories tall with over 100 rooms,
and was designed by James Hoban. In November of 1800, President John Adams
and his family moved in. The building was first known as the "Presidential
Palace," but acquired the name "White House" about 10 years after its
completion. It was burned by British troops in 1814, then reconstructed,
refurbished and reoccupied in 1817.
October 13, 1884 - Greenwich, London, was adopted as the universal
time meridian of longitude from which standard times throughout the world
are calculated.
October 13, 1943 - Italy declared war on its former Axis partner
Germany after the downfall of Mussolini and collapse of his Fascist
government.
October 13, 1990 - The first Russian Orthodox service in over 70
years was held in St. Basil's Cathedral, next to the Kremlin, in Red
Square.
October 14, 1912 - Former President Theodore Roosevelt was shot by
a fanatic while campaigning in Milwaukee. Roosevelt was saved by his thick
overcoat, a glasses case and a folded speech in his breast pocket, all of
which slowed the bullet. Although wounded, he insisted on making the
speech with the bullet lodged in his chest and did not go to the hospital
until the meeting ended. Roosevelt, a rugged outdoorsman, fully recovered
in two weeks.
October 14, 1933 - Nazi Germany announced its withdrawal from the
League of Nations and stated it would take no further part in the Geneva
Disarmament Conference.
October 14, 1947 - U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became
the first man to break the sound barrier, flying in a rocket-powered
research aircraft.
October 14, 1964 - Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.,
became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He donated the
$54,000 in prize money to the civil rights movement.
October 15, 1582 - The Gregorian calendar was adopted in Italy,
Spain, Portugal, and France; 5 October became 15 October.
October 15, 1783 - Francois Pilatre de Rozier made the first manned
flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was let out to 82 feet, but
over the next few days the altitude increased up to 6,500 feet.
October 15, 1813 - During the land defeat of the British on the
Thames River in Canada, the Indian chief Tecumseh, then a brigadier
general with the British Army, was killed.
October 15, 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on the Island of St.
Helena beginning a British imposed exile following his defeat at the
Battle of Waterloo.
October 15, 1917 - World War I spy Mata Hari was executed by a
French firing squad at Vincennes Barracks, outside Paris.
October 15, 1946 - Nazi leader Hermann Goering committed suicide by
swallowing poison in his Nuremberg prison cell just hours before his
scheduled hanging for war crimes.
October 15, 1964 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was deposed
as First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, replaced by Leonid
Brezhnev.
October 15, 1991 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas to the
Supreme Court by a 52-48 vote following several days of tumultuous
hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning sexual
harassment charges made by a former aid. Thomas became the second African
American to sit on the Court, replacing retired Justice Thurgood Marshall,
an African American.
October 16, 1701 - Yale University was founded in Killingworth,
Connecticut by Congregationalists who considered Harvard too liberal (as
the Collegiate School of Connecticut). The school moved to New Haven in
1716. Two years later, the name was changed to Yale College to honor Elihu
Yale, a philanthropist. In 1886, it became Yale University.
October 16, 1793 - During the French Revolution, Queen Marie
Antoinette was beheaded.
October 16, 1846 - Ether was first administered in public at the
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston by Dr. William Thomas Green
Morton during an operation performed by Dr. John Collins Warren.
A
monument for Morton was built in the Public Garden, but during its
construction it was discovered (as with many inventions) to perhaps have
been employed before (by a Connecticut dentist). The monument, which can
be visited today, was dedicated to Anesthesia.
Wit Oliver Wendell Holmes remarked that is was therefore "a monument to
either, or ether."
October 16, 1859 - Fanatical abolitionist John
Brown seized the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry with about 20 followers.
Three days later, Brown was captured and the insurrection was put down by
U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was convicted
by the Commonwealth of Virginia of treason, murder, and inciting slaves to
rebellion, and was hanged on December 2, 1859.
October 16, 1916 - The first birth control clinic in America was
opened in Brooklyn, New York, by Margaret Sanger, a nurse who worked among
the poor on the Lower East Side of New York City.
October 16, 1946 - Ten former top Nazi leaders were hanged by the
Allies following their conviction for war crimes at Nuremberg, Germany.
October 16, 1964 - China detonated its first nuclear bomb at the
Lop Nor test site in Sinkiang.
October 16, 1978 - Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland was elected
Pope. He was the first non-Italian Pope chosen in 456 years and took the
name John Paul II.
October 16, 1995 - The Million Man March took place in Washington,
D.C., under the direction of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who
delivered the main address to the gathering of African American males.
October 17, 1691 - Maine and Plymouth were incorporated into
Massachusetts.
October 17, 1777 - During the American Revolutionary War, English
General John Burgoyne and his entire army of 5,700 men surrendered to
American General Horatio Gates after the Battle of Saratoga, the first big
American victory.
October 17-25, 1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval
battle in history, took place off the Philippine Islands. The battle
involved 216 U.S. warships and 64 Japanese ships and resulted in the
destruction of the Japanese Navy including the Japanese Battleship Musashi,
one of the largest ever built.
October 18, 1648 - The "Shoemakers of Boston" was the first labor
organization in what would become the United States. It was authorized by
the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
October 18, 1767 - The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania,
the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon.
October 18, 1945 - The Nuremberg War Crimes
Trial began with indictments against 24 former Nazi leaders including
Hermann Goering and Albert Speer. The trial lasted 10 months, with
delivery of the judgment completed on October 1, 1946. Twelve Nazis were
sentenced to death by hanging, three to life imprisonment, four to lesser
prison terms, and three were acquitted.
October 19, 1781 - As their band played The World Turned Upside
Down, the British Army marched out in formation and surrendered to the
Americans at Yorktown. More than 7,000 English and Hessian troops, led by
British General Lord Cornwallis, surrendered to General George Washington.
The war between Britain and its American colonies was effectively ended.
The final peace treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783.
October 19, 1813 - The Allies defeated Napoleon at the Battle of
the Nations at Leipzig
October 19, 1960 - The U.S. embargo of Cuba began as the State
Department prohibited shipment of all goods except medicine and food.
October 19, 1987 - "Black Monday" occurred on Wall Street as stocks
plunged a record 508 points or 22.6 per cent, the largest one-day drop in
stock market history.
October 19, 1990 - Beset by an eroding economy, Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev won parliamentary approval to switch to a market
economy.
October 20, 1818 - Britain and the USA established the 49th
parallel as the boundary between Canada and the USA.
October 20, 1822 - The British 'Sunday Times' was first published.
October 20, 1935 - Mao Zedong's 6,000 mile "Long March" ended as
his Communist forces arrived at Yanan, in northwest China, almost a year
after fleeing Chiang Kai-shek's armies in the south.
October 20, 1944 - General Douglas MacArthur set foot on
Philippine soil for the first time since his escape in 1942, fulfilling
his promise, "I shall return."
October 20, 1968 - Jacqueline Kennedy married multi-millionaire
Greek businessman Aristotle Onassis, ending nearly five years of widowhood
following the assassination of her first husband, President John F.
Kennedy.
October 20, 1973 - The Saturday Night Massacre occurred during the
Watergate scandal as President Richard M. Nixon fired Special Prosecutor
Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Attorney
General Elliot Richardson resigned. A firestorm of political protest
erupted over the firings leading to widespread demands for Nixon's
impeachment.
October 21, 1797 - The US Navy frigate "Constitution," also known
as "Old Ironsides," was launched in Boston harbor, on the third attempt.
She was built at Edmond Hartt's Shipyard, in Boston for a cost of $302,718
(1797 dollars).
October 21, 1805 - The Battle of Trafalgar took place between the
British Royal Navy and the combined French and Spanish fleets. The
victorious British ended the threat of Napoleon's invasion of England.
British naval hero Admiral Horatio Nelson was mortally wounded aboard his
ship Victory.
October 21, 1879 - Thomas Edison successfully tested an electric
incandescent lamp with a carbonized filament at his laboratory in Menlo
Park, New Jersey, keeping it lit for over 13 hours.
October 21, 1915 - The first transatlantic radio voice message was
made by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company from Virginia to
Paris.
October 21, 1967 - Thousands of anti-war protesters stormed the
Pentagon during a rally against the Vietnam War in Washington, DC About
250 were arrested. No shots were fired, but demonstrators were struck with
nightsticks and rifle butts.
October 22, 1746 - Princeton University was founded as the College
of New Jersey. It was the result of a charter issued by John Hamilton,
acting governor of the province, to the college's board of trustees, whose
members were leaders in the Presbyterian Church. They organized the
College to train students, "different sentiments in religion not
withstanding," a policy that shaped the character of the school.
The initial site of the College was Elizabeth NJ where its first
president, the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson, had his home and parish.
Dickinson died a few months after taking office, and the Reverend Aaron
Burr of Newark succeeded him. The students (six in the original graduating
class) moved to Newark. As the College prospered, Philadelphia architect
Robert Smith was commissioned to create a building for the College in the
town of Princeton. In the fall of 1756, President Burr brought his
students and their tutors to that Princeton building - Nassau Hall. The
large stone structure housed the College for the next 50 years. The hall
was bombarded in the Revolutionary War Battle of Princeton.
October 22, 1777 - The Battle of Fort Mercer NJ. To keep his supply
lines to Philadelphia open, Howe launched a number of attacks on American
forts on the Delaware River. A vastly superior Hessian force, outnumbering
the Americans 5 to 1, attacked Fort Mercer but was routed after their
officers were wounded by rebel fire. In the confusion which followed,
nearly a third of the Hessian detachment was killed, wounded or captured.
October 22, 1797 - The first parachute jump was made by French
balloonist, André-Jacques Garnerin from a balloon above the Parc Monceau,
Paris. He landed safely from a height of about three thousand feet.
October 22, 1962 - President John F. Kennedy appeared on
television to inform Americans of the existence of Soviet missiles in
Cuba. The President demanded their removal and announced a naval
"quarantine" of Cuba. Six days later, the Soviets announced they would
remove the weapons. In return, the U.S. later removed missiles from
Turkey.
October 22, 1979 - The exiled Shah of Iran arrived in the United
States for medical treatment. A few weeks later, Iranian militants seized
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage. They demanded
the return of the Shah for trial. The U.S. refused. The Shah died of
cancer in July of 1980. The hostages were freed in January of 1981.
October 23, 1707 - Following the Act of Union in 1707, the parliaments of
England and Scotland were dissolved, and a combined parliament of Great
Britain met. The flag was changed to the present-day 'union jack', and the
monarch's coat of arms changed to reflect the new status.
October 23, 1783 - Virginia emancipated slaves who fought for independence
during the Revolutionary War.
October 23, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery launched a major
offensive against German forces under Erwin Rommel at El Alamein, Egypt.
October 23, 1956 - A Hungarian uprising against Communist rule began with
students and workers demonstrating in Budapest. The Soviets responded by
sending in tanks and put down the revolt after several days of bitter
fighting.
October 23, 1983 - Terrorists drove a truck loaded with TNT into the U.S.
And French headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, exploding it and killing 241 U.S Marines and 58 French paratroopers.
October 23, 1989 - Hungary declared itself a republic 33 years after
Soviet troops crushed a popular revolt against Communist rule.
October 23, 1990 - Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitaly Masol resigned after
mass protests by students, becoming the first Soviet official of that rank
to quit under public pressure.
October 24, 1861 - The first transcontinental telegram in America was sent
from San Francisco to Washington, addressed to President Abraham Lincoln
from the Chief Justice of California.
October 24, 1929 - "Black Thursday" occurred in the New York Stock
Exchange as nearly 13 million shares were sold in panic selling. Five days
later "Black Tuesday" saw 16 million shares sold.
October 24, 1931 - Chicago gangster "Scarface" Al Capone was sentenced to
11 years in jail for federal income tax evasion. In 1934, he was
transferred to Alcatraz prison near San Francisco. He was paroled in 1939,
suffering from syphilis. He retired to his mansion in Miami Beach where he
died in 1947.
October 24, 1945 - The United Nations was founded.
October 24, 1980 - Communist authorities in Poland granted recognition to
the trade union "Solidarity." It was outlawed in 1981 after the government
imposed martial law. In 1989, it was re-legalized.
October 25, 1764 - Abigail Smith married a young lawyer by the name of
John Adams. Their union launched a vital 54-year partnership that took the
couple from colonial Boston through the politics of revolution, to Paris
and London and the world of international diplomacy, and finally to
Washington DC, where they became the first presidential couple to occupy
the White House. John Adams served as the nation's first vice
president before becoming its second president in 1797.
October 25, 1839 - Bradshaw's Railway Guide, the world's first railway
timetable, was published in Manchester, England.
October 25, 1955 - Austria resumed its sovereignty with the departure of
the last Allied forces. The country had been occupied by the Nazis in
1938. After World War II, it was divided into four occupation zones by the
U.S., Soviet Union, U.K. and France.
October 25-30, 1983 - The Caribbean island of Grenada was invaded by the
U.S. to restore "order and democracy." Over 2,000 Marines and Army Rangers
seized control after a political coup the previous week had made the
island a "Soviet-Cuban colony," according to President Ronald Reagan.
October 26, 1881 - The shoot-out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona,
occurred between the feuding Clanton and Earp families. Wyatt Earp, two of
his brothers and "Doc" Holliday gunned down two Clantons and two others.
October 26, 1825 - The Erie Canal opened as the first major man-made
waterway in America, linking Lake Erie with the Hudson River, bypassing
the British controlled lower St. Lawrence. The canal cost over $7 million
and took eight years to complete.
October 26, 1951 - Winston Churchill became England's prime minister for a
second time, following his Conservative Party's narrow victory in general
elections. In his first term from 1940-45 he had guided England through
its struggle against Nazi Germany.
October 27, 1787 - The first of 85 Federalist Papers appeared in print in
a New York City newspaper. The essays argued for the adoption of the new
U.S. Constitution. They were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
and John Jay.
October 27, 1904 - The New York City subway began operating, running from
City Hall to West 145th Street, the first underground and underwater rail
system in the world.
October 27, 1978 - The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Menachem
Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
October 28, 1636 - Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher
learning in America, was founded in Cambridge, Mass. established by vote
of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was named
after John Harvard, a Puritan who donated his library and half his estate.
Distinguished alumni include; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau,
Henry James, and NAACP founder W.E.B. Du Bois.
October 28, 1776 - The Battle of Chatterton's Hill, White Plains NY.
Another American defeat, just north of New York City. This time the
Americans inflicted more casualties than they received, and Washington
began to appreciate the tactic of "fight, retreat, and fight again."
October 28, 1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin
(the patent was granted the following March). The invention transformed
the cotton industry, since cleaning raw cotton became far easier. The
industry burgeoned, bringing a need for more slaves to pick the cotton.
Unfortunately for Whitney, the gin was easily replicated, and he gleaned
little financial gain from his invention.
October 28, 1846 - The Donner Party departed Illinois heading for
California. The group totaled 90 persons, including immigrants, families
and businessmen, led by George and Jacob Donner. Tragedy later struck as
they became stranded in snow in the Sierras where famine and cannibalism
took its toll. There were 48 survivors by the end of their journey in
April of 1847.
October 28, 1886 - The Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President
Cleveland on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor. The statue was a gift
from the people of France commemorating the French-American alliance
during the American Revolutionary War. Designed by Frederic Auguste
Bartholdi, the entire structure stands 300 feet (92.9 meters) tall.
October 28, 1918 - The Republic of Czechoslovakia was founded, assembled
from three provinces - Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia - which had been
part of the former Austro-Hungarian empire.
October 28, 1919 - Prohibition began in the U.S. with the passage of the
National Prohibition (Volstead) Act by Congress. Even President Wilson was
against this measure, but his veto was overridden. Sales of drinks
containing more than one half of one percent of alcohol became illegal.
Called a "noble experiment" by Herbert Hoover, prohibition last nearly 14
years and became highly profitable for organized crime which manufactured
and sold liquor in saloons called speakeasies.
October 28, 1922 - Fascist blackshirts began their "March on Rome" from
Naples which resulted in the formation of a dictatorship under Benito
Mussolini.
October 28, 1949 - Helen Anderson became the first woman ambassador,
appointed by President Harry Truman to be Ambassador to Denmark.
October 28, 1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ended with the announcement by
Nikita Khrushchev that the Soviet government was halting construction of
bases in Cuba and would remove offensive missiles. President Kennedy
immediately accepted the offer then lifted the U.S. naval blockade of
Cuba.
October 28, 1971 - The British House of Commons voted 356-244 in favor of
joining the European Economic Community.
October 29, 1618 - English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh was executed in
London for treason on orders from King James I.
October 29, 1682 - The founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, landed at
what is now Chester, Pennsylvania. King Charles II, out of "regard to the memorie and meritts of his late father," (a notable English admiral) gave
the younger Penn a huge tract of land and named it, in honor of the
Admiral, "Pennsylvania," or Penn's Woods.
October 29, 1813 - The first steam-powered warship,
Designed by Robert Fulton,
The Demologos, was
launched in New York City.
The Demologos was renamed The Fulton, but was never finally completed for
service owing to the end of hostilities at the Treaty of Ghent (December
24, 1814.) She was laid up in the Navy Yard at Brooklyn until June 4,
1829, when an explosion occurred, resulting in her complete destruction
and that of twenty-five men.
October 29, 1831 - English chemist and physicist, and electrical pioneer
Michael Faraday demonstrated the first dynamo.
October 29, 1901 - Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted for the assassination of
President McKinley. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot McKinley on September 6
during a public reception at the Temple of Music in Buffalo NY. Despite
early hopes of recovery, McKinley died September 14, in Buffalo.
October 29, 1929 - The stock market crashed as over 16 million shares were
dumped amid tumbling prices. The Great Depression followed and spread
worldwide, lasting until the outbreak of World War II.
October 30, 1650 - 'Quakers', the more common name for the Society of
Friends, came into being during a court case, at which George Fox, the
founder, told the magistrate to 'quake and tremble at the word of God'.
October 30, 1838 - Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio became the first
college in the US to admit female students.
October 30, 1938 - The War of the Worlds radio broadcast panicked millions
of Americans. Actor Orson Welles and the Mercury Players dramatized the
story by H.G. Wells depicting a Martian invasion of New Jersey. Their
script utilized simulated radio news bulletins which many listeners
thought were real.
October 30, 1990 - For the first time since the Ice Age, Britain was
connected with the European continent, via a new rail tunnel under the
English Channel.
October 31 - Halloween or All Hallow's Eve, an ancient celebration
combining the Christian festival of All Saints with Pagan autumn
festivals.
October 31, 1940 - The Battle of Britain concluded. Beginning on July 10,
1940, German bombers and fighters had attacked coastal targets, airfields,
London and other cities, as a prelude to a Nazi invasion of England.
British pilots in Spitfires and Hurricanes shot down over 1,700 German
aircraft while losing 915 fighters. "Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few," said Prime Minister Winston
Churchill.
October 31, 1941 - Mount Rushmore National Memorial was completed after
14 years of work. The memorial contains 60 foot tall sculptures of the
heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln
and Theodore Roosevelt - representing America's founding, political
philosophy, preservation, and expansion and conservation.
October 31, 1950 - Earl Lloyd became the first African American to play in
a National Basketball Association (NBA) game when he took the floor for
the Washington Capitols in Rochester, New York.
October 31, 1952 - The U.S. detonated its first hydrogen bomb at the Elugelab Atoll in the Eniwetok Proving Grounds in the Pacific Marshall
Islands.
October 31, 1961 - The body of Joseph Stalin was removed from the
mausoleum in Red Square and reburied within the Kremlin walls among the
graves of lesser Soviet heroes. This occurred as part of Russia's
de-Stalinization program under his successor, Nikita Khrushchev. Stalin's
name was also removed from public buildings, streets, and factories.
Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.
October 31, 1968 - During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson
ordered a halt of American bombing of North Vietnam.
October 31, 1984 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by
three Sikh members of her bodyguard while walking in the garden of her New
Delhi home.
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