October 02:
1890: Philosopher Groucho Marx born in New York.
1967: Thurgood Marshall sworn in as justice of the US Supreme Court.
October 03:
October 04:
1923: Actor Charlton Heston born.
October 05:
1871: In a shootout in Abilene, Kansas, with Phil Coe, James Butler Hickok accidently shoots and kills his friend Mike Williams.
1892: The Dalton gang of bank robbers was almost wiped out when locals shot them up as the gang tried to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas.
1947: First televised address from the White House. President Truman asked that people refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays in order to help supply grain for a Europe still devastated from WWII.
1953: Earl Warren sworn in as 14th Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.
October 06:
1884: A naval war college was established in Newport, Rhode Island.
1973: Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
1981: Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat, was assisinated by terroristic Moslem fundamentalists.
October 07:
1765: The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up the grievances of the colonists against England.
1849: Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore Maryland, at age 40.
1949: The Republic of East Germany was formed
1950: The United Nations authorized an advance north of the 38th parallel in Korea.
1968: The Motion Picture Association adopted the film rating system of G to X.
October 08:
1918: Sgt. Alvin York single-handedly killed 25 Germans & captured 132.
1970: Alexander Solzhenitsyn awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
October 09:
1635: Religious dissident Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1967: Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia.
October 10:
1845: US Naval Academy opened in Anapolis, Maryland.
1957: Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, published.
1973: Spiro Agnew resigned as Vice President.
October 11:
October 12:
1892: The original version of the Pledge of Allegiance (without the "under God" phrase) was first recited in public schools.
1960: Khrushchev displayed his manners at a United Nations General Assembly meeting by beating his desk with his shoe.
October 13:
1775: The Continental Congress ordered the construction of a fleet of ships, giving rise to the US Navy.
1792: The cornerstone of the executive mansion later known as the White House, was laid during a ceremony in Washington DC.
1870: Albert Jay Nock born.
October 14:
October 15:
1917: Mata Hari, the Dutch dancer and spy for the Germans, was executed by firing squad near Paris.
1946: Convicted Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisoned himself the day before he was to be executed.
October 16:
1859: Abolitionist John Brown and a group of 22 men raided Harper's Ferry.
1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis began as President Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photos revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
1964: China detonated its first atomic bomb, becoming the world's 5th nuclear power.
October 17:
1777: General John Burgoyne's British forces surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, New York.
193l: Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
1933: Albert Einstein arrived in the United States, as a refugee from the Nazis.
1973: Arab oil-producing nations announced an embargo on oil. It lasted until March 1974.
October 18:
1767: The Mason-Dixon Line, establishing the boundary between Maryland and Penn. was established.
1867: US took formal possession of the Alaska Territory from Russia.
1969: The United States banned the use of cyclamates.
October 19:
1781: British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia.
October 20:
1803: US Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
1859: John Dewey born.
1925: Art Buchwald born.
1947: The House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAA) opened hearings on communists in the film industry.
1973: Watergate's Saturday Night Massacre occurred as special prosecutor Archibald Cox was dismissed and Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned.
October 21:
1797: US Frigate Constitution (Old Ironsides) was launched in Boston.
October 22:
October 23:
1946: The United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time.
October 24:
1820: Spain ceded Florida to the US.
1940: The 40 hour work week went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
1945: The United Nations Charter went into effect.
1962: The US Blockade of Cuba began.
October 25:
1800: Thomas Macaulay born.
1971: United Nations General Assembly woted to seat China and expel Taiwan.
1983: US troops land on Grenada.
October 26:
1774: The First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.
1825: The Erie Canal opened, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River.
October 27:
1787: The first of the Federalist Papers was published in a New York newspaper.
October 28:
1776: The Battle of White Plains was fought.
1886: The Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in the presence of its sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi.
1903: John Chamberlain, author and book reviewer extraordinaire, born.
1919: Congress enacted the Volstead Act, which provided for enforcement of Prohibition, over President Wilson's veto.
1922: Benito Mussolini took control of Italy.
1940: Italy invaded Greece.
October 29:
1682: The founder of Pennsylvania (William Penn) landed at what is not Chester, Penn.
1740: James Boswell was born.
1901: President McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was electrocuted.
1929: "Black Tuesday" descended upon the New York Stock Exchange as prices collapsed and panic selling ensued.
October 30:
1735: John Adams, the second President of the United States, was born in Braintree, Mass.
October 31:
1517: Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.
1864: Nevada became the 36th State.
1887: Chiang Kai-shek born in Chekiang Province, China.
Last revised January 5, 2003
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