October 1st

1800 - The territory of Louisiana, encompassing the entire region of the Mississippi-Missouri river valleys, was ceded by Spain to France in the secret treaty of San Ildefonso. France envisioned a great French empire in the New World, and it hoped to use the Mississippi Valley as a major food and trade center. In 1803, economic and political problems forced France to sell the territory to the US.

1880 - A new director of the United States Marine Corps Band was named. It was fitting for John Philip Sousa to have the position. He composed the Marine Corps hymn, Semper Fidelis.

1880 - The Edison Lamp Works began operations in New Jersey to manufacture the first electric light bulbs.

1885 - Special delivery mail service began in the United States.

1903 - Baseball's first annual World Series began on this date, in Boston. The Boston Pilgrims of the American League defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League five games to three to become the world champions. Jimmy Sebring, a Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, hit the very first home run in a World Series game. He hit the run off pitcher Cy Young.
1908 - Beginning in 1903, Henry Ford and his engineers struggled for five difficult years to produce a reliable, inexpensive car for the mass market. It wasn't until their twentieth attempt, christened the Model T after the twentieth letter in the alphabet, that the fledgling Ford Motor Company hit pay dirt.

On this day in 1908, the Ford Model T was introduced to the American public, and Ford's affordable revolution had begun. Affectionately known as the 'tin Lizzy', the Model T revolutionised the automotive industry by providing an affordable, reliable car for the average American. Ford was able to keep the price down by retaining control of all raw materials, and by employing revolutionary mass production methods.

When it was first introduced, the 'tin Lizzy' cost only $850 and seated two people, and by the time it was discontinued in 1927, nearly fifteen million Model Ts had been sold.

1940 - Pennsylvania Turnpike opened.

1962 - Johnny Carson hosts his first Tonight Show, with Joan Crawford as his main guest.

1968 - The cult horror movie Night of the Living Dead had its world premiere in Pittsburgh.

1970 - Jimi Hendrix was buried at The Greenwood Cemetery at the Dunlop Baptist Church, Seattle, among the mourners were Miles Davis, Eric Burdon, Johnny Winter and members of Derek and the Dominos.

1971 - Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida, USA. It would eventually become the world's largest, man-made, tourist attraction.

1994 - The National Hockey League did not open its 1994-95 season as scheduled because owners and players could not agree on a new contract.

October 3rd

1656 - Died this day, Myles Standish, Plymouth Colony leader.

1789 - President Washington proclaimed the first US national Thanksgiving Day on 26 November.

1863 - US President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation designating the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.

1866 - Italy and Austria signed the Treaty of Vienna, ending the Seven Weeks' War.

1872 - Born this day, Emily Post [Price], etiquette authority. Died in 1960.

1893 - The motor-driven vacuum cleaner was patented by J.S. Thurman of St. Louis, Missouri.

1901 - The Victor Talking Machine Company was incorporated. After a merger with Radio Corporation of America, RCA-Victor became the leader in phonographs and many of the records played on them. The famous Victrola phonograph logo, with Nipper the dog, and the words "His Master's Voice" appeared on all RCA-Victor phonographs and record labels.

1906 - SOS was established as an international distress signal at the Berlin Radio Conference (the first conference on wireless telegraphy). Coming into effect in July 1908 it replaced CQD which was supposed to mean "all stations - urgent."

1913 - US Federal Income Tax was signed into law at a rate of 1%. ( ah...the good old days!)

1916 - Born this day, James Herriot, Yorkshire veterinarian and author of All Creatures Great and Small. Died in 1995.

1931 - The comic strip Dick Tracy first appeared in the New York News.

1940 - The US Army adopted airborne, or parachute, soldiers. Airborne troops were later used in World War II (WWII) for landing troops in combat and infiltrating agents into enemy territory.

1941 - Born this day, Chubby Checker [Ernest Evans], 1960 US No.1 single The Twist, 1962 UK No.2 single Let's Twist Again.

1952 - The first Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet TV show (with Ricky Nelson) aired on ABC-TV.

1954 - Born this day, Stevie Ray Vaughan, guitarist, killed in an helicopter crash 27 August 1990. His family successfully sued the operators of the company for allowing an unqualified pilot to fly in fog and were awarded $2million.

1955 - 'Good Morning, Captain!' It was Bob Keeshan's first day at work in what became a TV institution via CBS: Captain Kangaroo. The children's television milestone featured Mr. Green Jeans, Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock, Mr. Moose and other characters.

1955 - The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC-TV. The daily filmed half-hour TV show was phenomenally successful; 260 hours and 130 half-hours were filmed, and the series enjoyed a healthy run which continued for many years in syndication.

1960 - The Andy Griffith Show debuted on CBS. It was in the Top 10 for all eight seasons it was on the air, and Don Knotts won five Emmies for his role as Deputy Barney Fife.

1961 - Mr Ed premiered.

1972 - President Nixon and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko signed strategic arms limitation agreements, putting the first restrictions on the two countries' nuclear weapons.

1974 - The Watergate trial began.

1990 - After 40 years, East and West Germany were reunited as one nation at midnight, burying 45 years of Cold War division. It was just four days away from the 41st anniversary of the forming of the East German state. The reunification, originally scheduled to take place during the December parliamentary elections, occurred earlier because East Germany's economy was in serious shape.

1992 - William [Bill] Gates III, the college-dropout founder of Microsoft Corporation, headed Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans with a net worth of $6.3 billion.

October 4, 1957


The Soviet Union inaugurates the "Space Age" with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite

October 5th

1993: For the very last time the honor guard takes its position at Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow.

1992: An El Al cargo jet crashes into an apartment complex in Amsterdam leaving more than 250 dead.

1990: A Cincinnati jury acquits an art gallery of obsentity charges relating to its exhibition of the Mappelthorpe photos.

1988: The Chilean population agrees, at referendum, to throw out the Pinochet regime.

1986: The London Sunday Times reports that Israel is stockpiling nuclear arms. 6 days later the reporter who broke the story is assasinated.

1983: Lech Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

1970: In the "October Crisis" Quebec separatists (FLQ) kidnap British trade commissioner James Cross.

1969: A new era in comedy is born as Monty Python's Flying Circus begins airing on the BBC.

1965: Dick McInnes stays aloft for almost 12 hours in a kite of his own design. (What ever turns your crank, Dick!)

1962: The Beatles release their first record, "Love Me Do".

1960: 61 die when an Eastern Airlines Lockheed Electra turbo-prop crashes into Boston Harbor.

1954: Category 4 "Hurricane Hazel" hits the US eastern seaboard.

1953: Earl Warren is sworn in as the 14th chief justice of United States Supreme Court.

1943: The US launches a massive air raid on the Japanese held Wake Island.

1942: More than 5,000 Jews of Dubno, Russia are massacred by the nazis.

1930: 48 people die when a British airship (dirigible) crashes during a storm at Beauvais, France.

1924: The first "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip appears in the New York City Daily News.

1910: Portugal overthrows its monarchy and proclaims istself a republic.

1905: Orville and Wilbur Wright's "Flyer III" makes a flight of just over 23 miles in an unbelievable 38 minutes and 20 seconds.

1892: The Dalton Gang comes to an untimely demise as a shoot-out with most of the townsfolk erupts following a bank holdup in Coffeville, Kansas.

1813: At the "Battle of Thames", in Canada, the Americans defeat the British.

1582: The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Italy and other Catholic countries.

1450: By order of Ludwig IX all Jews are expelled from Lower Bavaria.

October 6th

1536 - Died this day, William Tyndale, English religious reformer and translator of the Bible's New Testament, was strangled and burned at the stake for heresy at Vilvorde, France. (Other source says Vilvarde, near Brussels, Belgium). It was done on the orders of King Henry VIII. The Anglican priest is credited with making the first English translation of the Bible.

1809 - Born this day, Alfred 'Lord' Tennyson, poet. Died in 1892.

1847 - Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre was published in London by Smith, Elder and Company. The book's author, used the pseudonym Currer Bell. The book, about the struggles of an orphan girl who grows up to become a governess, was an immediate popular success.

1848 - Austria declared war on Hungary.

1889 - Thomas A. Edison showed his first motion picture.

1927 - The first movie with a sound track, The Jazz Singer, premiered in New York City, with popular entertainer Al Jolson singing and dancing in black-face. It was the first full-length feature film to include spoken dialogue and is regarded as the first 'talkie'. The film was based on the short story The Day of Atonement by Sampson Raphaelson. By 1930, silent movies were a thing of the past.

1939 - Adolf Hitler denied any intention to wage war against Britain and France in an address to Reichstag.

1949 - Tokyo Rose or Mrs. Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who broadcast Japanese propaganda to US forces in the Pacific during World War II (WWII), was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years imprisonment and fined $10,000 on treason charges.

1961 - Liz Taylor made the cover of Life magazine.
1961 - On this date in 1961, US president John F. Kennedy, speaking on civil defense, advised American families to build or buy a bomb shelter to protect them from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. Kennedy also declared that the US civil defense program will soon begin ensuring such protection for every American.

Only one year later, true to Kennedy's fears, the world hovered on the brink of full-scale nuclear war when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted over Soviet placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba. During the tense six-day crisis, many Americans across the country prepared for nuclear war, buying up canned goods and completing last-minute work on their nuclear shelters.

1967 - The Haight-Ashbury hippies threw a funeral to mark the end of hippies.

1973 - Israel was taken by surprise when Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attacked on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, beginning the Yom Kippur War. Only selfless acts of bravery by the 188th Barak Brigade prevented the Syrians from capturing the heights and threatening the entire north of Israel.

1978 - Ayatolloh Khomeini, Iranian religious leader opposed to the Shah, was granted asylum in France after being expelled from Iran.

1979 - Pope John Paul II became the first Pope to visit the White House.

1989 - Died this day, Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Bette Davis, actress, at the age 81 from breast cancer in a suburb of Paris, France. During a career that spanned more than three decades, Davis appeared in some 80 films.

1991 - Elizabeth Taylor got married for the eighth time, this time to construction worker Larry Fortensky. The wedding took place at Michael Jackson's estate in California amidst a flurry of paparazzi.

1991 - Anita Hill, a former personal assistant to Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas, accused Thomas of sexual harassment from 1981-83.

October 7th

1995: Boston's Fleet Center opens. That night the New York Islanders and the Boston Bruins play to a 4-4 tie.

1993: A massive Moslem demonstration takes place in Xining, People’s Republic of China. Police and government troops open fire killing 12.

1990: As war looms in the Persian Gulf Israel begins handing out gas masks to its citizens.

1988: The Latvian flag is raised in Riga for the first time since it was annexed in 1939 by the Soviet Union.

1985: The Italian cruise liner “Achille Lauro” is seized by PLO terrorists.

1971: Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida.

1965: A 50 mph gust of wind carries Robert Mitera's tee shot 447 yards for the world’s longest hole-in-one at Miracle Hills Golf Club in Omaha, Nebraska.

1963: Hurricane Flora smashes into Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the storm kills 7,190.

1963: Security plans are finalized for President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Dallas, Texas in November.

1959: The far side of the moon is seen for the first time, compliments of the high resolution cameras aboard the USSR's Luna 3.

1952: The first "Bandstand" broadcast takes place in Philadelphia on WFIL-TV. America would see a young, gangly, smooth talking Dick Clark for the first time in 1955 as a substitute-host.

1950: UN forces invade North Korea by crossing the 38th parallel.

1944: Uprisings occur at Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.

1938: The US State Department rejects German demands that all passports issued to Jews be stamped with the letter “J”.

1926: The Great Italian Fascist Council is formed by Benito “Il Duce” Mussolini.

1919: The first London to Amsterdam airline service begins. (British Aerial Transport and KLM)

1913: In a move to vastly improve productivity Henry Ford institutes the moving assembly line in his Dearborn, Michigan plant.

1886: Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.

1871: In Chicago, a lantern within O’learys’ cow barn is found to be operating improperly. In spite of this it would still be in use the following night.

1870: As Germany proceeds to kick France’s ass (AGAIN!) Leon Gambetta, the Deputy of Paris, flees the city in a hot air balloon.

1826: The Granite Railway, the first chartered railway in the US, begins operations.

1816: The first of what would become known as “The Great Mississippi Steamboats”, the double decker “Washington” arrives in New Orleans.

1806: Inventor Ralph Wedgewood patents Carbon paper in London, England.

1777: Colonists defeat British forces at the Second Battle of Saratoga and the Battle of Bemis Heights.
1737: A series of 40 foot tsunamis (tidal waves) sink over 20,000 small craft and kill more than 300,000 in the Bay of Bengal, India.

1571: At the Battle at Lepanto the Saint League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet.

October 8, 1871
The Great Fire destroys much of Chicago. On this night, fire breaks out in a barn behind the Chicago cottage of Patrick O'Leary. Winds blowing off the prairie fed the flames, and the fire spread rapidly, eventually consuming a four-mile-long and two-third-mile-wide swath of Chicago.

October 8th

1982: Poland's "People's Government" bans Solidarity and all other labor unions.

1980: British Leyland delivers the first Mini Metro.

1978: Ken Warby sets a new world water speed record at 319.627 mph. (514 kph)

1971: John Lennon releases "Imagine".

1961: 74 people die when a Lockheed "Super Constellation", belonging to United Airlines, crashes at Richmond Virginia.

1957: Amidst massive public outcry the Brooklyn Dodgers announce their move to Los Angeles.

1957: In New York convicted Soviet spy Jack Sobel is sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.

1952: 2 British freight trains collide with a derailed commuter train killing 112.

1945: US President Harry Truman announces that the secret of the atomic bomb has been shared with Britain and Canada.

1944: "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (Nelson) debuts on CBS radio.

1935: Ozzie Nelson marries Harriet Hilliard.

1934: Bruno Hauptmann is indicted for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh's infant son.

1918: US Army Sgt. Alvin York single-handedly kills 25 Germans and captures 132 more.

1915: The Battle of Loos. Nearly 430,000 French, British and German troops are killed.

1896: Dow Jones starts reporting an average of selected industrial stocks.

1871: A gas explosion virtually destroys the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

1862: At the Battle of Perryville, in Kentucky, the Confederate army's invasion is halted.

1842: Princess Sophia weds her cousin duke Charles Saksen-Weimar-Eisenach. (And they wuzn't even from Arkansas!)

1835: Charles Darwin, aboard HMS Beagle, reaches James Island in the Galapagos archipelago.

1633: The Massachusetts Bay Colony forms its first government.

October 9th:

October 9th, 1974. Oskar Schindler died in Frankfurt, Germany. Schindler is credited with saving the lives of about 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.

October 9th, 2004. Ken Jackson came out of self-imposed exile.

October 9th

Born on this day -

1948: My (much) older brother.

Retired on this day -

2004: The same brother. (Damn I feel old now!)

October 9th

1992 : A great meteorite is seen streaking across the sky from Kentucky to New York. As well by ships as far as 900 miles out to sea off the east coast.

1990: Saddam Hussein threatens to launch a new style missle, carrying biological weaponry, at Israel.

1986: Andrew Lloyd Webber's masterpiece, "The Phantom of the Opera" premeires in London.

1975: In the first ever visit to the US by a member of the Japanese Royal Family, Emperor Hirohito visits San Francisco.

1975: Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

1973: Elvis & Priscilla Presley divorce after 6 years of marriage.

1965: "Yesterday," by the Beatles reaches #1 on the charts. It would stay there for 4 weeks.

1963: A dam in Italy's Piave Valley fails and over 2,000 die in the ensuing flood.

1961: In the US, members of the Communist Party are obligeded to report themselves to the police. The US Supreme Court would later rule this requirement to be unconstitutional.

1953: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill approves Guyana's new constitution and then sign's Britain's recognition of Guayanese independance.

1946: Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" premieres in New York.

1944: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Moscow for talks with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is too ill to attend.

1936: The newly constructed Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.

1926: Four Executives meet in New York and create a firm named the National Broadcasting Corporation. It is hoped that one day the "NBC" will be known across the country.

1914: After a prolonged seige the port city of Antwerp, Belgium falls to the German army.

1909: Racecar driver Louis Chevrolet begins plans to start building motor cars for public sale.

1888: The newly constructed Washington Monument is opened to public visitors for the first time.

1872: Aaron Montgomery starts a mail-order business...maybe you've heard of it.

1864: At the Battle of Tom's Brook, the Confederate cavalry units that harassed General Sheridan's campaign is wiped out by Custer and Merrit's Union cavalry divisions.

1740: Netherlands Govenor-General Adriaen Valckenier permits the murder of 8000 Chinese inhabitants in Batavia.

1290: The last of over 16,000 English Jews expelled by King Edward I is removed from English soil.

1000: Leif Ericson discovers "Vinland". It is today believed that Vinland was in fact New England.

October 10th

1780 - The Great Hurricane of 1780 killed between 20,000 and 30,000 in the Caribbean.

1845 - The Naval School, now called the US Naval Academy, was founded at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Maryland, with 50 midshipmen in the first class.

1865 - The billiard ball was patented by John Wesley Hyatt. Mr. Hyatt won $10,000 in a contest. He was the first person to come up with a substitute for the ivory ball (in use at the time).

1877 - Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was buried at West Point in New York.

1913 - US President Woodrow Wilson triggered the explosion which blew up the Gamboa Dam in Panama. The Atlantic and Pacific waters mixed. The construction of the Panama Canal was at a close.

1933 - The first proven case of sabotage in the history of commercial aviation occurred in Chesterton, Indiana on 10 October 1933. A United Air Lines Boeing 247 was destroyed by an explosive device using nitroglycerin.

1935 - George Gershwin's American opera, Porgy and Bess, opened in New York City on Broadway, and it received rave reviews from the critics.
Remember? Summertime, and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high. Oh, your Daddy's rich, but your Momma's good looking, so hush little baby don't you cry.

1939 - The real Eleanor Rigby died in Liverpool.

1959 - Pan American World Airways announced the beginning of the first global airline service.

1963 - A treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests was signed by the US, UK and the USSR.

1965 - The Supremes appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1970 - Fiji, a British colony since 1874, became an independent member of the Commonwealth. Now a national day.

1973 - On this date, less than a year before Richard M. Nixon's resignation as president of the United States, Spiro Agnew becomes the first US vice president to resign in disgrace. The same day, he pleads no contest to a charge of federal income tax evasion in exchange for the dropping of charges of political corruption. He is subsequently fined $10,000, sentenced to three years probation, and disbarred by the Maryland court of appeals.

Admitted to the bar in 1949, Agnew entered politics as a Republican, and in 1961, was elected chief executive of Baltimore County. In 1967, he became governor of Maryland, an office he held until his nomination as the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1968. During Nixon's successful campaign, Agnew campaigned on a tough law-and-order platform, and after becoming vice president frequently attacked opponents of the Vietnam War and liberals as being disloyal and un-American.

Re-elected with Nixon in 1972, Agnew was forced to resign on 10 October 1973, after the US Justice Department uncovered widespread evidence of his political corruption, including shocking allegations that his practice of accepting bribes had continued into his tenure as US vice president.

Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan was sworn in as Nixon's new vice president on 6 December and became president of the United States on 9 August 1974, after the escalating Watergate affair forced President Nixon's resignation.

1975 - Elizabeth Taylor got married for a 6th time. She re-married Richard Burton at a remote location in Botswana. They divorced the following year.

1978 - President Carter signed a bill authorising the Susan B. Anthony dollar.

1981 - Anwar Sadat's funeral service was held in Cairo.

1985 - Died this day, Yul Brynner, actor (King & I), died of cancer aged 70.

1985 - US fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying hijackers of the Italian liner ship Achille Lauro, to land in Italy. The gunmen were placed in custody.

1986 - Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres resigned.

1996 - A Scottish fisherman found a message in a bottle. It had been thrown in the North Sea in 1914 as part of an experiment to chart currents.

1997 - The major tobacco companies agreed to a settlement in the class-action suit brought against them by 60,000 present and former flight attendants, who claimed second-hand smoke in airplanes had caused them to get cancer and other diseases.

October 11th

1991: Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is seen soliciting a prostitute.

1987: In Washington 200,000 gays take part in a march for civil rights.

1986: US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Gorbachev open talks aimed at ending the arms race at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1985: Claiming that the US will not support Apartheid in any manner, President Reagan bans the importation of South African Krugerrands.

1983: The last hand-cranked telephone sets in the continental US went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine were switched over to direct-dial.

1982: The English warship Mary Rose, which sank during an engagement with the French fleet in 1545, is raised at Portsmouth, England.

1979: Doctors Allan McLeod Cormack and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield win the Nobel Prize for medicine for developing the CAT scan.

1975: NBC's "Saturday Night Live" premieres with guest host George Carlin.

1969: Blues legend Muddy Waters is injured in a serious car wreck that leaves 3 others dead.

1947: After uncovering positive proof of Soviet moles planted deep within their respective governments, Brazil and Chile break off diplomatic relations with the USSR.

1936: The first radio quiz show takes to the airwaves as "Professor Quiz" premieres.

1923: As the German economy disintegrates under the crushing terms of "The Treaty of Versailles", an exploding hyper-inflation drives the value of the Mark from 4 billion = $1 US down to 10 billion = $1 US in a single day.

1899: The Boers of South Africa declare war on Great Britain.

1737: A devastating earthquake destroys most of Calcutta, India and kills more than 300,000.

1689: Peter the Great becomes tsar of all Russias.

732: The Battle at Tours: Under Karel Martel, French forces defeat the invading Moors.

October 12th

1609 - The song Three Blind Mice was published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.

1823 - Charles Macintosh of Scotland began selling raincoats. Now better known as - Macs.

1870 - Died this day, Robert E. Lee, General of the Confederate Army, died aged 63.

1918 - The first use of an iron lung took place at Boston's Children Hospital.

1920 - Today was Man O'War's last race and win.


1933 - Alcatraz Island was made a federal maximum security prison. (Alcatraz is a 12-acre island in the San Francisco bay, about a mile and a half away from the skyscrapers of San Francisco downtown. The Alcatraz served as a high security federal penitentiary where infamous gangsters like Al Capone were held. It gets its name from La Isla de los Alcatraces or the "Island of Pelicans." Now Alcatraz is a tourist attraction).

1934 - The cheeseburger was invented at Kaelin's Tavern in Kentucky.

1969 - A DJ on Detroits WKNR radio station received a phone call telling him that if you play Strawberry Fields Forever backwards, you hear John Lennon say the words I buried Paul starting a world wide rumour that Paul McCartney was dead.

1971 - The House of Representatives passed the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23.

1997 - Died this day, John Denver was killed when the experimental light aircraft he was piloting crashed into Monterey Bay, California, he was 53 years old.

October 12-13, 1962

Hurricane Freda:

What is now believed to be the largest storm in recorded history, reaching from the San Francisco Bay area north to the Alaskan Panhandle, strikes the West Coast. This was the first storm ever to cause damage totals reaching into the double-digit billions. At its peak, wind gusts at Cape Blanco reach 179 mph. Evidence of damage from Hurricane Freda can still be found even now, 42 years later.

October 13th

1997: Andy Green's jet-powered car sets a new land speed record of 749.69 MPH.

1990: The first Russian Orthodox church service in more than 70 years is held in Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral.

1987: The first military use of trained dolphins takes place in the Persian Gulf by the US Navy.

1982: The IOC restores 2 gold medals from the 1912 Olympics to Jim Thorpe.

1973: Jordan enters the Yom Kippur war.

1970: Angela Davis is arrested in New York City.

1963: The term "Beatlemania" is coined after The Beatles appear at the Palladium.

1962: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" starring Uta Hagen opens on Broadway.

1957: The German Democratic Republic recalls the East Mark and issues a replacement currency.

1947: "Kukla, Fran & Ollie" premieres.

1943: With the overthrow of Mussolini and his fascists Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany.

1931: The Dorsey brothers' musical "Everybody's Welcome" premieres in New York City.

1914: Pro-German Boers begin a concerted opposition to British authority in South Africa.

1884: Greenwich England is established as the universal time meridian of longitude.

1862: Otto von Bismarck gives his famous "Blood and Iron" speech.

1629: The Dutch West Indies Co. grants religious freedom to all in the West Indies.

October 14th

1994: The space probe "Magellan" burns up as it passes through Venus' atmosphere.

1987: In Midland, Texas 18 month old Jessica McClure falls 22 feet down a well and is trapped for 59 hours before being rescued.

1980: Bob Marley performed his last concert.

1975: US President Gerald Ford escapes injury when his limousine is struck broadside at an intersection. (Bet you're glad t'wasn't youze who T-boned the Prez' limo, huh?)

1969: Race riots erupt in Springfield Massachusetts.

1964: Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

1957: The Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie" reaches #1 on the pop charts.

1949: 14 US Communist Party leaders are convicted of sedition.

1947: Chuck Yeager in the Bell XS-1 makes the first supersonic flight (Mach 1.015).

1944: Liberating British troops march into Athens, Greece.

1943: In a horrific air battle starting from the French coast, to target and back, the US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17 heavy bombers (each with a crew of 10 aboard) during an assault on the ball bearing works at Schweinfurt.

1939 Germany's U-47 torpedoes and sinks the British battleship "HMS Royal Oak" at Scapa Flow.

1922: The first automated (direct dial) telephones enter service in New York City's Pennsylvania exchange.

1913: A coal dust explosion in a mine at Cardiff kills 439 miners and maintenance crewmen.

1901: Justin Huntly McCarthy's "If I were King," makes its world premiere in New York's Barroque Theater.

1843: The British arrest Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell for conspiracy.

1806: At the Battle of Auerstadt Napolean's armies defeat the Prussians.

1758: At the Battle at Hochkirk, Saksen the Austrian army defeats the army of Prussia. (October 14th never was a good day for the Prussian military.)

1586: Mary Queen of Scots goes on trial for conspiracy against England's Elizabeth I.

1322: At Byland, Scottish forces under Robert the Bruce defeat the army of English King Edward II forcing him to accept Scotland's independence.

1066: The Battle of Hastings. William the Conquerer wins the throne of England. An excellent site on the Battle of Hastings can be found here.

October 15th

1997: Former congressman Dan Rostenkowski is released from custody after serving his prison term for mail fraud.

1993: Nelson Mandela and South African President F. W. de Klerk are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1989: The Reverend Billy Graham is given the 1,900th star of fame on Hollywood Blvd.

1983: US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut International Airport.

1973: Government Tanks attack unarmed demonstrating students in Thailand, 300 kids are killed.

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis is ignited when U-2 reconnaissance photographs show Soviet "Medium Range" missile installations newly located in Cuba.

1951: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez take to the small screen as "I Love Lucy" debuts on CBS TV.

1949: The Billy Graham ministry is begun.

1939: In New York the LaGuardia Airport officially opens.

1924: President Coolidge declares the Statue of Liberty a national monument.

1917: Legendary exotic dancer turned double-agent spy Mata Hari is shot by firing squad.

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