Monday, October 31, 2011

31st of October

Today is the 304th day of the year with only 61 days remaining until the new year.

1517 - Martin Luther nails his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

1861 - Citing failing health, General Winfield Scott, resigns as Commander of the United States Army.

1864 - Nevada is admitted as the 36th state to the Union.

1876 - An immense and destructive cyclone ravages India.  It is estimated to have killed 200,000 people.

1917 - The Battle of Beersheba occurs during the First World War.  It is the last successful cavalry charge in history.

1926 - Magician Harry Houdini, dies of gangrene and peritonitus that developed after his appendix ruptured.

1941 - After nearly 14 years of work, the monument of Mount Rushmore is completed.

1943 - An F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception.

1944- Erich Gostl, a member of the Waffen SS, is awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, To recognize extreme battlefield bravery, after losing his face and eyes during the Battle of Normandy.

1961 - In the Soviet Union, longtime leader Joseph Stalin's body is removed from the tomb that holds Vladamir Lenin.

1999 - Yachtsman Jesse Martin, returns to Melbourne, Australia, after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop, and unassisted.

2002 - A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas, indicts former Enron Corporation chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice, related to the collapse of his ex-employer.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

30th of October

Today is the 303rd day of the year, with only 62 days remaining.

1831 - In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner, is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in U.S. history.

1864 - Helena, Montana is founded, after four prospectors discover gold at the Last Chance Gulch.

1922 - Benito Mussolini is made the Prime Minister of Italy.

1938 - Orson Welles, broadcasts his radio play of The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt, approves U.S. $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.

1942 - Lt. Tony Fasson, Able Seaman Colin Grazier, and canteen assistant Tommy Brown, from the HMS Petard board the U-559, retrieving material which would lead to the decryption of the German Enigma code.

1945 - Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs, signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers, to break the baseball color barrier.

1965 - Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack of wave after wave of Viet Cong forces.  They kill 56 guerillas and among the dead, is a sketch of Marine positions, found on the body of a 13-year-old boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.

1974 - The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match, between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.

1987 - In Japan, Nintendo releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the TurboGrafix-16, known as a PC Engine.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

29th of October

It is the 302nd day of the year, with only 63 days remaining until the new year.

1390 - It is the first trial for witchcraft in Paris, leading to the death of three people.

1618 - English adventurer and writer, Sir Walter Raleigh, is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

1863 - Eighteen countries meeting in Geneva, agree to form the International Red Cross.

1863 - Forces under U.S. Grant repel a Confederate attack of General James Longstreet, at the Battle of Wauhatchie.  This allows an open supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1901 - Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.

1929 - The New York Stock Exchange crashes, in what would be called Black Tuesday, beginning the Great Depression.

1960 - In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay, later Muhammad Ali, wins his first professional fight.

1964 - A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat Star of India, is stolen by a group of thieves from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

1969 - The first ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the internet.

1998 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the odlest person to go into space.

2004 - The Arabic news network Al Jazeera, broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden, in which the terrorist leader first admits he is responsible for September 11, and makes reference to the upcoming election.

Friday, October 28, 2011

28th of October

Today is the 301st day of the year with 64 days remaining.

97 - Emperor Nerva is forced by the Praetorian Guard, to adopt general Marcus Ulpius Trajanus as his heir and successor.

1538 - The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino is established.

1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court, of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, establishes the first college in the United States.

1864 - The Battle of Fair Oaks and Darbytown Road occurs, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from that area of Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses of Richmond.

1886 - In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland, dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

1893 - Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pethetique, is his last work.  It receives its premiere performance in St. Petersburg, only nine days before his death.

1918 - Czechoslovakia is granted independence from Austria-Hungary.  This marks the beginning of the independent state, after nearly 300 years.

1919 - The United States Congress, passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the next year.

1936 - Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th Anniversary.

1965 - Construction of the St. Louis Arch is completed.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

27th of October

Today is the 300th day of the year, with only 65 days remaining until the end of the year.

312 - Constantine the Great, is said to have received his famous "Vision of the Cross."

1682 - The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded. It will be instrumental in the defining moments of United States history.

1838 - Missouri Governor, Lilburn Boggs, issues the Extermination Order, claiming that all Mormons must leave the state of be executed.

1904 - The first underground New York City Subway line opens, the system becomes the largest in the the U.S. and one of the biggest in the world.

1954 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr., becomes the first African-American general in the United States Armed Forces.

1961 - NASA launches the first Saturn I rocket into space.

1973 - The Canon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite-type, strikes in Fremont County, Colorado.

1988 - Ronald Reagan decides to tear down the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow, because of Soviet listening devices in the building structure.

1991 - Turkmenistan achieves its independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1994 - The United States prison population exceeds one millions for the first time.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

26th of October

Today is the 299th day of the year, with only 66 days remaining until the new year.

1597 - Admiral Yi Sun-sin, routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships of his own at the Battle of Myeongnyang.

1775 - King George III, goes before Parliament, to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes a military response to quell it.

1776 - Benjamin Franklin departs America for France, on a mission to seek French support in the struggle for independence.

1825 - The Erie Canal opens, allowing passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.

1881 - The famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 - Norway declares its independence from it's neighbor Sweden.

1917 - Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany, at the Battle of Caporetto.  The young unknown Oberleutnant Erwin Rommel, captures Mount Matajur with only 100 Germans against a force of over 7,000 Italians.

1918 - Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1936 - The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.

1940 - The P-51 Mustang, makes its maiden flight.

1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.

1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.

1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.

1977 - The last natural case of smallpox is discovered in Merca district, Somalia.  The WHO and CDC consider it the anniversary of the eradication of the disease and the most spectacular success of vaccination.

2001 - Congress passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2003 - The Cedar Fire, the second-largest in California history, kills 15 people, consumer 250,000 acres, and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

25th of October

It is the 298th day of the year and only 67 days are remaining.

1415 - The army of Henry V of England, defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt.

1813 - Canadians and Mohawk Indians defeat the Americans, in the Battle of Chateauguay during the War of 1812.

1944 - Heinrich Himmler orders a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany, that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

1962 - Adlai Stevenson shows photos to the United Nations, proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.

2004 - Cuban President, Fidel Castro, announces that transactions using the American dollar will be banned.

Monday, October 24, 2011

24th of October

It is the 297th day of the year, with only 68 days remaining until the new year.

1590 - John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the lost colonists.

1857 - Sheffield F.C., the world's first soccer (football) club, is founded in England.

1861 - The First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States is completed, spelling the end of the 18-month-old Pony Express.

1901 - Annie Edison Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1926 - Harry Houdini gives his last performance, which is located at the Garrick Theater in Detroit, Michigan.

1929 - The stock market crashes on Wall Street, is will be known as Black Thursday.

1946 - A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket, takes the first photograph of Earth from space.

1977 - Veterans Day is observed on the fourth Monday is this month for the seventh and last time.  It will be changed to observe the occasion on November 11, the following year.

2002 - Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

23rd of October

Today is the 296th day of the year, with 69 days remaining.

42 BC - At the Second Battle of Philippi, Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat Brutus' army.  The former then commits suicide.

1812 AD - Claude Francois de Malet, a French General, begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon Bonaparte, claiming that the Emperor died in Russia and that he is now the Commandant of Paris.

1911 - This marks the first use of aircraft in war, as an Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines.

1929 - After a steady decline in stock market prices since one peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to show signs of panic.

1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, begins in the Phillipines.

1946 - The United Nations General Assembly convenes for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York.

1965 - The 1st Cavalry Division, in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launches a new operation seeking to destroy enemy forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical Zone.

1972 - A U.S. bombing campaign of North Vietnam, known as Operation Linebacker, ends after five months.

1992 - Emperor Akihito becomes the First Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.

2001 - Apple announces the production of the iPod.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

22nd of October

It is the 295th day of the year, with only 70 days remaining.

1777 - American defenders of Fort Mercer on the Delaware River, repulse repeated Hessian attacks in the Battle of Red Bank.

1797 - 3,200 feet or 1000 meters above Paris, Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump.

1836 - Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1883 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust.

1926 - J. Gordon Whitehead, sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

1934 - In East Liverpool, Ohio, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd.

1943 - In another firestorm raid, the Royal Air Force conducts an attack on the town of Kassel, killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 people homeless.

1944 - The city of Aachen falls to American forces, after nearly three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall into Allied hands.

1953 - Laos gains its independence from France.

1957 - This marks the first United States casualties in Vietnam.

1962 - President Kennedy announces that they have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has order a naval quarantine of the Communist island.

1966 - The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a Number 1 selling album.

1976 - Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that is causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.

2008 - India launches its first unmanned lunar mission, known as Chandrayaan-1.

Friday, October 21, 2011

21st of October

Today is the 294th day of the year, with only 71 days remaining.

1512 - Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan discovers a narrow, navigable channel of water, known as the Strait of Magellan.

1774 - The first display of the word, "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.

1797 - The 44-gun navy frigate, USS Constitution, is launched in Boston Harbor.

1805 - The Battle of Trafalgar, where a British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson, defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of the latter.  it signals the end of French maritime power and leaves Britain's navy unchallenged until the 20th century.

1854 - Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.

1861 - Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war, the Battle of Ball's Bluff.  Baker, who is a close friend of Abraham Lincoln is killed.

1879 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison test the first practical electric incandescent light bulb.  It lasted a total of 13.5 hours before burning out.

1921 - President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting official against lynching in the deep South.

1944 - A Japanese plane carrying a 440 lb bomb, attacks HMAS Australia off of Leyte Gulf.  It is known as the first kamikaze attack.

1959 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.

1967 - More than 100,000 protesters gather in Washington, D.C.  A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to the Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility.

1973 - Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in National Football League history to score two safeties in the same game.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

20th of October

Today is the 293rd day of the year, with only 72 days remaining until the end of the year.

1803 - The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1910 - The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship of the ill-fated Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1941 - Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac, Serbia are killed by the Nazis.  All males from the ages of sixteen to sixty were rounded up and then shot.  They claimed 2,796 victims of the massacre.

1944 - General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Phillipines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

1947 - The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.

1967 - A purported bigfoot (sasquatch), in the Pacific Northwest, is filmed by Robert Patterson and Robert Gimlin.

1968 - Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

1972 - The famous landmark of Australia, the Sydney Opera House opens.

1977 - A plane carrying Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, crashes in Mississippi.  The incident kills lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

19th of October

Today is the 292nd day of the year, with 73 days remaining until the new year.

1512 - Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology.

1781 - Representatives of British commander George Cornwallis, handed over his sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia.

1805 - Austrian General Mack surrenders his army toe the Grand Army of Napoleon at the Battle of Ulm.  30,000 prisoners are captured and 10,000 casualties inflicted on the losers.

1864 - Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroy the Confederate Army under Jubal A. Early, at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

1873 - Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers Universities, draft the first code of American football rules.

1933 - Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

1959 - The first discotheque opens.

1987 - Known as Black Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, falls by 22%, a total of 508 points.

2005 - Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad, Iraq for his crimes against humanity.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

18th of October

It is the 291st day of the year, with 74 days that are remaining.

1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the foundation down to bedrock.

1648 - Boston Shoemakers form the first United States labor organization.

1767 - A survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed and will be known as the Mason-Dixon line.

1851 - Herman Melville's Moby Dick, is first published in London under the title The Whale.

1867 - United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million.

1898 - The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.

1925 - The Grand Ole Opry opens in Nashville, Tennessee.

1944 - Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.

1945 - The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1954 - Texas Instruments, now known for their calculators, announces the first transistor radio.

1985 - The Nintendo Entertainment System is released.  Super Mario Bros. was released, and largely responsible for the initial success of the system.

1991 - Azerbaijan declares its independence from the USSR.

Monday, October 17, 2011

17th of October

It is the 290th day of the year, with 75 days remaining.

539 BC - Cyrus the Great marches into the city of Babylon releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile.  Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Yehud Medinata and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

1662 AD - Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.

1777 - American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga.

1781 - General Charles Cornwallis, surrenders at the Battle of Yorktown.

1888 - Thomas Edison files a patent for the optical phonograph, used for the first movie.

1931 - American mob boss and gangster Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.

1933 - Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.

1941 - For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.

1965 - The New York World's Fair, closes after a two year run.  It is estimated that more than 51 million people had attended the event.

1979 - Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for all of her work throughout the world.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

16th of October

It is the 289th day of the year, with 76 days remaining.

1781 - George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia after the Siege of Yorktown.

1859 - John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia.

1875 - Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1923 - The Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney.

1939 - This marks the first attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.

1940 - Benjamin O. Davis Sr., is named the first African-American general in the United States Army.

1940 - The Warsaw Ghetto is established during the Second World War.

1946 - Execution of the convicted Nazi leaders of the main Nuremberg Trial.

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and Cuba begins.

1968 - United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, are kicked off the USA's team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power Salute.

1975 - Rahima Banu, a 2-year-old girl from the village of Kuralia in Bangladesh, is the last known person to be infected with naturally occurring smallpox.

2002 - Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria is inaugurated, a commemoration of the great Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, when it was burned to the ground in 48 BC by Julius Caesar.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

15th of October

It is the 288th day of the year, with 77 days remaining until the end of the year.


1764 - Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

1783 - The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon marks the first human ascent, by Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier.

1815 - Napoleon I begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

1863 - The Confederate H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks during a test, killing crew and its inventor.

1878 - The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.

1888 - The "From Hell" letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.

1917 - At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutc dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.

1939 - The New York Municipal Airport is dedicated, it will later be renamed La Guardia Airport.

1966 - The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

1989 - Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the National Hockey League.

1990 - Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

2003 - China launches its first manned space mission, Shenzhou 5.

2008 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst day in the Dow's history.

Friday, October 14, 2011

14th of October

It is the 287th day of the year and there are only 78 day remaining.

1066 - In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman forces of William the Conqueror defeat the English army and kill Harold II of England.

1322 - Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.

1586 - Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England.

1863 - At the Battle of Bristoe Station occurs, when Confederate troops under the command of General Robert E. Lee fail to drive the Union Army completely out of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

1867 - The 15th and the last military Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan, returning his power to the Emperor of Japan and thence to the re-established civil government of Japan.

1884 - The American inventor, George Eastman, receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film.

1908 - The Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers, by a score of 2 to 0, clinching the World Series.  It would be their last one to date.

1910 - The English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman Aircraft biplane on Executive Avenue near the White House in Washington, D.C.

1912 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper.  With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still there, Roosevelt still finishes his scheduled public speech.

1926 - The children's book Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne, is first published.

1938 - The first flight of the Curtiss Aircraft P-40 Warhawk fighter plane.

1943 - Prisoners at the Nazi German extermination camp in Sobibor, Poland, revolt against their captors.  They kill eleven SS guards, and wounding many more.  About 300 of the camp's 600 prisoners escape, and about 50 end up surviving the end of the war.

1947 - Captain Chuck Yeager of the Air Force, flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, faster than the speed of sound.

1958 - The American Atomic Energy Commission, with supporting military units, carries out an undergroun nuclear weapon test at the Nevada Test Site.

1962 - An Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane, flies over the island of Cuba and take photographs of Soviet missiles being installed and erected in Cuba.

1968 - The Department of Defense announces that the Army and Marine Corps, will send 24,000 soldiers back to Vietnam, for an involuntary second tour of duty.

1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs.

2003 - Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman becomes infamously known as the scapegoat for the Cubs losing game 6 of the National League Championship Series to the Florida Marlins.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

13th of October

It is the 286th day of the year, with only 79 days remaining.

54 - Nero ascends to the Roman throne.

1307 - Hundreds of Templar Knights in France are arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortued into a confession of heresy.

1775 - The United States Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy.

1792 - In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion is laid.

1944 - Riga, the capital of Latvia is liberated by the Red Army.

1967 - The first game in the history of the American Basketball Association is played as the Anaheim Amigos lose to the Oakland Oaks, 134 to 129.

1983 - Ameritech Mobile Communications, now known as AT&T, launches the first cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.

2010 - A mining accident in Copiapo, Chile comes to end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

12th of October

Today is the 285th day of the year, and 80 days are remaining until the end of the year.

1492 - Christopher Columbus' expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically the Bahamas.  The explorer believes he has reached South Asia.

1773 - America's first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Virginia.

1810 - The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese won Sachsen-Hildburghausen, is the First Oktoberfest.

1892 - The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many U.S. public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage.

1901 - President Theodore Roosevelt officially renamed the Executive Mansion, the White House instead.

1917 - The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.

1918 - A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.

1928 - An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at a Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

1933 - The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the Department of Justice.

1945 - Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.

1964 - The Soviet Union launches Voskhod 1 into Earth's orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.

1968 - Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.

1972 - The USS Kitty Hawk, en route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin, breaks out in a race riot on the decks involving more than 200 sailors.  Nearly 50 were injured in this widely-publicized incident.

1970 - President Richard Nixon, announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.

1994 - NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus.  It is presumed that it burned up in the atmosphere.

1999 - The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

11th of October

Today is the 284th day of the year, with 81 days remaining until the end of the year.

1776 - On Lake Champlain, 15 American gunboats are defeated but give Patriot forces enough time to prepare defense of New York City, during the Battle of Valcour Island.

1809 - Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.

1862 - In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.

1910 - Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane.  He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey at Kinloch Field, St. Louis, Missouri.

1929 - JC Penney opens store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.

1954 - The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.

1957 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists calculate Sputnik 1's booster rocket orbit.

1968 - Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham aboard.

1975 - The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the host, Andy Kaufman, Janis Ian, and Billy Preston.

1976 - George Washington's appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.

1984 - Aboard the space shuttle Challenger, Kathryn Sullivan, becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

2000 - NASA launches the 100th space shuttle mission, using the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Monday, October 10, 2011

10th of October

It is the 283rd day of the year, with 82 days remaining.

19 AD - Germanicus, was a member of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and a prominent general of the Roman Empire.  He died at the young age of 33.

1471 - At the Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm, Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of both farmers and miners, repel and attack by the King of Denmark, Christian I/

1580 - After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dun an Oir, Ireland.

1780 - A great hurricane along the coast and area of the Caribbean kills an estimated 300,000 people.

1845 - In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School opens with 50 midshipman students and seven professors.  It will later be renamed the United States Naval Academy.

1868 - Carlos Cespedes issues the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence.

1875 - Aleksey Tolstoy, a Russian poet, novelist, and playwright passes away.

1911 - The Wuchang Uprising leads to the demise of Qing Dynasty, the last Imperial court in China, and the founding of the Republic of China.

1913 - President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.

1928 - Chiang Kai-Shek becomes the Chairman of the Republic of China.

1938 - The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.

1964 - The opening ceremony at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.

1970 - The island nation of Fiji gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1971 - The original London Bridge of 1831, that spanned the River Thames, is sold, dismantled and moved to the United States.  It reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  It is reinforced concrete structure, clad in the original masonry of the English bridge, bought by Robert P. McCulloch.

1973 - Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew, resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.

1985 - Orson Welles, American film director, screenwriter, producer, passes away at the age of 70. 

2004 - American actor known for his role as Superman, Christopher Reeve passes away at age 52.

2009 - After having closed borders for about two hundred years, Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland to open their borders. 

Sunday, October 9, 2011

9th of October

It is the 282nd day of the year, with 83 days remaining until the new year.

1604 - The most recent supernova is observed in the Milky Way galaxy.

1635 - Founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.

1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut, later renamed Yale, is chartered in Old Saybrook.

1820 - Guayaquil declares its independence from the Spanish Empire.

1861 - Union troops repel a Confederate attempt to capture Fort Pickens, as the Battle of Santa Rosa Island.

1864 - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces during the Battle off Tom's Brook.

1888 - The Washington Monument opens to the general public.

1919 - The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, and begins the event known as the Black Sox scandal.

1936 - Generators at Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam), begin to generate electricity, from the Colorado River and transmits it 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.

1940 - During a night-time air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, England is hit by a bomb.

1945 - Parade in New York City for Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, and 13 Navy men and Marines who are Medal of Honor recipients.

1967 - A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.

1986 - The musical, Phantom of the Opera, has its first performance at Her Majesty's Theater in London.

1989 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.

1992 - A 13 kilogram fragment of a meteorite, lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.

1999 - This date marks the last flight of the SR-71 Blackbird.

2006 - North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

8th of October

It is the 218st day of the year, with only 84 days remaining.

1806 - Forces of the British Empire, lay siege to the port of Boulogne, France, by using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve.

1860 - Telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco opens.

1862 - Union forces under General Don Carlos Buell halt the Confederate invasion of Kentucky by defeating troops led by General Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Perryville.

1895 - Queen Min of Joseon, the last empress of Korea, is assassinated and her corpse burned by the Japanese in Gyeongbok Palace.

1918 - In the Argonne Forest in France, United States Corporal Alvin C. York leads an attack that kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132 people.

1921 - KDKA in Pittsburgh's Forbes Field, conducts the first live broadcast of a football game.

1944 - The Battle of Crucifix Hill occurs just outside Aachen.  Captain Bobbie Brown, receives a Medal of Honor for his heroics in this battle.

1956 - New York Yankees, Don Larson, pitched the only perfect game in a World Series, and one of 20 perfect game in baseball history.

1967 - Guerilla leader Che Guevara and his men, are captured in Bolivia.

1968 - Operation Sealords begins, with United States and South Vietnamese forces launching a new operation in the Mekong Delta.

1978 - Australia's Ken Warby, sets the current world water speed record at 317.60 mph at Blowering Dam in his native country.

2001 - United States President George W. Bush, announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.

Friday, October 7, 2011

7th of October

It is the 280th day of the year, with 85 days remaining until the end of the year.

1763 - British Royal Proclamation by George II, closes aboriginal lands in North America, north and west of the Alleghenies to white settlements.

1780 - American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina, during the Battle of Kings Mountain.

1864 - The Battle of Darbytown Road, the Confederate forces' attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond is thwarted.

1916 - Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

1944 - An uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, where Jewish prisoners burn down the crematoria.

1959 - USSR probe Luna 3, transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the moon.

1982 - Cats, opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000.

2001 - The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

6th of October

It is the 297th day of the year, with 86 days remaining.

69 BC - Battle of Tigranocerta, forces of the Roman Republic defeat the army of the Kingdom of Armenia led by King Tigranes the Great.

1683 AD - William Penn brings 13 German immigrant families to the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.

1884 - The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.

1889 - Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture.

1927 - The opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie.

1945 - Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat, are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the World Series.

1979 - Pope John Paul II, becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House.

2007 - Jason Lewis completes the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe, traveling over 46,505 miles (74,842 km).

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

5th of October

It is the 278th day of the year, with only 87 days remaining until the new year.

1857 - The City of Anaheim is founded.

1877 - Chief Joseph surrenders his Nez Perce band to General Nelson A. Miles.

1905 - Wilbur Wright flew 24 miles in 39 minutes, a world record that stood for nearly 3 years.

1914 - It is the first aerial combat resulting in a kill during the First World War.

1921 - The World Series is broadcast on the radio for the first time.

1944 - Royal Canadian Air Force pilots shoot down the first German jet fighter over France.

1948 - A violent earthquake in Ashgabat, kills 110,000 people.

1970 - The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is founded.

2001 - Robert Stevens becomes the first victim in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

4th of October

It is the 277th day of the year with only 88 days remaining.

1535 - The first complete English-language Bible is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1582 - Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar.

1777 - During the Battle of Germantown, troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.

1876 - Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in the state.

1883 - The first official run of the Orient Express, it would continue until 2009.

1895 - The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship, administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island.

1927 - Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting the great feat of Mount Rushmore.

1943 - The U.S. Armed Forces capture the Solomon Islands.

1957 - The launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1966 - Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.

1983 - Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph (1,019 km/h), driving a Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

1997 - The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Loomis, Fargo, and Company.  An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the $17.3 million in cash which had been taken.

Monday, October 3, 2011

3rd of October

It is the 276th day of the year, with 89 days remaining until the new year.

52 BC - Vercingetoriz, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege of the Battle of Alesia.

42 BC - Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight a decisive battle with assassins Brutus and Cassius at the First Battle of Philippi.

1795 - General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the three year old revolutionary government.

1849 - American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances.  It is the last time he is seen in public before his death.

1863 - The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by President Abraham Lincoln.

1932 - The Middle Eastern country of Iraq, gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1942 - The first successful launch of a V-2.A-4 rocket from the Test Stand VII at Peenemunde, Germany.  It is the first man-made object to reach space.

1951 - "The Shot Heard Round the World", one of the greatest moments in baseball history, occurs when the New York Yankees' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca.  They win the National League pennant after being down 14 game. 

1955 - The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on ABC.

1964 - The first Buffalo Wings, are made at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

1990 - It is celebrated as German Unity Day, because of the re-unification of the country of Germany.

1993 - In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organization in Somalia, 18 U.S. soldiers and about 1,000 Somalis are killed in heavy fighting, during the Battle of Mogadishu.

1995 - O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, sparking national debate.

2003 - Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, is attacked by one of the show's tigers, canceling the show until 2009, when they rejoined the tiger that mauled him three years earlier.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

2nd of October

Today is the 275th day of the year, and there are 90 days remaining until the end of the year.

1187 - Saladin captures the city of Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.

1780 - John Andre, a British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War is hanged as a spy.

1835 - Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas but encounter stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.

1864 - Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.

1889 - In Colorado, Nicholas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great boom of the American Old West.

1919 - President Woodrow Wilson, suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.

1925 - John logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system.

1941 - Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow, codenamed Operation Typhoon.

1950 - Peanuts, by Charles M. Schultz is first published.

1958 - Guinea declares its independence from the country of France.

1967 - Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice in United States History.

2002 - The Beltway sniper attacks begin, they will extend over a period of three weeks.

2006 - Five school girls are murdered by Charles Carl Roberts, in a shooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

1st of October

It is the 274th day of the year, with 91 days remaining until the end of the year.  It is also the day of the tenth month of the year.

331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.

1811 AD - The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1869 - Austria issues the world's first postcards.

1880 - John Philip Sousa becomes leader of the United States Marine Band.

1880 - The first electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison.

1890 - The Yosemite National Park and the Yellowstone National Park are established by the U.S. Congress.

1891 - Stanford University opens its doors.

1903 - The Boston Americans play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.

1908 - Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of $825.00.

1918 - Arab forces under T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, capture Damascus.

1940 - The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens to traffic.

1946 - Nazi leading officials are sentenced at the Nuremberg Trials.

1947 - The F-86 Sabre flies for the first time.

1957 - It is the first appearance of "In God We Trust" on United States currency.

1960 - Nigeria gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1964 - The Free Speech Movement is launched on the campus of University of California, Berkeley.

1971 - Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida.

1975 - Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in a boxing match called the Thrilla in Manila, Phillipines.world

1978 - Tuvalu gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1982 - At Disney World in Florida, the famed EPCOT Center, the "silver golfball," opens.

1982 - Sony launches the first consumer compact disc player, the model CDP-101.