Historical Tidbits in the Week of October 3

I fell in love with history in the ninth grade in a World History class when the teacher taught Egyptian history (thank you, Miss Fischer!). I have been collecting historical bits of information for years. A year ago, I began tweeting historical facts every day. This blog entry is like the “best of” the events, births, and deaths that occurred during this week. Just think, you'll be able to impress your friends with "Did you know . . . " days in advance of the event, birthday, or death day.

 If you want to read even more of these events on a daily basis. Follow me on Twitter at @kay_bigelow

This week is the International World Space Week.

October 3

• October 3 is the 276th day of the year. There are 89 days remaining until the end of the year.
• 1226  – Saint Francis of Assisi, died. He was born in 1181.
• 1849 – American author Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, MD under mysterious circumstances; it was the last time he was seen in public before his death.
• 1863 – The last Thursday in November was declared as Thanksgiving Day by President Abraham Lincoln.
• 1867– Elias Howe, American inventor of the sewing machine, died. He was born in 1819.
• 1896 – William Morris, English textile designer and poet, died. He was born in 1834.
• 1900 – Thomas Wolfe, American author of 11 novels, was born. He was born in 1938.
• 1908 - The Pravda newspaper was founded by Leon Trotsky and other Russian exiles in Vienna.
• 1925 – Gore Vidal, American author of 20+ novels, was born.
• 1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tested a nuclear weapon.
• 1955 – The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC. Sing along! MIC KEY MOUSE.
• 1995 – O. J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

October 4

• October 4 is the 277th day of the year. There are 88 days remaining until the end of the year.
• 1535 - The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.
• 1625 – Jacqueline Pascal, French child prodigy and author, was born. She completed a 5-act play at age 11. She died in 1661.
• 1862 – Edward Stratemeyer, American children’s author who wrote 1300 books, including the first Nancy Drew books (1930), was born. He died in 1930.
• 1876 – Texas A&M University opened its doors to students as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas.
• 1883 – The Orient Express made its maiden run between Paris and Istanbul.
• 1890 – Dr. Alan L. Hart, physician, TB researcher, author and one of the first FTM transsexual, was born. He died in 1962.
• 1895 – The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association was played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.
• 1903 - John Vincent Atanasoff, an American physicist and inventor. He died in 1995. The 1973 decision of the patent suit Honeywell v. Sperry Rand named him the inventor of the first automatic electronic digital computer. His special-purpose machine is known as the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
• 1942 – Johanna Sigurdardottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, was born.
• 1946 – Susan Sarandon, American actress and activist, was born.
• 1957  – The USSR launched Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
• 1965 - Pope Paul VI arrived in New York becoming the first Pope to visit the US.
• 1970 – Janis Joplin, American rock singer, died. She was born in 1943. 
• 1975 –  Joan Whitney Payson, American philanthropist and baseball team owner, died. She was born in 1903. She was co-founder and majority owner of the New York Mets baseball franchise, and was the first woman to own a major-league team in North America without inheriting it.
• 1983 - Richard Noble set a new land speed recourse record of 633.468 mph in Nevada.

October 5

• October 5 is the 278th day of the year. There are 87 days remaining until the end of the year.
• 1789 – Women of Paris marched to Versailles to confront Louis XVI to demand bread.
• 1813 – Tecumseh, Shawnee leader, died. He was born in 1768. 
• 1857 – The City of Anaheim, California was founded.
• 1877 – Chief Joseph surrendered his Nez Perce band to the US Army.
• 1882 – Robert Goddard, American rocket scientist, was born. He died in 1945.
• 1902 – Ray Kroc, American McDonald’s founder, was born. He died in 1984.
• 1921 – The World Series was broadcast on the radio for the first time.
• 1945 – A six-month strike by Hollywood set decorators turned into a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers.
• 1947 – The first televised White House address was given by US President Truman.
• 1962 - Dr. No, the first in the James Bond film series, was released.
• 1969 – The first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus airs on BBC.
• 1970 - The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was founded.

October 6

• October 6 is the 279th day of the year. There are 86 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• 1846 – George Westinghouse, American inventor, was born. He died in 1914. 
• 1876 – The American Library Association was founded.
• 1889 – Thomas Edison showed his first motion picture.
• 1892 –  Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet, died. He was born in 1809
• 1897 – Florence Siebert, American biochemist who isolated tuberculin used in standard TB tests, was born. She died in 1991.
• 1905 - Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player & winner of 31 Grand Slam titles, was born. She died in 1998.
• 1917 - Fannie Lou Hamer, American voting rights activist, was born. She died in 1977.
• 1925 - Shana Alexander, American journalist & first woman staff writer at “Life” magazine, was born. She died in 2005.
•  1927 - The Jazz Singer known as the first talking film, premiered.
• 1928 - Chiang Kai-Shek became Chairman of the Republic of China.

October 7

• October 7 is the 280th day of the year. There are 85 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• 3761 BCE - The epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar.
• 1916 - Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0.
• 1849 - Edgar Allan Poe, American author and poet, died. He was born in 1809.
• 1904 - Isabella Bird, English explorer & travel writer, died. She was born in 1831.
• 1919 - KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, was founded.
• 1931 –Desmond Tutu, South African activist & Nobel Laureate, was born. 
• 1943 – Radclyffe Hall, British author and poet, died. She was born in 1880. 
• 1946 – Catherine MacKinnon, American feminist, lawyer, & writer, was born. 
• 1949 - The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) came into being. 
• 1955 - Yo-Yo Ma, French-born American cellist, was born. 
• 1959 - U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first photos of the far side of the Moon.
• 1982 - Cats opened on Broadway and ran until September 10, 2000.
• 1998 - Matthew Shepard, a gay student, was found tied to a fence and savagely beaten in Laramie, WY.
• 2001 - The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.

October 8

• October 8 is the 281st day of the year. There are 84 days remaining until the end of the year. 
• 1645 - Jeanne Mance opened the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal, the first lay hospital in North America.
• 1807 - Harriet Taylor Mill, English feminist philosopher, was born. She died in 1858.
• 1856 - The Second Opium War between several western powers and China began.
• 1895 - Queen Min of Joseon , the last empress of Korea, is assassinated by the Japanese.
• 1943 – R.L. Stine, American young adult and children’s author of 316 books, was born.
• 1945 - Felix Salten, Austrian author of “Bambi,” died. He was born in 1869.
• 1956 – The NY Yankee’s Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series. 
• 2001 – President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.

October 9

• October 9 is the 282nd day of the year. There are 83 days remaining until the end of the year.
• October 9 is International World Post Day.
• 1701 – Yale University was chartered in Old Saybrook, CT.
• 1806 - Benjamin Banneker, a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac, author, and farmer, died. He was born in 1731.
• 1859 – Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer accused of treason and principal in the Dreyfus Affair, was born. He died in 1935
• 1888  – The Washington Monument officially opened to the general public.
• 1900 – Joseph Friedman, American inventor of the flexible straw, was born. He died in 1982.
• 1934 – Jill Ker Conway, Australian-American author and Smith College’s first woman president, was born.
• 1936 – Generators at Boulder Dam (renamed Hoover Dam) began to generate electricity. 
• 1940 – John Lennon, British musician and songwriter, was born. He died in 1980.
• 1950 – Jody Williams, American teacher & Nobel Peace Prize winner, was born.
• 1969 – InChicago, the National Guard was called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection with the trial of the "Chicago Eight" that began on September 24th.
• 1986 – The musical The Phantom of the Opera premiered at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.