The Week of October 17 in History

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

October 17

October 17 is the 290th day of the year. There are 75 days remaining until the end of the year. 

October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. 

• 1711 – Jupiter Hammon, American poet & 1st published Black published, was born. He died in 1806.
• 1910 – Julia Ward Howe, American composer and abolitionist, died. She most well known as the author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic. She was born in 1819. 
• 1933 – Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moved to the U.S.
• 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station was officially opened in England.
• 1979 – Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 
• 1979 – The US Department of Education was created.
• 1979 – The US Department of Health and Human Services was created. 

October 18

October 18 is the 291st day of the year. There are 74 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first American labor organization.
• 1775 – African-American poet Phillis Wheatley was freed from slavery.
• 1851 – Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” was first published as “The Whale.” 
• 1867 – The US took possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2m.
• 1898 – Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the US
• 1922 – The British Broadcasting Company was founded to provide a national broadcasting service.
• 1929 – The Canadian Judicial Committee overruled the Supreme Court and declared women to be "Persons" under Canadian law. 
• 1954 – Texas Instruments announced the first transistor radio.
• 1950 – Wendy Wasserstein, American Tony Award & Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, was born. She died in 2006.
• 1973 – Walt Kelly, American cartoonist of “Pogo,” died. He was born in 1913. 
• 1985 – The Nintendo Entertainment System was released.
• 1985 – Super Mario Bros. game was released.
• 2000 – Gwen Verdon, American dancer, died. She was born in 1925.

October 19

October 19 is the 292nd day of the year. There are 73 days remaining until the end of the year

• 1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase. 
• 1868 – Bertha Landes, first woman mayor of a major US city (Seattle), was born. She died in 1943.
• 1893 – Lucy Stone, American suffragist and women's rights activist, died. She was born in 1818.
• 1931 –John le Carre, English author of 22 novels, was born.
• 1945 – Patricia Ireland, American attorney, feminist, and president of NOW, was born.
• 1950 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet, died. She was born in 1892. 
• 1959 – The first discotheque opened. 

October 20

October 20 is the 293rd day of the year. There are 72 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1803 – The United State Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase, comprising 828,800 square miles of territory.
• 1926 – Eugene Debs, American labor leader and presidential candidate, died. He was born in 1855.
• 1936 – Anne Sullivan, American teacher of Helen Keller, died. She was born in 1866.
• 1947– The House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
• 1973 – The Sydney (Australia) Opera House opened.

October 21

October 21 is the 294th day of the year. There are 71 days remaining until the end of the year. 

October 21 is International Day of the Nacho in Mexico and the US.

• 1774 – First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag in Colonial America, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule. 
• 1797 – The 44-gun US Navy frigate the “USS Constitution” was launched in Boston Harbor.
• 1816 – The Penang Free School, the oldest English-language school in Asia, was founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia by the Rev Hutchings.
• 1824 – Joseph Aspdin patented Portland cement.
• 1833 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prize, was born. He died in 1896.
• 1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.
• 1867 – Near Medicine Lodge, KS, a landmark treaty was signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty required the Plains tribes to relocate a reservation in western Oklahoma,
• 1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
• 1959 – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened to the public in New York City.

October 22

• October 22 is the 295th day of the year. There are 70 days remaining until the end of the year. 

• October 22 is International Stuttering Awareness Day.

• 1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opened. 
• 1906 – Paul Cezanne, French painter, died. He was born in 1839.
• 1919 – Doris Lessing, British author & Nobel Prize laureate, was born.
• 1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but refused the award.
• 1981 – The US Federal Labor Relations Authority voted to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for striking.

October 23

• October 23 is the 296th day of the year. There are 69 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1707 – The first Parliament of Great Britain met.
• 1861 – US President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases.
• 1915 – In NYC, 33,000 suffragists marched up Fifth Avenue.
• 1929 – The first North American transcontinental air service began between NYC and Los Angeles, CA.
• 1946 – The UN General Assembly convened for the first time, in an auditorium in Flushing (NYC).
• 2001 – Apple released the iPod.