Day 304 - This day in legal and military history

October 31
 
Halloween
 
NATIONAL Caramel Apple Day
 
NATIONAL Magic Day
 
NATIONAL Girl Scout Founder's Day [Juliette Low's birthday in 1860]
 
NATIONAL Doorbell Day
 
NATIONAL Knock Knock Jokes Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1517 Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg in Germany, the start of the Protestant Reformation
 
1803 Congress ratified the purchase of the entire Louisiana area, adding territory to the United States for 13 subsequent states
 
1846 A heavy snowfall trapped the Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada mountains
 
1864 Nevada becomes the 36th state
 
1913 Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across the United States
 
1941 After 14 years of work, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial is completed

1956 Rear Admiral GJ Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole

Day 303 - This day in legal and military history

October 30
 
NATIONAL Candy Corn Day
 
NATIONAL Mischief Night
 
NATIONAL Checklist Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1270 The Seventh Crusade ends by the Treaty of Barbary
 
1838 Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Lorain County, Ohio becomes the first college in the US to admit female students
 
1862 Dr. Richard Gatling patented a machine gun consisting of six barrels mounted in a revolving frame
 
1938 HG Wells’ War of the Worlds is broadcast over the radio by Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre, causing a panic as people believed it was an actual newscast about a Martian invasion
 
1945 US announces the end of shoe rationing
 
1954 Defense Department announces elimination of all segregated units
 
1961 The USSR detonates “Tsar Bomba,” a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb; as of 2016 it is still the largest explosive device of any kind ever detonated

1974 At the “Rumble in the Jungle,” a boxing match in Zaire, challenger Muhammad Ali knocks out previously undefeated World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman

Day 302 - This day in legal and military history

October 29
 
NATIONAL Hermit Day
 
NATIONAL Internet Day
 
NATIONAL Cat Day
 
NATIONAL Oatmeal Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1863 Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross
 
1929 Black Tuesday takes place–the most catastrophic day in stock market history, the herald of the Great Depression
 
1945 The first ball-point pen is sold by Gimbell’s department store in New York for a price of $12
 
1966 The National Organization for Women was founded
 
1969 The US Supreme Court orders immediate desegregation
 
1969 The first computer-to-computer link is established through ARPANET, forerunner of the Internet
 
1998 John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, returned to space at age 77
 
2004 Osama bin Laden admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US
 
2008 Delta and Northwest airlines merge, forming the world’s largest airline
 
2012 Hurricane Sandy devastates much of the East Coast of the US, nearly 300 die

Day 301 - This day in legal and military history

October 28
 
INTERNATIONAL Observe the Moon Night
 
INTERNATIONAL Animation Day
 
NATIONAL Make a Difference Day
 
NATIONAL Plush Animal Lovers Day
 
NATIONAL Hug a Sheep Day
 
NATIONAL Chocolate Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1492 Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba on his first voyage to the New World
 
1636 Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts
 
1790 New York gave up claims to Vermont for $30,000
 
1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin
 
1886 The Statue of Liberty is dedicated at Liberty Island, NY
 
1914 George Eastman announces the invention of the color photographic process
 
1927 Pan American Airways launches the first scheduled international flight
 
1942 The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska
 
1962 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders Soviet missiles removed from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis
 
1965 Construction is completed on the 630-foot St. Louis Arch, the world’s tallest arch

1965 Pope Paul VI states that the Jewish people bear no collective guilt for the Crucifixion

Day 300 - This day in legal and military history

October 27
 
INTERNATIONAL Bandana Day
 
NATIONAL American Beer Day
 
NATIONAL Black Cat Day
 
NATIONAL Navy Day 

NATIONAL Cranky Co-Workers Day
 
NATIONAL Frankenstein Friday [last Friday in October]
 
NATIONAL Breadstick Day [last Friday in October]
 
NATIONAL Tell a Story Day [in UK and Scotland]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1682 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded
 
1787 The first of the Federalist Papers, which called for the ratification of the US Constitution, was published
 
1791 President George Washington transmits to Congress the results of the first US census, exclusive of South Carolina which had not yet submitted its findings
 
1873 Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applies for a patent on barbed wire
 
1891 DB Downing, inventor, is awarded a patent for the street letter (mail) box
 
1938 Du Pont announced that it would name its new synthetic yarn nylon
 
1943 First women Marines report for duty on the West Coast, at Camp Pendleton
 
1971 The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire
 
1978 Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
 
1988 US President Ronald Reagan decides to tear down a new US Embassy in Moscow because Soviet listening devices were built into the structure
 
1997 The Dow Jones industrial average fell 554.26 points, forcing the stock market to shut down
 
2004 After an 86 year wait, the Boston Red Sox finally captured a World Series trophy

Day 299 - This day in legal and military history

October 26
 
NATIONAL Mincemeat Day
 
NATIONAL Howl at the Moon Day

NATIONAL Pumpkin Day
 
NATIONAL Day of the Deployed
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1656 BC Noah enters the Ark, according to Bishop Ussher
 
1775 King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes a military response to quell the American Revolution
 
1861 Last ride of the Pony Express
 
1881 Wyatt Earp, his two brothers, and Doc Holliday were involved in the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona
 
1904 NYC subway opens
 
1905 Norway secedes from Sweden
 
1970 Garry Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury first appears
 
2001 The USA PATRIOT Act is signed into law by President George W. Bush, greatly expanding intelligence and legal agencies’ ability to utilize wiretaps, records searches and surveillance
 
2005 The Chicago White Sox sweep the Houston Astros to win their first World Series in 88 years

Day 298 - This day in legal and military history

October 25
 
WORLD Pasta Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Artists Day
 
NATIONAL Punk for a Day Day
 
NATIONAL Greasy Food Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1825 Erie Canal opened, linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean

1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade took place at Balaklava during the Crimean War
 
1943 Japanese open the Burma railroad ("The Bridge on the River Kwai")
 
1958 The last US troops leave Beirut
 
1960 Martin Luther King, Jr is sentenced to four months in jail for a sit-in
 
1962 In South Africa, civil rights activist Nelson Mandela is sentenced to 5 years in prison
 
1962 John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
 
1972 The first female FBI agents were hired
 
1983 The United States invaded the Caribbean nation of Grenada
 
1996 Federal Judge Richard Matsch granted Oklahoma City bombing defendants Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols separate trials

Day 297 - This day in legal and military history

October 24
 
United Nations Day
 
WORLD Tripe Day
 
NATIONAL Bologna Day
 
NATIONAL Food Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1836 The match is patented
 
1861 Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line, putting the Pony Express out of business
 
1861 West Virginia seceded from Virginia
 
1916 Henry Ford awards equal pay to women
 
1929 Black Thursday, the first day of the stock market crash which began the Great Depression
 
1930 John Wayne debuts in his first starring role in The Big Trail
 
1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act becomes law, establishing the 40-hour work week
 
1939 Nylon stockings were sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Delaware
 
1945 The United Nations comes into existence with the ratification of its charter by the first 29 nations
 
1992 The Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves in the 11th inning of the 6th game, to become the first Major League Baseball team from outside the US to win the series
 
2003 The supersonic Concorde jet made its last commercial passenger flight from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London’s Heathrow Airport, traveling at twice the speed of sound

2008 Many stock exchanges worldwide suffer the steepest declines in their histories; the day becomes known as “Bloody Friday”

Day 296 - This day in legal and military history

October 23
 
NATIONAL Mole Day
 
NATIONAL iPod Day
 
NATIONAL Boston Cream Pie Day
 
NATIONAL Swallows Depart from San Juan Capistrano Day
 
NATIONAL TV Talk Show Host Day [Johnny Carson's birthday]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1641 In Ireland, Catholics rise against the Protestants and massacre more than 40,000 men, women and children
 
1915 25,000 women marched in New York City, demanding the right to vote

1983 A suicide truck-bombing at Beirut International airport in Lebanon killed 241 US Marines and sailors.  At the same time, another incident occurred at French military headquarters, where 58 die and 15 are injured.

Day 295 - This day in legal and military history

October 22
 
INTERNATIONAL Stuttering Awareness Day
 
NATIONAL Nut Day

NATIONAL Caps Lock Day
 
NATIONAL Smart is Cool Day
 
NATIONAL Color Day  

NATIONAL Mother-in-Law Day [fourth Sunday in October]

 
Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
4004 BC The Creation, according to the Irish Protestant Bishop James Ussher
 
2134 BC Chinese scholars make the earliest recorded observation of an eclipse
 
1746 Princeton University, in New Jersey, receives its charter
 
1797 Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first successful parachute descent, jumping from a balloon at 2,200 feet over Paris
 
1861 The first telegraph line linking West and East coasts was completed
 
1907 Ringling Brothers buys Barnum & Bailey

1938 Chester Carlson invents the photocopier
 
1978 The Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II takes place. The Polish-born Wojtyla is the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI died in 1523.

Day 294 - This day in legal and military history

October 21
 
NATIONAL Babbling Day
 
NATIONAL Count Your Buttons Day
 
NATIONAL Pumpkin Cheesecake Day
 
NATIONAL Reptile Awareness Day
 
NATIONAL Apple Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1797 The US Navy frigate USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, was launched in Boston harbor

1872 The US Naval Academy admits John H. Conyers, the first African American to be accepted
 
1879 After 14 months of testing, Thomas Edison first demonstrates his electric lamp
 
1916 US Army formed Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC)
 
1940 Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published
 
1959 The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in Manhattan
 
1961 Bob Dylan records his first album in a single day at a cost of $400

Day 293 - This day in legal and military history

October 20
 
INTERNATIONAL Sloth Day

NATIONAL Brandied Fruit Day
 
NATIONAL Suspenders Day
 
NATIONAL Information Overload Day
 
NATIONAL Waiters Day
 
NATIONAL Mammography Day [third Friday in October]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1803 The Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase
 
1818 The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States
 
1820 Spain sold a part of Florida to the US for $5 million
 
1942 The US Congress passes the largest tax bill in the country’s history
 
1944 General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines, 30 months after he said "I shall return"
 
1987 Ten people were killed when an Air Force jet crashed into a Ramada Inn hotel near Indianapolis International Airport
 
1992 In the first World Series game to be played outside the US, the host Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves, 3-2

Day 292 - This day in legal and military history

October 19
 
NATIONAL Evaluate Your Life Day
 
NATIONAL Conflict Resolution Day
 
NATIONAL Get Smart About Credit Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1739 England declares war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The war is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins.
 
1781 Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the Revolutionary War
 
1917 The first doughnut is fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I
 
1949 The People’s Republic of China is formally proclaimed
 
1960 The United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba
 
1973 President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes
 
1987 The stock market crashed on what came to be known as "Black Monday." Stocks dropped a record 508 points, or 22.6%, topping the drops on October 28 and 29 in 1929 that began the Great Depression. 

2003 Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II for her work among “the poorest of the poor” in India

Day 291 - This day in legal and military history

October 18
 
GLOBAL Dignity Day
 
NATIONAL No Beard Day
 
NATIONAL Chocolate Cupcake Day
 
NATIONAL Hagfish Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1685 Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes and outlaws Protestantism
 
1767 Two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, completed mapping the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, called the Mason-Dixon line

1867 The rules for American football are formulated at a meeting in New York among delegates from Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton and Yale universities
 
1954 Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio
 
2011 Spaceport America officially opens in New Mexico as the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport

Day 290 - This day in legal and military history

October 17
 
NATIONAL Pasta Day
 
NATIONAL Wear Something Gaudy Day
 
NATIONAL Playing Card Collection Day
 
NATIONAL Mulligan Day
 
NATIONAL Spreadsheet Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1931 Mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison
 
1933 Albert Einstein, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist, flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1940
 
1978 Congress restores Jefferson Davis' citizenship
 
1979 Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 

1989 An earthquake registering 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit Northern California, killing 67 people

Day 289 - This day in legal and military history

October 16
 
WORLD Food Day
 
NATIONAL Bosses Day
 
NATIONAL Dictionary Day
 
NATIONAL Feral Cat Day
 
NATIONAL Department Store Day
 
NATIONAL Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day [third Monday in October]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1701 Yale University is founded as The Collegiate School of Killingworth, Connecticut by Congregationalists who consider Harvard too liberal
 
1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded by guillotine during the French Revolution
 
1813 The United States defeats the British Fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812
 
1834 "Second" Great Fire of London burns much of the city, including Parliament
 
1940 First black American is promoted to general: Benjamin Oliver Davis, Sr.
 
1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis began
 
1995 The Million Man March takes place in Washington, DC

Day 288 - This day in legal and military history

October 15
 
WORLD Toy Camera Day
 
WORLD Students Day
 
WORLD Math Day
 
NATIONAL I Love Lucy Day
 
NATIONAL Grouch Day
 
NATIONAL White Cane Safety Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1582 In Catholic countries which have adopted the Gregorian Calendar, this is the day following Oct 6, 1582
 
1860 Eleven-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, NY, wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard
 
1878 Thomas A. Edison founds the Edison Electric Light Company
 
1914 Congress passes the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which exempts unions from anti-trust laws; legalizes strikes, picketing and boycotting; and makes illegal several corporate activities including the setting prices which would effect a monopoly
 
1951 I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, had its television debut

1956 Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time
 
1966 The US Department of Transportation was created
 
1989 Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky makes his 1,851st goal, breaking the all-time scoring record in the National Hockey League
 
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the USSR, receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in making his country more open and reducing Cold War tensions
 
1991 Clarence Thomas received a narrow (52–48) Senate confirmation of his nomination to the Supreme Court
 
1993 Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to end apartheid in South Africa
 
2008 The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 733.08 points, the second-largest percentage drop in the Dow’s history

Day 287 - This day in legal and military history

October 14
 
INTERNATIONAL Top Spinning Day
 
NATIONAL Be Bald and Free Day
 
NATIONAL Dessert Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1066 The Normans, under William the Conqueror, defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings
 
1912 US President Theodore Roosevelt is shot and wounded in an assassination attempt in Milwaukee. He is saved by the papers in his breast pocket and, though wounded, insists on finishing his speech.
 
1947 Test pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier aboard a Bell X-1 rocket plane

1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis begins.  A USAF U-2 reconnaissance pilot photographs Cubans installing Soviet-made missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
 
1964 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating a policy of non-violence
 
1968 Jim Hines, USA, breaks the “ten-second barrier” in the 100-meter sprint at the Olympics in Mexico City; his time was 9.95
 
1968 The first live telecast from a staffed US spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7

Day 286 - This day in legal and military history

October 13
 
Friday the 13th
 
WORLD Egg Day [second Friday of October]
 
INTERNATIONAL Skeptics Day

NATIONAL Vet Nurse Day
 
NATIONAL No Bra Day
 
NATIONAL Train Your Brain Day
 
NATIONAL Navy Birthday
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1670 Virginia passed a law that blacks arriving in the colonies as Christians could not be used as slaves
 
1775 The Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy)
 
1792 The cornerstone of the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia
 
1849 The California state constitution, which prohibits slavery, is signed in Monterey
 
1884 Greenwich was established as universal time meridian of longitude
 
1914 Garrett Morgan invented and patented the gas mask
 
1987 First operational use of dolphins by the US Navy, in the Persian Gulf
 
2012 Residents of Los Angeles watch in awe as US Space Shuttle Endeavor inches through the city on a giant trolley, bound for a museum. Hundreds of trees in its path are chopped down.

Day 285 - This day in legal and military history

October 12
 
WORLD Sight Day
 
WORLD Arthritis Day
 
NATIONAL Cookbook Launch Day
 
NATIONAL Old Farmers Day
 
NATIONAL Moment of Frustration Day 

NATIONAL Gumbo Day
 
NATIONAL Savings Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1492 Christopher Columbus and his crew land in the Bahamas
 
1792 First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York City
 
1810 Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria ("Mad King Ludwig") weds Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen, in Munich, initiating what is now known as "Oktoberfest"
 
1892 The American Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in public schools to commemorate Columbus Day
 
1971 The House of Representatives passes the Equal Rights Amendment 354-23

Day 284 - This day in legal and military history

October 11
 
NATIONAL It's My Party Day
 
NATIONAL Take Your Parents to Lunch Day
 
NATIONAL Coming Out Day
 
NATIONAL Pet Obesity Awareness Day 

NATIONAL Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work/School Day
 
NATIONAL Fossil Day
 
NATIONAL Emergency Nurses Day [second Wednesday of October]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1862 The Confederate Congress in Richmond passed a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service
 
1890 The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) was founded in Washington, DC
 
1958 The lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched; it failed to go as far as planned, fell back to Earth, and burned up in the atmosphere
 
1962 "McHale's Navy" premiers on ABC
 
1975 Saturday Night Live, a comedy-variety show, premiers on NBC, with guest host comedian George Carlin and special guests Janis Ian, Andy Kaufman and Billy Preston; the show is still running
 
1976 George Washington’s appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford
 
1984 Space shuttle Challenger astronaut, Kathryn Sullivan, became the first American woman to walk in space
 
2000 NASA launches its 100th Space Shuttle mission
 
2001 The Polaroid Corporation, with its “instant cameras” since 1947, files for bankruptcy

Day 283 - This day in legal and military history

October 10
 
WORLD Homeless Day
 
WORLD Mental Health Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Newspaper Carrier Day
 
NATIONAL Angel Food Cake Day
 
NATIONAL Face Your Fears Day
 
NATIONAL Cake Decorating Day
 
NATIONAL Hug a Drummer Day
 
NATIONAL Handbag Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1789 In Versailles France, Joseph Guillotin says the most humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single blow of a blade

1845 The US Naval Academy is founded at Annapolis, Maryland with 50 midshipman students and seven professors
 
1863 The first telegraph line to Denver is completed
 
1886 The tuxedo dinner jacket made its debut at a ball in Tuxedo Park, New York
 
1911 The Panama Canal opens
 
1935 George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess debuted on Broadway
 
1970 The Quebec Provincial Minister of Labour, Pierre Laporte, is kidnapped by terrorists
 
1971 The London Bridge, built in 1831 and dismantled in 1967, reopens in Lake Havusu City, Arizona, after being sold to Robert P. McCulloch and moved to the United States
 
1973 Spiro Agnew resigns the vice presidency amid accusations of income tax evasion. President Richard Nixon names Gerald Ford as the new vice president. Agnew is later convicted and sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000.
 
2009 US President Barack Obama announces he will end the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against homosexuals serving in the US military

Day 282 - This day in legal and military history

October 9
 
Columbus Day [second Monday of October]
 
NATIONAL Curious Events Day
 
NATIONAL Fire Prevention Day
 
NATIONAL Moldy Cheese Day
 
NATIONAL Beer and Pizza Day
 
NATIONAL Chess Day
 
NATIONAL Native American Day [second Monday in October]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
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
 
1767 Surveying for the Mason–Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed
 
1867 The Russians formally transferred Alaska to the US for $7.2 million in gold
 
1888 The Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, opens to the public

1936 Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles
 
1995 Saboteurs pulled 29 spikes from a stretch of railroad track, causing an Amtrak train to derail in Arizona; one person was killed and about 100 were injured

Day 281 - This day in legal and military history

October 8
 
WORLD Octopus Day
 
NATIONAL Clergy Appreciation Day [second Sunday in October]
 
Oktoberfest in Germany ends
 
American Touch Tag Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1871 The Great Chicago Fire begins in southwest Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary

Great Chicago Fire map with starting point

1956 Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the first and only perfect game in a World Series
 
2001 US President George W. Bush establishes the Office of Homeland Security
 
2004 Martha Stewart began her prison sentence at Alderson Federal Prison Camp

Day 280 - This day in legal and military history

October 7
 
WORLD Card Making Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Frugal Fun Day [first Saturday of October]
 
NATIONAL Bald and Free Day
 
NATIONAL Bathtub Day 

NATIONAL Random Acts of Poetry Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
3761 BC Creation of the world, in the Jewish chronology
 
1765 The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England
 
1913 To lower the cost of the automobile and make it more affordable to ordinary Americans, Henry Ford developed the assembly line that reduced the time it took to manufacture a car from 12 hours to 93 minutes
 
1949 East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, is formed
 
1968 The Motion Picture Association of America adopted its film-rating system, ranging from "G" for general audiences to "X" for adults only
 
1982 Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats," the longest running show in Broadway history, opened
 
1990 Israel began handing out gas masks to its citizens
 
2001 The US invasion of Afghanistan in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 begins.  It will become the longest war in US history.
 
2003 California governor Gray Davis was recalled and former bodybuilder and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in his place

Day 279 - This day in legal and military history

October 6
 
WORLD Smile Day [first Friday of October]
 
NATIONAL Mad Hatter Day
 
NATIONAL Physician Assistant Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1683 German Quaker and Mennonite families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America
 
1927 "The Jazz Singer," the first full-length talking picture, starring Al Jolson, debuted
 
1958 The US nuclear sub USS Seawolf remained a record 60 days under pole

Day 278 - This day in legal and military history

October 5
 
Balloons Around the World Day
 
WORLD Teachers Day
 
NATIONAL Do Something Nice Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1857 The City of Anaheim, California [home of Disneyland, the Anaheim Ducks, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim] is founded

1880 The first ball-point pen is patented by Alonzo T. Cross
 
1921 The World Series was broadcast on the radio for the first time
 
1947 The first televised White House address is given by US President Harry S. Truman
 
1962 The Beatles released their first hit, "Love Me Do," in Britain
 
1983 Lech Walesa wins the Nobel Peace Prize
 
1989 The Dalai Lama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Day 277 - This day in legal and military history

October 4
 
WORLD Animal Day
 
NATIONAL Golf Day
 
NATIONAL Ship in a Bottle Day
 
NATIONAL Improve Your Office Day
 
NATIONAL Taco Day
 
NATIONAL Vodka Day
 
NATIONAL Golf Lover's Day
 
NATIONAL Walk to School Day [first Wednesday of October]
 
NATIONAL Pumpkin Seed Day [first Wednesday of October]
 
NATIONAL Kale Day [first Wednesday of October]
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1895 The first US Open Golf tournament was held in Newport, Rhode Island
 
1927 Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting the heads of four US presidents on Mount Rushmore

1957 Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite, is launched, beginning the “space race”
 
1965 Pope Paul VI arrives in New York, the first Pope ever to visit the US and the Western hemisphere
 
1976 In Gregg v. Georgia, the US Supreme Court lifts the ban on the death sentence in murder cases, restoring the legality of capital punishment. The first execution following this ruling was of Gary Gilmore in 1977.
 
1985 The Free Software Foundation is founded to promote universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software

Day 276 - This day in legal and military history

October 3
 
NATIONAL Techies Day
 
NATIONAL Virus Appreciation Day
 
NATIONAL Boyfriend Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1650 The English parliament declared its rule over the fledgling American colonies
 
1776 Congress borrows five million dollars to halt the rapid depreciation of paper money in the colonies
 
1789 George Washington proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day to be November 26
 
1863 Lincoln designates the last Thursday in November as "Thanksgiving Day"
 
1929 The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes officially changes its name to Yugoslavia
 
1955 Captain Kangaroo and The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on television

1974 Frank Robinson was named the first African-American manager in major league baseball
 
1990 After 40 years of division, East and West Germany are reunited as one nation

Day 275 - This day in legal and military history

October 2
 
INTERNATIONAL Day of Non-Violence
 
WORLD Architecture Day
 
WORLD Bullying Prevention Day
 
WORLD Habitat Day
 
WORLD Farm Animals Day 

NATIONAL Custodial Worker Day
 
NATIONAL Name Your Car Day
 
NATIONAL Fried Scallops Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1871 Mormon leader Brigham Young, 70, is arrested for polygamy. He is later convicted, but the US Supreme Court overturns the conviction.
 
1919 President Wilson suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.  Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall was urged to assume the presidency but he refused.
 
1950 The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schultz, makes its first appearance in newspapers
 
1964 Scientists announce findings that smoking can cause cancer
 
1967 Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American Supreme Court justice
 
1980 Congressional Representative Mike Myers is expelled from the US House for taking a bribe in the Abscam scandal, the first member to be expelled since 1861

Day 274 - This day in legal and military history

October 1
 
WORLD Vegetarian Day
 
INTERNATIONAL Coffee Day
 
NATIONAL Balloons Around the World Day
 
NATIONAL Homemade Cookies Day
 
NATIONAL CD Player Day
 
NATIONAL Change a Light Day
 

Today in legal and military [and occasional oddities] history
 
1880 John Philip Sousa becomes director of the Marine Corps Band
 
1908 The Ford Model T, the first car for millions of Americans, hits the market. Over 15 million Model Ts are eventually sold for $850, all of them black. 

1918 Arab forces under TE Lawrence, also known as “Lawrence of Arabia,” capture Damascus
 
1949 Mao Zedong establishes the People’s Republic of China
 
1957 “In God We Trust” appears on US paper currency as an act to distinguish the US from the officially atheist USSR.  The motto had appeared on coins at various times since 1864.
 
1958 NASA is formed
 
1971 Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida
 
1979 The US returns sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama