SPECTRUM NEWS
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This Week In History
By Robert Sullivan
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October 2017
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Who is Robert Sullivan?
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Oct. 1-7
October 1st
In 1908, The “Model T,” designed by Henry Ford, could be purchased for the first time. The “Model T” was also the first of Ford’s many cars to be produced in great quantities though an assembly line utilizing interchangeable parts. Ford’s goal of this automobile was to provide a car that would suit people of all trades. He created it to compliment with the lives of single people as well as large families. The middle class was his main target.
October 2nd
In 1869, Indian leader, Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi (1869-1948), was born. Gandhi was instrumental in leading India in the fight against Britain to achieve freedom and liberty.
October 3rd
In 1974, The Cleveland Indians hired the first African-American manager in the history of baseball: Frank Robinson. 27 years earlier, Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play a Major League Baseball game. Frank Robinson’s hiring would prove to be another step in the right direction for racial equality in America.
October 4th
In 1830, Belgium gained its independence from the Netherlands after a fifteen year occupation.
October 5th
In 1964, fifty-seven East German refugees escaped by tunneling under the Berlin Wall by way of an underground passage. This was the biggest mass-scale escape since the wall was built, in 1961.
October 6th
In 1927, the first non-silent movie, or “talkie,” was introduced in New York. Al Jolson was the star actor in this film called A Jazz Singer.
October 7th
In 1765, delegates from each of the nine colonies, also known as the Stamp Act Congress, came together to discuss ways of rebellion against the Stamp Act. This was the first tax initiated by Britain on the colonies.
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Oct. 8-14
October 8th
In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire commenced and would ultimately kill around 300 people. Legend has it that this vast fire began when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern. The fire eventually spread to 3.5 square miles and lasted for two days. An estimated 90,000 people were now homeless, 17,450 buildings now ruin, and economic catastrophe totaled $200 million.
October 9th
In 1962, Uganda achieved freedom by ending a 70 year British occupation.
October 10th
In 1954, Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi, Vietnam following the departure of the French soldiers. This also ended the, 7 year, conflict between communist Vietnam and France.
October 11th
In 1939, Albert Einstein informed, president at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt that his ideas could lead Nazi Germany in creating an atomic bomb, so he believed the U.S. should make their own. This was called the “Manhattan Project” and was very confidential.
October 12th
In 1494, Christopher Columbus reached the new land (current day Bahamas), although he believed he had found a passage to the Indies. When he encountered natives he called them Indians due to his discombobulation.
October 13th
In 1775, following the Second Continental Congress’s permission to assemble a fleet of ships, the U.S. Navy was initiated.
October 14th
In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize (youngest ever) and gave his $54,000 in earnings to the Civil Rights movement.
Oct. 15-21
October 15th
In 1946, a high ranking Nazi, Hermann Goering, killed himself by eating poison in his Nuremberg prison cell soon before he was going to be hung for war crimes,
October 16th
In 1701 - in Killingworth, Connecticut - Yale University was established. At the time, it was known as the Collegiate School of Connecticut. The school would eventually move to New Haven, Connecticut in 1716. It was named after a philanthropist, Elihu Yale.
October 17th
In 1777, British General John Burgoyne surrendered to American General Horatio Gates at the Battle of Saratoga, which many people believe was the turning point in the American Revolution, due to the fact that it was the first big win for the Americans.
October 18th
In 1685, King Louis XIV of France cancelled the Edict of Nantes which took away civil and religious freedoms from the Protestant Huguenots.
October 19th
In 1987, the biggest fall of the stock market, in history, occurred on Wall Street. During this plummet of the the stocks, 22.6 cent decrease.
October 20th
In 1818, the United States and Canada compromised and placed their border on the 49th parallel.
October 21st
In 1915, the Telephone and Telegraph Company, in Virginia, transmitted the first radio voice message across the ocean, to Paris.
Oct. 22-28
October 22nd
In 1962, current president, John F. Kennedy, televised a message with the purpose of getting Russia to take their missiles out of Cuba. The Russians complied and removed them six days later to avoid a US Navy quarantine of Cuba.
October 23rd
In 1989, after 33 years of Soviet Russian control, Hungary announces itself as a free republic.
October 24th
The United Nations - a worldwide organization which draws representatives from numerous countries to discuss global issues - was founded.
October 25th
In 1881, a world famous artist by the name Pablo Picasso, was born. He is renowned for his paintings, sculptures, and ceramics. Arguably, his most famous painting is Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
October 26th
In 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem declared South Vietnam a free republic and, in doing so, named himself president.
October 27th
In 1787, a New York newspaper included 85 “Federalist Papers,” drafted by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay which were written with the purpose of introducing the new US Constitution.
October 28th
In 1636, Harvard University, named after a Puritan named John Harvard, was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the oldest college in the US, some people who attended were Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Oct. 29-31
October 29th
In 1929, The stock market crashed in America when more than 16 million shares dropped historically low and caused The Great Depression.
October 30th
In 1990, a rail tunnel - beneath the English Channel - finished construction and connected Britain to the mainland European continent for the first time since the Ice Age.
October 31st
Halloween (All Hallow’s Eve), is a celebration which has been observed for many years in a number of countries it is the eve of the Western Christian feast called All Hallows' Day.