1492 –

1792 –

1810 – Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The royalty invited the public to attend the event which became an annual celebration that later became known as Oktoberfest.

1892 – In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Columbus landing the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance was first recited in public schools.

1895 – In Newport, RI, the first amateur golf tournament was held.

1915 – Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt criticized U.S. citizens who identified themselves by dual nationalities.

1920 – Construction of the Holland Tunnel began. It opened on November 13, 1927. The tunnel links Jersey City, NJ and New York City, NY.

1933 – The U.S. Department of Justice acquired Alcatraz Island from the U.S. Army.

1937 – “Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons” debuted on radio.

1938 – Production began on “The Wizard of Oz.”

1942 – During World War II, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.

1945 – Private First Class Desmond T. Doss was presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor for outstanding bravery as a medical corpsman. He was the first conscientious objector in American history to win the award.

1960 – Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pounded a shoe on his desk during a dispute at a U.N. General Assembly.

1961 – The first video memoirs by a U.S. president were made. Walter Cronkite interviewed Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1964 – The Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 into orbit around the Earth. It was the first space flight to have a multi-person crew and the first flight to be performed without space suits.

1972 – During the Vietnam War, a racial brawl broke out aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. Nearly 50 sailors were injured.

1976 – China announced that Hua Guo-feng was named to succeed the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of the Communist Party.

1988 – Federal prosecutors announced that the Sundstrand Corp. would pay $115 million dollars to settle with the Pentagon for overbilling airplane parts over a five-year period.

1989 – The U.S. House of Representatives approved a statutory federal ban on the destruction of the American flag.

1993 – The play “Mixed Emotions” opened at the John Golden Theatre.

1994 – Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras was granted political asylum by Panama.

1994 – The Magellan space probe ended its four-year mission to Venus for the purpose of mapping.

1997 – The St. Francis Basilica and 15th-century bell tower above Foligno city hall in Italy were damaged by 3 earthquakes.

1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Online Copyright Bill.

1999 – In Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup that toppled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The Supreme Court ruled that the coup was legal but insisted that a civilian government be restored within three years.

2001 – A special episode of America’s Most Wanted was aired that focused on 22 wanted terrorists. The show was specifically requested by U.S. President George W. Bush.

2006 – The Dow Jones industrial average advanced over 11,900 for the first time.

2015 – It was announced that Dell was buying EMC for around $67 billion

The New York Times, In
’04 Florida, Lawsuits Begin Before Election, October 14, 2004 (Registration required)The Washington Post, Behind
the Scenes, Officials Wrestle Over Voting Rules, October 10, 2004 (Registration
required)

CNN, Kerry:
GOP suppressing vote in swing states, October 4, 2004

The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 2 Is V-Day for Blacks in Florida, October 11, 2004 (Registration required)

1776 – During the American Revolution the first naval battle of Lake Champlain was fought. The forces under Gen. Benedict Arnold suffered heavy losses.

1811 – The Juliana, the first steam-powered ferryboat, was put into operation by the inventor John Stevens. The ferry went between New York City, NY, and Hoboken, NJ.

1869 – Thomas Edison filed for a patent on his first invention. The electric machine was used for counting votes for the U.S. Congress, however the Congress did not buy it.

1881 – David Henderson Houston patented the first roll film for cameras.

1890 – The Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in Washington, DC.

1899 – The Boer War began in South Africa between the British and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.

1929 – JCPenney opened a store in Milford, DE, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 states.

1932 – In New York, the first telecast of a political campaign was aired.

1936 – The radio show, “Professor Quiz”, aired for the first time.

1939 – U.S. President Roosevelt was presented with a letter from Albert Einstein that urged him to develop the U.S.atomic program rapidly.

1942 – The Battle of Cape Esperance, during World War II, began in the Solomons.

1958 – Pioneer 1, a lunar probe, was launched by the U.S. The probe did not reach its destination and fell back to Earth and burned up in the atmosphere.

1968 – Apollo 7 was launched by the U.S. The first manned Apollo mission was the first in which live television broadcasts were received from orbit. Wally Schirra, Don Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham were the astronauts aboard.

1971 – Hugh Downs left the “Today” show and “Concentration”. He later became the host of ABC’s “20/20”.

1975 – “Saturday Night Live” was broadcast for the first time. George Carlin was the guest host.

1983 – The last hand-cranked telephones in the U.S. went out of service. The 440 telephone customers of Bryant Pond, ME, were switched to direct-dial service.

1984 – Construction began on the Kamric/Cinergy Futursonics Studio in Houston, TX.

1984 – American Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first female astronaut to SpaceWalk. She was aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

1984 – Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) made his debut in the National Hockey League (NHL) against the Boston Bruins. He scored a goal on his first shot on his first NHL shift.

1994 – U.S. troops in Haiti took control of the National Palace.

1994 – Iraqi troops began moving away from the Kuwaiti border.

1994 – The Colorado Supreme Court declared that the anti-gay rights measure in the state was unconstitutional.