THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

October 3

 

1863: President Abraham Lincoln declared that  Thanksgiving Day is the last Thursday in November.

1942: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket took place on Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Nazi Germany. It was the first man-made object to reach outer space.

1949: The first black-owned radio station in the United States, WERD-AM 860, opened in Atlanta, Ga.

1955: The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC.

1961: The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered on CBS-TV.

1964: The first Buffalo Wings were made at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

October 4

1535: The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) was printed in London, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1876: Texas A&M University opened, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas.

1965: Pope Paul VI arrived in New York to become the first Pope to visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere.

1986: William J. Tesinsky, 38, of Great Falls, Mont., was killed and eaten by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. Rangers recovered his legs, pelvis and scalp.

1988: U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker was indicted for fraud.

 

October 5

1947: The first televised White House address was delivered by President Harry S. Truman.

1955: Disneyland Hotel opened to the public in Anaheim, Calif.

1970: The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was founded.

1982: Johnson & Johnson initiated a nationwide product recall of all products in its Tylenol brand in the United States after several bottles in Chicago were found to have been laced with cyanide, resulting in seven deaths. (The crime was never solved.)

1991: The first official version of the free computer operating system, Linux kernel 0.02, was released.

October 6

1884: The Naval War College of the United States Navy was founded in Newport, Rhode Island.

1889: American inventor Thomas Edison showed his first motion picture in New York City.

1927: The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue, was released, heralding the commercial ascendance of ‘talkies’ and the decline of the silent-film era.

2007: English adventurer Jason Lewis completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.

October 7

1826: The Granite Railway, from Quincy to Milton, Mass., began operating as the first chartered railway in the U.S.

1868: Cornell University opened in Ithaca, N.Y., with 412 students.

1950: The Frank Sinatra Show debuted on CBS TV to bad reviews.

1959: USSR probe Luna 3 transmitted the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon. Born this day: actor Dylan Baker (Planes, Trains and Automobiles), and Simon Cowell (creator of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent).

1996: The Fox “News” Channel began broadcasting.

2003: An historic recall election took place in California in which the sitting governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat, was overwhelmingly voted out of office. Actor/bodybuilder and Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected as the 38th governor of California. This was the first recall election in the history of California in which a sitting governor was successfully recalled from office.

October 8

1869: Franklin Pierce, 14th U.S. president, died in Concord, N.H. Pierce is regarded by historians as one of the least known and most historically obscure presidents.

1921: The first live radio broadcast of a football game occurred over KDKA at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh.

1943: Born this day: actor Chevy Chase (National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

1982: Cats opened on Broadway. (The musical play ran for almost 18 years before closing on Sept. 10, 2000.)

October 9

 

1701: The Collegiate School of Connecticut was chartered, it would later become Yale University.

1986: The Phantom of the Opera musical, an original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber opened in London.

2006: North Korea conducted its first nuclear test.