On This Week in History: October 8-14
On This Week In History
Sunday, October 8
1912 – The First Balkan War begins (Flashback to AP European History!)
1956 – New York Yankees pitcher Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in a World Series
1982 – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats opens on Broadway. It runs for nearly 18 years, closing on September 10, 2000
Monday, October 9
768 – Charlemagne is crowed king of the Franks (Another AP European History throwback, just for Mrs. Hylas)
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in 1582 Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Poland (the calendar skips directly from October 4th to October 15th).
1701 – The Collegiate School of Connecticut is chartered in Old Saybrook, CT. It is later renamed Yale University.
1940 – John Lennon, of the Beatles, is born
Tuesday, October 10
1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000-30,000 people in the Caribbean
1871 – A fire spreads through Chicago for two days after a ‘barn accident’ at the O’Leary family farm. The popular story of the fire’s origin blames Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for knocking over a lantern
1903 – The Women’s Social and Political Union is founded by suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst
Wednesday, October 11
1884 – Eleanor Roosevelt is born
1968 – Apollo 7 is launched, becoming the first successful manned Apollo mission with astronauts Wally Schirra, Don F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham
1975 – NBC’s Saturday Night Live debuts
1984 – Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk (done upon the Challenger)
Thursday, October 12
1492 – Christopher Columbus’ expedition lands in the Bahamas
1692 – A letter from Massachusetts Governor Sir William Phips ends the Salem Witch Trials
1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon from a parachute, from an altitude of 900 meters
1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the Executive Mansion to the White House
Friday, October 13
1775 – The Continental Congress establishes the Continental Navy, later renamed the United States Navy
1903 – The Boston Americans, later known as the Red Sox, win the first modern World Series
1925 – Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is born
Saturday, October 14
1912 – Theodore Roosevelt is shot in the chest by John Schrank in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Roosevelt continues on to deliver his scheduled speech for the day, with the bullet still in his chest
1947 – Captain Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force becomes the first pilot to fly an aircraft in level flight faster than the speed of sound
1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins after a U.S. Air Force craft flies over Cuba, photographing Soviet missiles being erected on the island
1979 – The first Gay Rights march on Washington, D.C., occurs and draws nearly 100,000 people