October 1

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

Psalm 19:2

October is:

Campaign for Healthier Babies Month Cooking, Crafts, and Home Books Month Clergy Appreciation Month Computer Learning Month Family History Month Lupus Awareness Month National AIDS Awareness Month National Breast Cancer Awareness Month National Car Care Month National Caramel Month National Communicate With Your Kid Month National Cookie Month National Crime Prevention Month

Celebrations for October 1

International Day for the Elderly - Focus attention on the world's elderly. Actually 1999 is the International Year of the Elderly. Sponsor: United Nations.

Model T Day - Introduced on this day in 1908.

National Book It Day - This day kicks off the larges reading incentive program in the U.S. It is sponsored by Pizza Hut.

Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus Feast Day - Patron saint of missions and missionaries. She promised a shower of roses when she died, she is also a patron saint of florists, flower growers and France.

World Vegetarian Day - Take the day off from eating meat and see how it feels. Sponsor: North American Vegetarian Society.

Born on this Day

• 1207: Birth of Henry III, King of England
  

• 1781: Naval Capt. James Lawrence, hero of the War of 1812 See Today's History Focus
  

• 1837: Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, first unit of black soldiers in Civil War
  

• 1865: The composer of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" was born in Paris. Paul Dukas was to teach music for a living, and he was very critical of his students. But he was also critical of himself. Very little of his music survives because he destroyed a lot of it.
  

• 1881: William Edward Boeing, founded aircraft company.
  

• 1889: American scholar and devotional writer, Ralph W. Sockman. His best-remembered poem begins: "I met God in the morning, when my day was at its best...."
  

• 1893: Novelist Faith Baldwin
  

• 1904: Russian-born American virtuoso pianist Vladimir Horowitz
  

• 1910: Outlaw Bonnie Parker (Rowena, Texas)
  

• 1914: Former Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin
  

• 1920: Actor Walter Matthau (Walter Matuschankyasky)
  

• 1921: Actor James Whitmore
  

• 1924: Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States (Interesting FACT - Jimmy Carter was the first US president that was born in a hospital).
  

• 1924: William Rehnquist, chief justice of the United States
  

• 1927: Actor Tom Bosley
  

• 1933: Actor Richard Harris
  

• 1935: Actress-singer Julie Andrews
  

• 1936: Actress Stella Stevens
  

• 1945: Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew
  

• 1947: Actor Stephen Collins
  

• 1950: Actor Randy Quaid
  

• 1957: Singer Howard Hewett
  

• 1959: Singer Youssou N'Dour
  

• 1968: Rock singer-musician Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra)
  

• 1968: Country singer Kelly Willis
  

• 1974: Singer Keith Duffy (Boyzone)

Events in History on this day
  

• 0331BC: Alexander the Great decisively shatters King Darius III's Persian army at Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical masterstroke that leaves him master of the Persian Empire.
  

• 1273: Rudolf of Hapsburg is elected emperor in Germany.
  

• 1310: A General Council of the Church is held at Vienne
  

• 1404: Death of Pope Boniface IX
  

• 1410: Election of Jobst as King of Germany
  

• 1478: Plague breaks out in Florence
  

• 1528: Papal Legates arrive in England to discuss the divorce of Henry VIII, King of England, from Catherine of Aragon
  

• 1588: The feeble Sultan Mohammed Shah of Persia, hands over power to his 17-year old son Abbas.
  

• 1708: John Blow, the composer of the first true opera in English, Venus and Adonis, died and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
  

• 1733: Brahms did not compose symphonies until his middle age, and Rameau did not produce his first opera until he was in his fifties. The first one was premiered on this day. It was a success, so much so that Rameau was to compose only stage music for the next 30 years.
  

• 1785: Philadelphia published the first city directory.
  

• 1791: In Paris, the National Legislative Assembly holds its first meeting.
  

• 1800: Spain ceded Louisiana to France in a secret treaty.
  

• 1811: The first steamboat reached New Orleans viā the Mississippi. It was called the New Orleans, and was owned by Nicholas J. Roosevelt. It left from Pittsburgh and carried a crew of nine, four servants, a dog, and Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt.
  

• 1847: Maria Mitchell, American astronomer, discovers a comet and is elected the same day to the American Academy of Arts--the first woman to be so honored. The King of Denmark awarded her a gold medal for her discovery.
  

• 1878: General Lew Wallace is sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He went on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and write Ben-Hur.
  

• 1883: American churchman A. B. Simpson founded the first school in America to train missionaries, in New York City. Called the Missionary Training Institute in 1894, its name was changed to Nyack College in 1972.
  

• 1885: Special delivery mail service began in the United States.
  

• 1890: Congress passed the McKinley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs to a record level.
  

• 1890: Yosemite National Park is dedicated in California.
  

• 1896: The US Post Office established Rural Free Delivery, with the first routes in West Virginia.
  

• 1896: Yosemite becomes a National Park.
  

• 1903: The first World Series opened in Boston. The Boston Pilgrims of the American League went on to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League on October 13, in the eighth game of a best-of-nine series.
  

• 1908: Henry Ford introduced the Model T automobile to the market; each car cost $825. Over 15 million Model Ts are eventually sold, all of them black.
  

• 1913: A monument was erected in Salt Lake City to honor the sea gulls who ate the grasshoppers which were threatening the crops of the Mormon settlers in 1848. Mahonri Young, grandson of Brigham Young, dedicated the statue.
  

• 1936: General Francisco Franco was proclaimed the head of an insurgent Spanish state.
  

• 1942: The German Army grinds to a complete halt within the city of Stalingrad.
  

• 1943: Allied forces captured Naples during World War Two.
  

• 1944: The U.S. First Army begins the siege Aachen, Germany.
  

• 1946: Twelve Nazi war criminals are sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials-- Karl Donitz, Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg.
  

• 1949: Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung raised the first flag of the People's Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing.
  

• 1961: Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run during a 162-game season, compared to Babe Ruth's 60 home runs during a 154-game season.
  

• 1962: Johnny Carson succeeded Jack Paar as regular host of NBC's "Tonight" show.
  

• 1964: The Free Speech Movement was launched at the University of California at Berkeley.
  

• 1971: Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida.
  

• 1974: Five Nixon aides--Kenneth Parkinson, Robert Mardian, Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell-- go on trial for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation.
  

• 1975: Muhammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in a fight billed as the "Thriller in Manila."
  

• 1986: Former President Jimmy Carter's presidential library and museum were dedicated in Atlanta with help from President Reagan.
  

• 1987: Eight people were killed when an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale and an aftershock measuring 5.3 struck the Los Angeles area.
  

• 1988: In a continuing shakeup of the Soviet leadership, Mikhail Gorbachev was confirmed as president, succeeding Andrei A. Gromyko.
  

• 1989: Thousands of East Germans received a triumphal welcome in West Germany after the communist government agreed to let them leave for the West.
  

• 1990:  Air Force Gen. Curtis E. LeMay died at March Air Force Base in California at age 83.
  

• 1990: President Bush, addressing the U.N. general Assembly, again condemned Iraq's takeover of Kuwait, but also suggested an unconditional withdrawal could help speed an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
  

• 1990: Minority Serbs in Croatia proclaimed autonomy.
  

• 1991: President Bush strongly condemned the military coup in Haiti, suspending U.S. economic and military aid and demanding the immediate return to power of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
  

• 1992: The USS Saratoga accidentally fired missiles at a Turkish destroyer in the Aegean Sea; five people were killed.
  

• 1992: The US Senate voted 93-to-six to approve the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Texas billionaire Ross Perot jumped back into the presidential race.
  

• 1993: In a case that drew national concern, 12-year-old Polly Klaas was abducted from her Petaluma, California, home by a knife-wielding intruder; her body was found more than two months later. (A suspect, Richard Allen Davis, was later convicted and sentenced to death.)
  

• 1994: The United States and Japan reached a series of trade agreements, averting a threatened trade war.
  

• 1994: National Hockey League team owners began a 103-day lockout of their players.
  

• 1995: Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine other defendants were convicted in New York of conspiring to attack the United States through bombings, assassinations and kidnappings.
  

• 1995: An earthquake in southwestern Turkey killed about 90 people.
  

• 1996: A federal grand jury indicted Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski in 1994 mail bomb slaying of ad executive.
  

• 1996: The minimum wage rose 50 cents to $4.75 cents an hour.
  

• 1996: NASA began turning over day-to-day shuttle operations to private industry.
  

• 1996: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met at the White House.
  

• 1997: In Pearl, Mississippi, 16-year-old Luke Woodham stabbed his mother to death, then went to school with a rifle and opened fire, killing his former girlfriend and another student and wounding six others.
  

• 1997: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu freed Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. (Yassin was freed to secure the release of two Mossad agents arrested in Jordan following a botched assassination attempt against Hamas political leader Khalid Mashaal.)   
  

• 1998: Darryl Strawberry of the New York Yankees was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor on his colon. (After treatment, Strawberry returned to the game in August of 1999.)
  

• 1998: Seeking to head off threatened NATO attacks, Yugoslavia's Serb leadership invited foreign experts to investigate massacres in Kosovo. 
  

• 1999: South Korean activists thanked the U.S. government for promising to investigate an Associated Press report that U.S. forces allegedly killed several hundred refugees at the start of the Korean War. But the protesters also demanded the United States punish some of the veterans involved and compensate the victims' relatives.
  

See Today's History Focus

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