1492 Christopher Columbus’s expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. He believed that he had reached India.
1582 Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1773 America’s first insane asylum, Eastern State Hospital, opens for ‘Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds’ in Virginia.
1792 First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York City.
1793 The cornerstone of Old East, a residence hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid.
1799 Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse was the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 meters.
1810 First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1823 Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat.
1868 August Horch (born), German engineer and automobile pioneer, founder of Audi (died 1951)
1870 Robert E. Lee (died), American general (born 1807)
1872 Ralph Vaughan Williams (died), English composer (died 1958)
1892 The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in US public schools, as part of a Columbus Day celebrations, and the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
1901 President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the “Executive Mansion” to the White House.
1924 Anatole France (died), French author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1844)
1928 An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children’s Hospital, Boston
1933 The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
1935 Luciano Pavarotti (born), Italian tenor (died 2007)
1949 Carlos the Jackal, Ilich Ramirez Sánchez (born), Venezuelan terrorist, and one of the most wanted fugitives in the 1970s
1953 “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York City
1968 Hugh Jackman (born), Australian actor and producer
1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
1979 The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 k Pa (870 mbar or 25.69 in Hg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip.
1997 John Denver (died), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Chad Mitchell Trio) (born 1943)
2000 The USS Cole was badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crewmembers and wounding at least 39.
2003 William Lee (Bill) Shoemaker (died), American jockey who held the world record of number of professional jockey victories for 29 years (born 1931)
2011 Dennis Ritchie (died), American computer scientist, created the C programming language (born 1941)
EO Smith
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