The History Shack

  OTD October 16th is the two hundred eighty-ninth day of the year, and there are 76 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1311 – The Council of Vienne convenes for the first time. 1736 – Mathematician William Whiston's predicted comet fails to strike the Earth. 1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles. 1793 – French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed. 1817 – Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. 1846 – William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation. 1859 – John Brown leads a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. 1923 – Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company. 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing

  OTD October 15th is the two hundred eighty-eighth day of the year, and there are 77 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1582 – Adoption of the Gregorian calendar begins, eventually leading to near-universal adoption. 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. 1793 – Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason. 1815 – Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation. 1888 – The "From Hell" letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators. 1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated. 1956 – FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community. 1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL. 2001 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft pas

  OTD October 13th is the two hundred eighty-sixth day of the year, and there are 79 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1269 – The present church building at Westminster Abbey is consecrated. 1775 – The Continental Congress established the Continental Navy (predecessor of the United States Navy). 1843 – In New York City, B'nai B'rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is founded. 1892 – Edward Emerson Barnard is the first to discover a comet by photographic means. 1903 – The Boston Red Sox win the first modern World Series, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth game. 1962 – The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone equal to a Category 3 hurricane, with winds above 150 mph. Forty-six people died. 1983 – Ameritech Mobile Communications launches the first US cellular network in Chicago.   Birthdays 1703 – Andrea Belli, Maltese architect and businessman (d. 1772) 1821 – Rudolf Virchow, German physician, biolo

  OTD October 12th is the two hundred eighty-fifth day of the year, and there are 80 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1279 – The Nichiren Shōshū branch of Buddhism was founded in Japan. 1492 – Christopher Columbus's first expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically on San Salvador Island. 1692 – A letter from the Province of Massachusetts Bay Governor William Phips ended the Salem witch trials. 1793 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1810 – The citizens of Munich hold the first Oktoberfest to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Louis of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. 1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renamed the "Executive Mansion" to the White House. 1933 – The military Alcatraz Citadel becomes the civilian Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. 1960—Soviet Premier Nikita Khru

  OTD October 11th is the two hundred eighty-fourth day of the year, and there are 81 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1138 – A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, one of the most destructive earthquakes ever. 1634 – The Burchardi flood kills around 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark, and Germany. 1811 – The Juliana begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry in New York harbor. 1865 – Hundreds of black men and women marched in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion. 1890 – In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution was founded. 1899 – The Second Boer War erupted in South Africa between the British-ruled Cape Colony and the Boer-ruled Transvaal and Orange Free State. 1910 – Piloted by Arch Hoxsey, Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. 1950 – CBS's field-sequential color system for television is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

  OTD October 10th is the two hundred-eighty-third day of the year, and there are 82 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1492 – The crew of Christopher Columbus's ship, the Santa Maria, attempted a mutiny. 1780 – The Great Hurricane of 1780 killed 20,000–30,000 in the Caribbean. 1846 – Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, was discovered by English astronomer William Lassell. 1913 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggered the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, completing major construction on the Panama Canal. 1933 – A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation. 1938 – Abiding by the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia completes its withdrawal from the Sudetenland. 1957 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to Ghanaian finance minister Komla Agbeli Gbedemah after he is refused service in a Delaware restaurant. 1964 – The Tokyo Summer Olympics opening ceremony