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On This Day October 15th

  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

On This Day October 13th

  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

On This day October 12th

  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

On this Day October 11th

  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.

On This Day October 10th

  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

On This Day October 9th

  OTD October 9th is the two hundred-eighty-second day of the year, and there are 83 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events  768 – Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned kings of the Franks. 1410 – The first known mention of the Prague astronomical clock. 1604 – Kepler's Supernova is the most recent supernova observed within the Milky Way. 1708 – Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Lesnaya. 1804 – Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, is founded. 1834 – Opening of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, the first public railway on the island of Ireland. 1873 – A meeting at the U.S. Naval Academy established the U.S. Naval Institute. 1900 – The Cook Islands became a territory of the United Kingdom. 1919 – The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, resulting in the Black Sox Scandal. 1984 – The popular children's television show Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends, based on The Railway Series by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry, premieres on I

On This Day October 8th

  OTD October 8th is the two hundred-eighty-first day of the year, and there are 84 days remaining until the end of the year.   Events 1480 – The Great Stand on the Ugra River puts an end to Tartar rule over Moscow 1645 – Jeanne Mance opens the first lay hospital in North America in Montreal. 1829 – Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill Trials. 1871 – Slash-and-burn land management, months of drought, and the passage of a robust cold front caused the Peshtigo Fire, the Great Chicago Fire, and the Great Michigan Fires to break out. 1918 – World War I: Corporal Alvin C. York kills 28 German soldiers and captures 132, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. 1956 – The New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches the only perfect game in a World Series. 1967 – Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia. 1982 – Poland bans Solidarity and all other trade unions. 2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Ho