Tag: October

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in October 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).

1 Oct 1949 – 75 years ago
The People’s Republic of China was founded by Mao Zedong.

2 Oct 2004 – 20 years ago
The first Parkrun was held in Bushy Park, London (as the Bushy Park Time Trial).
Parkruns are now held every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 22 countries.

3 Oct 1899 – 125 years ago
American inventor John S. Thurman was granted a U.S. patent for the pneumatic carpet renovator.
It was the first motor-powered carpet-cleaning system. It dislodged dust from carpets by blasting them with jets of air, then blew the dust into a receptacle, so it was not the vacuum cleaner that we know today. (U.S. patent 634,042.)

4 Oct 1964 – 60 years ago
The first episode of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Supermarionation’ children’s science fiction television series Stingray was broadcast in the UK.
It ran until June 1965.

5 Oct 1824 – 200 years ago
Birth of Henry Chadwick, (the ‘father of Baseball’), British-born American sportswriter and baseball statistician.
He made important contributions to the development of baseball, sat on rules committees, devised statistics including the batting average, edited the first baseball guide sold to the public, and helped popularise the game.

6 Oct 1949 – 75 years ago
‘Tokyo Rose’ (Iva Toguri d’Aquino) was found guilty of treason, sentenced to ten years in prison and fined $10,000.
She broadcast Japanese propaganda to American troops in the Pacific during WWII.

7 Oct 1949 – 75 years ago
The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was established.

8 Oct 1959 – 65 years ago
British general election – won by the Conservative Party.
Margaret Thatcher (later Prime Minister) was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the first time, as was the future Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe.

9 Oct 1874 – 150 years ago
The Universal Postal Union was established by the Treaty of Berne.
It is a specialised agency of the United Nations and coordinates postal policies in member countries.

10 to 24 Oct 1964 – 60 years ago
The 1964 Olympic Games were held in Tokyo, Japan.
This was the first Olympics to be broadcast live around the world by satellite.

11 Oct 1899 to 31 May 1902 – 125 years ago
The Second Boer War, South Africa.
British victory over the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, which both subsequently collapsed. They became the British colonies of Transvaal and Orange River, and became part of South Africa in 1910. Over 22,000 British forces were killed and nearly 100,000 wounded. More than 6,000 Boers were killed, and more than 46,000 African civilians died in concentration camps.

12 Oct 1984 – 40 years ago
The Conservative Party conference bombing, Brighton, UK.
An IRA bomb exploded during the Conservative Party conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, killing five people. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was apparently the primary target but she escaped injury.

13 Oct 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: the city of Riga, Latvia was liberated by the Soviet Union.

14 Oct 1964 – 60 years ago
Leonid Brezhnev became Leader of the Soviet Union, replacing Nikita Khrushchev.

15 Oct 1964 – 60 years ago
American racing driver Craig Breedlove broke the land speed record, driving Spirit of America at 526 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. He was the first driver to break the 500-mph barrier. He also broke the 600-mph barrier in November 1965.

16 Oct 1964 – 60 years ago
Harold Wilson became British Prime Minister for the first time.
He became Prime Minister again in 1974.

17 Oct 1949 – 75 years ago
Coast-to-coast toll dialling began in the USA.
Telephone users could call their local operator, and she would dial an operator in another state who would connect the call.
The system was later replaced by Direct Distance Dialling.

18 Oct 1954 – 70 years ago
Texas Instruments announced the first transistor radio to be produced in significant numbers: the Regency TR-1.
It went on sale in November. About 150,000 were sold.

19 Oct 1954 – 70 years ago
Britain and Egypt signed an agreement on the Suez Canal.
Britain would withdraw its troops within 20 months, but would have the right to return for 7 years. The Suez Canal Company would revert to Egypt in November 1968. (Egypt seized the canal in July 1956, triggering the Suez Crisis.)

20 Oct 1949 – 75 years ago
Eugenie Anderson was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark.
She was the first female U.S. Ambassador.

21 Oct 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Japanese carried out the first-ever kamikaze attack.
A Japanese pilot deliberately crashed his plane into HMAS Australia during the invasion of Leyte Gulf, killing 30 people.
Historians now believe the pilot acted on his own initiative. The first official (pre-planned) kamikaze attack was on 25^th October.

22 Oct 1924 – 100 years ago
Toastmasters International was founded.

23 to 26 Oct 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II – the Pacific Campaign – the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines.
Considered to be the largest naval battle in history. Allied victory. The Japanese Navy was effectively eliminated from the war.

24 Oct 1964 – 60 years ago
Northern Rhodesia gained its independence from the UK and became the Republic of Zambia.
Kenneth Kaunda became its first president.

25 Oct 1924 – 100 years ago
The Zinoviev letter was published in the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK.
The letter, now known to be a forgery, purported to come from the head of the Communist International in Moscow. It claimed that if the Labour Party won the forthcoming general election (on 29^th October), if would lead to the radicalisation of the British working class. British voters turned against the Labour Party, which lost the election.

26 Oct 1984 – 40 years ago
‘Baby Fae’, an American baby with a severe heart defect, was given the heart of a baboon in an experimental transplant operation in California. She died on 15^th November.

27 Oct 1994 – 30 years ago
The U.S. prison population exceeded one million for the first time.

28 Oct 1974 – 50 years ago
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act came into effect in the USA.
It became unlawful to discriminate against any applicant on the grounds of their race, colour, nationality, religion, gender, marital status, income source, or age, as long as the applicant would be legally entitled to credit and had the ability to repay it.

29 Oct 1924 – 100 years ago
British general election – the third in less than two years.
It was called after Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour Party lost a vote of no confidence. The Conservative Party won, and Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister (for the second time) on 4^th November. The Conservatives may have been helped by Communist interference in the election – see 25^th October 1924.

30 Oct 1924 – 100 years ago
World Savings Day was established.
It is held in many countries, usually on 30^th October. It is also known as World Thrift Day.

31 Oct 1984 – 40 years ago
Death of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (1966–77, 1980–84 – assassinated).
(Assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.) Succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

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Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in October 2023 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)

Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Oct 1873 – 150 years ago
Death of Edwin Landseer, British artist and sculptor. Known for his animal paintings, and for the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson’s Column in London.

2 Oct 1973 – 50 years ago
Death of Paavo Nurmi, Finnish middle- and long-distance runner. Olympic gold medallist (9 times). He set 25 world records.

3 – 4 Oct 1993 – 30 years ago
Somali Civil War – the Battle of Mogadishu. Also known as the First Battle of Mogadishu, the Battle of the Black Sea, or the Black Hawk Down incident. After the battle, the Somalis dragged dead U.S. soldiers through the streets – an event that was broadcast on U.S. television. This led to a public outcry and is thought to have influenced the USA’s decision not to intervene in the Rwandan genocide.

4 Oct 1958 – 54 years ago
The French Fifth Republic was established.

5 Oct 1948 – 75 years ago
The Ashgabat earthquake, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (now Turkmenistan). 110,000 people were killed (some sources say 176,000). It was one of the deadliest earthquakes in human history. Some have speculated that it was caused by Soviet atomic bomb tests.

6 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The Soviet Union adopted the ‘Eternal Calendar’. Each week had 5 days, there were 6 weeks to a month, and all months had 30 days. The remaining 5 days were national holidays and were given names rather than dates. In 1931 the calendar was replaced with one with 6-day weeks. It used the Gregorian calendar from 1940 onwards.

7 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
Death of Radclyffe Hall, British writer and poet. Best known for her controversial novel The Well of Loneliness, which was banned in Britain because of its descriptions of lesbianism.

8 Oct 1873 – 150 years ago
Indiana Women’s Prison opened in Indianapolis (as the Indiana Reformatory Institute). It was the first women’s correctional facility in the USA.

9 Oct 1873 – 150 years ago
Birth of Charles Rudolph Walgreen, American pharmacist and businessman. Founder of the Walgreens chain of pharmacies.

10 Oct 1973 – 50 years ago
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after being charged with tax evasion. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford on 6^th December.

11 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
The last hand-cranked telephones in the USA (in the village of Bryant Pond, Maine) went out of service as the local exchange was upgraded to a modern direct-dial system.

12 Oct 1773 – 250 years ago
The first psychiatric hospital in the USA opened in Williamsburg, Virginia. The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds is now known as Eastern State Hospital.

13 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
Ankara became the capital of Turkey.

14 Oct 1963 – 60 years ago
The French-language folk song Dominique by The Singing Nun was released. It became a worldwide hit throughout December, while the world was reeling from the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

15 Oct 1963 – 60 years ago
The term ‘Beatlemania’ first appeared in the Daily Mirror newspaper in the UK. It described the intense, frenzied reaction of fans of the Beatles.

16 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The Walt Disney Company was founded by Walt and Roy Disney (as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio).

17 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: the Burma Railway (also known as the Thailand–Burma Railway or the Death Railway) was completed. The Japanese built it using Asian labourers and Allied prisoners-of-war, thousands of whom died.
(One of the railway bridges is the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.)

18 Oct 1958 – 65 years ago
The world’s first video game, Tennis for Two, was introduced. It was developed by American physicist William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The display screen was an oscilloscope. At the time, it was only known inside the lab, and was shown to visitors on open days.

19 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
The antibiotic streptomycin was first isolated by Albert Schatz at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. It was the first effective cure for tuberculosis. (The discovery was originally credited to his supervisor, Selman Waksman, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work. The discovery was the subject of a litigation case and they are both now listed as co-discoverers.)

20 Oct 1973 – 50 years ago
Sydney Opera House in Australia was opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

21 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The world’s first planetarium projector (made by Zeiss) opened at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany.

22 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
Two correctional officers were killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The prison went into indefinite lockdown for the next 23 years, with prisoners isolated in their cells for 23 hours per day. This inspired the ‘supermax’ model of prisons.

23 Oct 1998 – 25 years ago
Swatch Internet Time was introduced. It divides each day into 1,000 ‘beats’.

24 Oct 1933 – 90 years ago
Birth of Ronnie and Reggie Kray, (the Kray twins), British gangsters who ruled the East End of London in the 1950s and 60s.
(Died 1995 and 2000 respectively.)

25 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
Microsoft Word 1.0 was released. It was the first version of the popular word processor, and Microsoft’s first full-featured application.

26 Oct 1958 – 65 years ago
The Boeing 707, the USA’s first jet airliner, went into commercial service with Pan American World Airways.
The first flight was from New York to Paris, France.

27 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Roy Lichtenstein, American Pop artist. Known for his comic book-style paintings. (Died 1997.)

28 Oct 1943 – 80 years ago
The Philadelphia Experiment. A U.S. Navy escort ship, the USS Eldridge, was apparently rendered invisible while work was being carried out to hide it from enemy radar. Some claim the ship travelled through time and was seen briefly over 200 miles away.
The story is widely regarded as a hoax, but has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and a Hollywood film.

29 Oct 1923 – 100 years ago
The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became its first president.

30 Oct 1983 – 40 years ago
The online videotext service Viewtron was launched in the USA. Although it was primarily a news service, most subscribers used it for email and live chat, and it never made a profit. It was discontinued in March 1986.

31 Oct 1993 – 30 years ago
Death of Federico Fellini, Italian film director and screenwriter.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books. The 2028 edition will be available from 5th April 2023.

How to use the anniversaries:

If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.

It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

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Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, editors and producers love them, they’re easy to research, and you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, films, TV/radio/theatre shows, and more.

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries coming up in October 2022 (so you have time to write about them!)

We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2022. You’ll find hundreds more in the book. The 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2026 edition will be available in April 2022 and the 2027 edition will be available from July 2022.

1 Oct 1982 – 40 years ago
The world’s first compact disc (CD) player (the Sony CDP-101) went on sale in Japan. (North America/Europe: March 1983.)

2 Oct 1872 – 150 years ago
In Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg sets off from London on this day to begin his round-the-world journey. He must return by 21^st December to win his £20,000 bet.

3 Oct 1872 – 150 years ago
The first Bloomingdale’s department store opened in New York City, USA. (It was named Bloomingdale’s Great East Side Bazaar.)

4 Oct 1822 – 200 years ago
Birth of Rutherford B. Hayes, 19^th President of the United States (1877–81).

5 Oct 1962 – 60 years ago
The UK première of the first James Bond film Dr. No. (Released 10^th October. USA: May 1963.)

6 Oct 1992 – 30 years ago
Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre was published (under the pen name Currer Bell).

7 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
Death of Marie Lloyd, (the ‘Queen of the Music Hall’) British music hall singer, comedian and actress.
Known for songs including My Old Man (Said Follow the Van), The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery and Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do.

8 Oct 1982 – 40 years ago
Solidarity and all other trade unions in Poland were banned.

9 Oct 1962 – 60 years ago
Uganda gained its independence from the UK.

10 Oct 1957 – 65 years ago
Windscale nuclear reactor fire, Cumbria, UK.
The Windscale (now Sellafield) reactor caught fire and spread radioactive contamination across the UK and Europe. It was the world’s first major nuclear accident and is thought to have caused at least 240 cancer cases.

11 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
Alaska P. Davidson was appointed as the first female FBI special agent in the USA.

12 Oct 1997 – 25 years ago
Death of John Denver, American singer and songwriter. His hit songs include Leaving on a Jet Plane, Take Me Home, Country Roads, Rocky Mountain High, and more). (Plane crash.)

13 Oct 1997 – 25 years ago
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was the first Prime Minister to meet Sinn Féin’s leadership since David Lloyd George in the 1920s. Blair controversially shook hands with Adams, outraging Northern Ireland’s Protestants.

14 Oct 1947 – 75 years ago
The first supersonic flight was made by U.S. Air Force pilot Charles (‘Chuck’) Yeagar in a rocket-powered Bell XS-1 plane. The flight took place over what is now Edwards Air Force Base in California.

15 Oct 1932 – 90 years ago
Tata Airlines (later Air India then Indian Airlines) made its first flight, carrying air mail.

16 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
The Simplon II railway tunnel was opened. It passes under the Alps, linking Switzerland and Italy.

17 Oct 1962 – 60 years ago
The Beatles performed on television for the first time, on Granada TV’s magazine show People and Places. They first appeared on national TV in the UK in January 1963.

18 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
The BBC was officially founded as the British Broadcasting Company (now the British Broadcasting Corporation).

19 Oct 1897 – 125 years ago
Death of George Pullman, American engineer and businessman who invented the railway sleeping car. His Pullman Car Company manufactured and operated sleeping cars on most railways in the USA.

20 – 28 Oct 1947 – 75 years ago
The U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated suspected communist infiltration of the Hollywood film industry. It compiled a blacklist of artists, writers and directors who had (or were suspected of having) communist or fascist beliefs, or refused to testify. One of those who testified was Walt Disney (on 24^th October). He named Disney employees that he believed were communists.

21 Oct 1772 – 250 years ago
Birth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, British poet. Co-founder (with William Wordsworth) of the Romantic Movement. Best known for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan.

22 Oct 1947 to 1 Jan 1949 – 75 years ago
Indo–Pakistani War of 1947–1948 (also known as the First Kashmir War). Following a UN-mandated ceasefire, the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir was dissolved. Pakistan took control of one-third of it while India retained the rest.

23 Oct 1972 – 50 years ago
Access credit cards were launched in the UK as a rival to Barclaycard (launched in 1966). Access was taken over by MasterCard in 1996.

24 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
Death of George Cadbury, British businessman and philanthropist. He transformed his father’s chocolate and cocoa business into one of the world’s most successful companies. He also provided low-cost housing and improved working conditions for his employees.

25 Oct 1997 – 25 years ago
The Million Woman March took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

26 Oct 1972 – 50 years ago
Death of Igor Sikorsky, Russian-born American aircraft designer. Best known for his pioneering work in developing the helicopter.

27 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
The first film with synchronised sound, Audion, was presented at Yale University in the USA. It was originally a silent cartoon, but it was given a musical score recorded onto a disk. The projector had to be hand-cranked to keep it (approximately) synchronised with the sound.

28 – 29 Oct 1922 – 100 years ago
Mussolini’s March on Rome. Italian fascist leader Benito Mussonini and 30,000 fascist troops marched into the city, demanded the prime minister’s resignation, and seized power in a bloodless coup. Mussolini became Prime Minister of Italy on 31^st October.

29 Oct 1942 – 80 years ago
Birth of Bob Ross, American artist, teacher and host of the television series The Joy of Painting. (Died 1995.)

30 Oct 1997 – 25 years ago
British au pair Louise Woodward was convicted of second-degree murder for the death of eight-month-old Matthew Eappen in Massachusetts, USA in February. On 10^th November the verdict was reduced to involuntary manslaughter and her sentence was reduced to time served (279 days) and she was released.

31 Oct 1982 – 40 years ago
The Thames barrier in London was raised for the first time. It protects the city from floods.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2022. The 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2026 edition will be available from April 2022, with the 2027 edition following in July.
Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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