October 7, 1916:  Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland College 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in history.

October 7, 1950: U.S. forces invade North Korea by crossing 38th parallel (Demilitarized Zone).

October 7, 1985:  Palestinian terrorists seize the Italian passenger ship Achille Lauro carrying about 440 persons, threatening to blow it up if Israel did not free 50 Palestinian prisoners. Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly wheelchair-bound American, was murdered.

October 8, 1993:  The U.N. General Assembly lifts economic sanctions against South Africa following the end of racial apartheid. The sanctions had been imposed since the 1960s.

October 8, 1996:  Palestinian President Yasser Arafat makes his first public visit to Israel for talks with Israeli President Ezer Weizman at his private residence.

October 8, 1998:  The House of Representatives votes 258-176 to approve a resolution launching an impeachment inquiry of President Bill Clinton. 

October 8, 2001:  President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security.

October 9, 1974:  Frank Robinson (Cleveland Indians) becomes the first black baseball manager.

October 10, 1973:  Spiro T. Agnew (1918-1996) resigns as Vice President of the United States amid charges of income tax evasion on illegal payments allegedly received while governor of Maryland and after he became Vice President. 

October 11, 1939:  Albert Einstein warns President Franklin D. Roosevelt that his theories could lead to Nazi Germany’s development of an atomic bomb. Einstein suggested the U.S. develop its own bomb. This resulted in the top secret “Manhattan Project.”

October 11, 1962:  The Second Vatican Council is opened in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome by Pope John XXIII. Sessions were held in four successive autumns from 1962-65. Vatican II resulted in sweeping changes to the Catholic Church, including the use of English and local native languages in the Mass instead of Latin. 

October 11, 1984:  Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan is the first American woman to walk in space. She flies on three Space Shuttle missions and logs 532 hours in space. 

October 12, 1492:  After a 33-day voyage, Christopher Columbus makes his first landfall in the New World in the Bahamas. 

October 12, 1850:  The Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania opens, the first women’s medical school in the world.

October 13, 1792:  The cornerstone of the White House is laid by George Washington. In November 1800, President John Adams and his family moved in. It was burned by British troops in 1814, then reconstructed, refurbished, and reoccupied in 1817.

October 13, 1884:  Greenwich (London, England) is established as the universal time from which standard times throughout the world are calculated.

Categories: Issues