Oct 27, 1954. This highly successful and long-running show appeared on different TV networks under different names but was essentially the same show. It was the first ABC series to break the Nielsens top 20 and the first prime-time anthology series for kids. Walt Disney was originally titled Disneyland to promote the park and upcoming Disney releases. When it switched networks, it was called Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color to highlight its being broadcast in color. Presentations featured edited versions of previously released Disney films and original productions (including natural history documentaries, behind-the-scenes peeks at Disney shows and dramatic shows, such as the popular Davy Crockett segments, which were the first TV miniseries). The show went off the air in December 1980 after 25 years, making it one of the longest-running series in prime-time TV history. In 1997 ABC revived the series as Wonderful World of Disney.
Image: Public Domain, Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
The Routes of James Cook
Oct 27, 1728. (Old Style date.) English sea captain of the ship Endeavour and explorer who brought Australia and New Zealand into the British Empire. Born at Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England, he was killed Feb 14, 1779, at the Hawaiian Islands, which he discovered.
Image: This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Andre Engels.
Navy Day was created in 1927 to honor the US Navy – the date is based on 27 October, the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, US President and a former Secretary of the Navy.
1904 Headline in Tacoma Times, Public Domain
Oct 27, 1904. Running from City Hall to W 145th St, the New York City subway began operation. It was privately operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and later became part of the system operated by the New York City Transit Authority.
Oct 27, 1858. 26th president of the US, succeeded to the presidency on the death of William McKinley. His term of office: Sept 14, 1901 Mar 3, 1909. Roosevelt was the first president to ride in an automobile (1902), to submerge in a submarine (1905) and to fly in an airplane (1910). Although his best-remembered quote was perhaps “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” he also said: “The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight.” Born at New York, NY, Roosevelt died at Oyster Bay, NY, Jan 6, 1919. His last words: “Put out the light.”
Image: Public Domain, taken 1915 by available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3f06209.
Stumps of trees cut by the Donner Party in Summit Valley, Placer County, 1866. Courtesy of the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a28397
The pioneering Donner party, a group of 90 people consisting of immigrants, families and businessmen led by George and Jacob Donner and James F. Reed, headed toward California in 1846 from Springfield, IL, in hopes of beginning a new life. They experienced the normal travails of caravan travel until their trip took several sensational twists. Indian attacks and winter weather, which forced them to interrupt their journey, led to famine and outright cannibalism, which took their toll on members of the party, whose numbers dwindled to 48 by journeys end.
Oct 28. St. Jude, the saint of hopeless causes, was martyred along with St. Simon at Persia, and their feast is celebrated jointly. St.Jude was supposedly the brother of Jesus and, like his brother, a carpenter by trade. He is most popular with those who attempt the impossible and with students, who often ask for his help on exams. Read more at http://www.shrineofstjude.org.
Image: Painting of St. Jude by Anthonis van Dyck, circa 1620, Public Domain
Oct 28, 1965. The steel and concrete, 630-feet-tall Gateway Arch, designed by Eero Saarninen and built as a monument to Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase that made American westward expansion possible, was completed in St. Louis, MO. The Arch was opened to the public in two stages: July 1967 and May 1968.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com user “Vicariousalex,” CC0.
Oct 28, 1636. (Old Style date.) Harvard University was founded at Cambridge, Massachusettes by way of a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. More information at http://www.harvard.edu/history.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com user 12019, CC0.
Oct 28, 1886. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s famous sculpture, the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, on Bedloes Island at New York Harbor, was dedicated. Ground breaking for the structure was in April 1883. A sonnet by Emma Lazarus, inside the pedestal of the statue, contains the words “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com user “Parent Rap”, CC0.
Oct 29, 1969. The first connection on what would become the Internet was made on this day when bits of data flowed between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. This was the beginning of ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet developed by the Department of Defense. By the end of 1969 four sites were connected: UCLA, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. By the next year there were 10 sites, and soon there were applications like e-mail and file transfer utilities. The@ symbol was adopted in 1972, and a year later 75 percent of ARPANET traffic was e-mail. ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990, and the National Science Foundations NSFnet tookover the role of backbone of the Internet.
Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com user “Geralt”, CC0.
Oct 29. Every year approximately 4 million cats enter shelters and 1 2 million are euthanized. Often cats are overlooked and underappreciated because they don’t usually have jobs like dogs. Yet cats still lower blood pressure, offer unconditional love and companionship and alert their owners of danger. Cats have so many purr-sonalities and there is so much to love about them! On National Cat Day, please visit a local shelter and offer love and life by adopting a cat. More information available at http://www.nationalcatday.com/.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com user 1899441, CC0.
Oct 29, 1929. Prices on the New York Stock Exchange plummeted and virtually collapsed four days after President Herbert Hoover had declared, The fundamental business of the country is on a sound and prosperous basis. More than 16 million shares were dumped, and billions of dollars were lost. The boom was over, and the nation faced nearly a decade of depression. Some analysts had warned that the buying spree, with prices 15 to 150 times above earnings, had to stop at some point. Frightened investors ordered their brokers to sell at whatever price. The resulting Great Depression, which lasted until about 1939, involved North America, Europe and other industrialized countries. In 1932 one out of four US workers was unemployed.
Image: Crowd gathering on Wall Street after the stock market crash of October 1929, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
NASA’s Earth Observatory’s view of Super Storm Sandy
Oct 29, 2012. The superstorm almost 900 miles in diameter at landfall in the US hit Atlantic City, NJ, on the evening of Oct 29, 2012, and wreaked havoc across the northeastern US. As a category 1 hurricane beginning on Oct 24, Sandy had swept through the Caribbean (causing 60 deaths in Haiti). By landfall on Oct 29, it was an extra-tropical cyclone. The loss in life in the US was more than 125 people; the damages were estimated at almost $ 50 billion. More than 8 million people were left without power. The storm affected the Mid-Atlantic states as well, causing three inches of snowfall in that region.
U.S. Air Force Pilot checking check list
Oct 30. In recognition of the development of the first well-known checklist, following the crash of a B-17 Flying Fortress prototype caused by pilot error on this date in 1935. Promotes the use of checklists to help avoid tragedy and disappointment and take advantage of opportunities. More information at http://checklists.com/checklists-day.
Image Courtesy of U.S. Air Force, photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Battles
Oct 30. A day to remind people of all the benefits of creating their own unique funerals or memorial services, regardless of age or state of health. More information at http://westallen.typepad.com/idealawg/2011/10/.
Oct 30. Formerly a Mischief Night on the evening before Halloween and an occasion for harmless pranks, chiefly observed by children. However, in some areas of the US, the destruction of property and endangering of lives has led to the imposition of dusk-to-dawn curfews during the last two or three days in October. Not to be confused with Trick or Treat,or Beggars Night, usually observed on Halloween.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com user “StockSnap,” CC0.
Member countries of the European Union turn their clocks back one hour at 1 am on the last Sunday in October.
Image courtesy of Pixabay user “violetta,” CC0.
Oct 30, 1735. Second president of the US (term of office: Mar 4, 1797 Mar 3, 1801). Born at Brain-tree, Massachusetts, Adams had been George Washington’s vice president and was the father of John Quincy Adams (sixth president of the US).
He once wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail:
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4, 1826. Adams died at Quincy, Massachusetts.
Image: Official Presidential portrait of John Adams (by John Trumbull, circa 1792), Public Domain
Oct 30. A day to celebrate the sweet, tri-colored treat first created in the 1880s by the Wunderlee Candy Company. About 9 billion pieces of candy corn are produced annually.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com user “Skeeze,” CC0.
Protestant churches mark the last Sunday in October as Reformation Day in honor of the 31 October 1517 date when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses to the church door at Wittemburg, Germany.
Image courtesy of Pixabay user hansbenn, CC0,
Oct 30, 1938. As part of a series of radio dramas based on famous novels, Orson Welles with the Mercury Players produced H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds. Near panic resulted when listeners believed the simulated news bulletins, which described a Martian invasion of New Jersey, to be real.
Image courtesy of Pixabay user “hschmider,” CC0.
On 31 October 1864 Nevada was admitted as the 36th State in the Union.
Image: Public Domain
Oct 31, 1987. Car Talk, the irreverent talk show that diagnoses auto ills, premiered nationally on National Public Radio on this date. Hosted by brothers Ray and Tom Magliozzi (also known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers), Car Talk originally debuted in Boston, MA, in1977. Almost 4.4 million listeners tune in to the Peabody Award winning show on 588 NPR stations. In 2012, the brothers announced their retirement from the show, which would continue with re-airings of best-of moments. More information at http://www.cartalk.com/.
Oct 31. An ancient celebration combining Druid autumn festival and Christian customs. Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is the beginning of Hallowtide, a season that embraces the Feast of All Saints (Nov 1) and the Feast of All Souls (Nov 2). The observance, dating from the sixth or seventh century, has long been associated with thoughts of the dead, spirits, witches, ghosts and devils. In fact, the ancient Celtic Feast of Samhain, the festival that marked the beginning of winter and of the New Year, was observed Nov 1.
Image courtesy of Pixabay user “quincemedia,” CC0.
