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.
Oct 31, 1941. The Mount Rushmore National Memorial was completed after 14 years of work. First suggested by Jonah Robinson of the South Dakota State Historical Society, the memorial was dedicated in 1925, and work began in 1927. The memorial contains sculptures of the heads of four US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The 60-foot-tall sculptures represent, respectively, the nations founding, political philosophy, preservation and expansion and conservation.
Image courtesy of “pamdavila,” CC0.
Oct 31. Celebrated in tandem with Halloween, National Knock-Knock Day answers the age-old question “Who’s there?” A day for kids of all ages to try out their best knock-knock jokes. Example:
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Weirdo
Weirdo who?
Weirdo you keep all your Halloween candy? I’m starving!
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Nov 1. Roman Catholic Holy Day of Obligation. Commemorates the blessed, especially those who have no special feast days. Observed on Nov 1 since Pope Gregory IV set the date of recognition in AD 835. All Saints Day is a legal holiday in Louisiana. Halloween is the evening before All Hallows Day.
Photo credit: © 2017 Laura Hedgecock, used with permission
On the first day of each month, the genealogy community is urged to back up their genealogy data and all computer data.
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com, CC0.
Observance begins during last days of October when bakeries sell dead mens bread round loaves decorated with sugar skulls. Departed souls are remembered not in mourning but with a spirit of friendliness and good humor. Cemeteries are visited, and graves are decorated.
Nov 1, 1945. Black publishing entrepreneur John H. Johnson launched Ebony on this date three years to the day after his first successfulAfrican-American lifestyle magazine, Negro Digest (1942). By 1946 Ebony had a circulation of more than 300,000 copies. On Nov 1, 1951, Johnson launched the equally successful publication Jet.
Nov 1, 1993. The Maastricht Treaty went into effect on this day, formally establishing the European Union. The treaty was drafted in 1991. By 1993, 12 nations had ratified it. In 1995 three more nations ratified the treaty. The European Union grew out of the European Economic Community (also known as the Common Market), which was established in 1958.
Nov 1 30. To raise awareness of the needs of children waiting to be adopted and to recognize those who have adopted or were adopted.
Nov 1 30. To increase awareness of Alzheimers disease and what the Alzheimers Association is doing to advance research and help patients, their families and their caregivers.
Nov 1. This observance was adopted by the General Federation ofWomens Clubs in 1929 and in 1949 was given a place on the list of specialdays, weeks and months prepared by the US Department of Commerce. The resolution states in part: By celebrating an Authors Day as a nation, we would not only show patriotism, loyalty, and appreciation of the men and women who have made American literature possible, but would also encourage and inspire others to give of themselves in making a better America. It wasalso resolved that we commemorate an Authors Day to be observed on November First each year.
