On October 22, 1957, three terrorist bombs go off in Saigon, killing 13 U.S. military personnel. They are the first official American casualties of the Vietnam War. On October 22, 1972, Sergeant Leonard Matlovich, a decorated Vietnam veteran, is given a “general” discharge from the Air Force. Earlier in the year, Matlovich appeared on the cover of Time magazine, in uniform and above the headline “I Am A Homosexual,” a public challenge to the military's ban on homosexuals (the Air Force would later upgrade his discharge to "honorable"). Matlovich died of complications from AIDS in 1988, and was buried with full military honors at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. His tombstone reads, “A gay Vietnam Veteran.... they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” On October 22, 2012 during its "Clockwork Angels" tour, Rush opens the Barclays Center in Brooklyn (9,900 in attendance). The arena gets poor reviews for its acoustics in the upper deck. The encore is an abbreviated version of "2112", and midway through, Alex's guitar goes out. Problem is, its the last song of the night, and the guitar tech is packing guitars instead of monitoring the show. Jump to about 4:30 below to see how Lerxst handles the moment.
On October 23, 2002, about 50 Chechen rebels take the 700 or so patrons of a Moscow theater hostage, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, a heavily-Muslim populated region north of the Caucasus Mountains which has been battling for independence. Russian special forces surround (how's this for a name?) Moscow Ball-Bearing Plant's Palace of Culture, and after a 57-hour standoff, begin pumping a narcotic gas into the building. This knocks out most of the building's occupants - both terrorists and hostages - but special forces still manage to kill most of the terrorists instead of taking them captive, and kill about 120 hostages as well. On October 23, 1989, 23 people die in a series of explosions sparked by an ethylene leak at a factory in Pasadena, Texas. The blasts, which took place at a Phillips Petroleum Company plant, were caused by inadequate safety procedures. Further investigation revealed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had cited Phillips for several serious safety violations over the years, yet had not done a comprehensive inspection of the plant since 1975. On October 23, 2001, Apple follows up its debut of iTunes, an online store where customers can buy songs in a digital format called MP3 for playback on electronic devices, with its companion hardware, the iPod. Small, sleek, but with the capacity to store and playback about a thousand MP3 files, the iPod is an instant smash. To date, Apple has sold more than 400 million products of the iPod line.
On October 24, 1648, the Treaty of Westphalia brings the Thirty Years' War to an end, and radically shifts the balance of power in Europe. Actually three overlapping wars, the end of the Thirty Years' War left France standing as the dominant power in western Europe, and broke the hold of the Holy Roman Empire over the German states. On October 24, 1921, in the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, Sgt. Edward Younger enters a hotel hall containing four caskets. Each bears the remains of an American soldier from four key battles of WWI, each of which, the official records say, there is "absolutely no indication as to name, rank, organization or date of death." After a few moments, Younger places a wreath on one casket he chooses at random, salutes the casket and departs. By that process, the remains to be interred in the newly-constructed Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are selected.
On October 25, 1983, President Reagan sends the Marines to the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. The nation was in the midst of a fight for power between two Marxist factions, and Reagan was concerned for the safety of the nearly 1,000 American citizens on the island, most of whom were medical students. The students were rescued at a cost of about 20 Marines, who killed 60 defenders, both Grenadans and Cuban engineers. On October 25, 1923, Albert B. Fall, Secretary of the Interior under President Warren G. Harding, is found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office. It was found Fall accepted interest free "loans" from two oil companies, including Mammoth Oil, in exchange for valuable oil leases in the western U.S., including the Teapot Dome reserve in Wyoming. Fall was the first individual to be convicted of a crime committed while a presidential cabinet member. He would spend a year in prison and be fined $100,000. On October 25, 1994, Susan Smith reports that she was carjacked in South Carolina by a man who took her two small children in the backseat of her car. Authorities immediately began searching for three-year-old Michael and one-year-old Alex, but could find no trace of them or of Smith’s car. After nine days of intense national media attention, Smith finally confessed that the carjacking tale was false and that she had driven her Mazda into the John D. Long Lake in order to drown her children. Smith, who was trying to divorce her husband and continue an extra-marital affair with a man who did not want children, had miscalculated; she assumed authorities would quickly find the car and children. As the search dragged on and attention intensified, she buckled under the scrutiny. She was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the September 11 attacks. The Patriot Act superseded all state laws and gave intelligence agencies broad powers to gather information to prevent future acts of terrorism. The act passed with bipartisan support in Congress, though over time it came under increased criticism for its potential to interfere with domestic civil liberties. It has been revised numerous times since its original passage. On October 26, 1942 at the Battle of Santa Cruz, Japanese naval aircraft sink the American carrier USS Hornet. The Hornet had launched the Doolittle Raid and participated in the Battle of Midway earlier in the year. The carrier Enterprise and battleship South Dakota were also damaged at Santa Cruz. Despite the heavy toll, the navy accomplished its mission of preventing the Japanese from reinforcing its holdings on the island of Guadalcanal. On October 26, 1985, the Australian government turned over control of Uluru (later renamed Ayers Rock) to the Anangu Aboriginal tribe. The 1,100 foot tall sandstone monolith in Australia's Northern Territory is considered sacred by the Aboriginies, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. One year ago yesterday, local authorities permanently closed the mountain to climbers.
On October 27, 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice announces that the combined population of America's state and federal prisons now exceeds one million. An estimated half million more are held in local jails. Despite making up only 13% of the general population, black men make up more than half the prison population. The Justice Department blames new, tougher sentencing laws for the surge in prison population. Thanks, Joe. On October 27, 1958, Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is overthrown in a bloodles coup by General Ayub Khan, whom Mirza had appointed enforcer of martial law just 20 days earlier. Born of an aristocratic family, Mirza rose to the rank of 2-star general in the Indian army before going into politics. His failure to lead Pakistan into a democratic form of government led to his exile in England, where he lived his remaining days as manager of a Pakistani hotel and restaurant in London. On October 27, 2004, the "Curse of the Bambino" is lifted, as the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918. In 1920, then-Red Sox owner Harry Frazee had sold his star pitcher Babe Ruth to the arch rival New York Yankees - literally for a song. Frazee was also a Broadway producer, and most of the money he received in the Ruth trade financed his latest Broadway show, a musical. During the 86-year championship drought that followed, the Red Sox made it to the World Series 3 times, losing all 3. The Yankees, who had never won a title before the trade, won 26 during that time.
On October 28, 1636, the Massachusetts colonial legislature, known as the General Court, authorizes the establishment of an institution of higher learning. The institution, first opened as a college for Unitarian clergyman, will be named after its first benefactor, clergyman John Harvard. Today Harvard University remains the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with an endowment approaching $42 billion. Its alumni include 8 U.S. Presidents, 188 living billionaires, 369 Rhodes scholars, 161 Nobel laureates, 48 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 46 Olympic gold medalists. (1767 engraving of the Harvard campus by Paul Revere.) On October 28, 1919, Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson's veto of the Volstead Act, which provides for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). Named for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Andrew Volstead (R-Minnesota), the Volstead Act gave state and federal government the authority to enforce 18A's ban on intoxicating beverages, while regulating the production and distribution of alcohol for purposes other than consumption, such as scientific research. Despite rigorous enforcement, the Volstead Act failed to prevent a thriving nation-wide black market for alcoholic beverages. It was voided when 18A was repealed by passage of the 21st Amendment in December, 1933. (Andrew Volstead) On October 28, 1918, a mass mutiny virtually immobilizes the German High Seas Fleet. The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire) were already in armistice talks with the Allies when the German naval command decided - without consulting Chancellor Max von Baden - to launch one final attack on the British Grand Fleet. The decision was purely a matter of saving face for the German navy, but sailors saw the venture as a suicide mission and refused to sail when the order came. Over the next 2 days, sailors will ignore 4 more identical orders, and more than a thousand are arrested. But the mutiny opens the door for Socialists in the the German legislature to seize power, leading to Kaiser Wilhelm's abdication on November 9.
On October 29, 1618, famed English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is executed as an enemy of the crown. Raleigh had led 3 expeditions to the New World on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century, but fell out of favor - and was a resident of the Tower of London prison for a time - when it was learned he had an affair with one of Elizabeth's maids-of-honor, whom he later married. When James I assumed the throne in 1603, Raleigh was implicated in a conspiracy against him and sentenced to death, but James commuted the sentence and instead financed a gold mining expedition in South America to be led by Raleigh. When the mine failed to produce, James re-enacted the death sentence and Raleigh was beheaded. On October 29, 1859, the first store of a new frontier town servicing gold mines in central Colorado opens. In a blatant attempt to curry favor with the governor of the thriving, neighboring Kansas Territory, town founder William Larimer names his new town after Kansas' governor, James W. Denver. Within a year, the mines have played out and Denver is in danger of going the way of the ghost town, but by 1870, two major rail lines have been laid that give the town a connect with the east and the bustling city of Cheyenne to the north. Within a few years, Denver becomes a major rail hub and is here to stay. On October 29, 19989, former U.S. Senator John Glenn (D-Ohio) boards space shuttle Discovery to take part in experiments on how space flight might affect the aged. At age 77, Glenn, who as one of the original 7 Mercury astronauts became the first American to orbit the earth (1962), now also becomes the oldest human ever launched into space.
On October 30, 1953, General George Marshall, Army Chief of Staff during World War II and Secretary of State to President Truman, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Five years earlier, the U.S. had committed to nearly $13 billion to help the nations of Europe (both Allies and former enemies) rebuild, using a framework designed by Marshall. Thanks greatly to the European Recovery Act (the Marshall Plan) Europe from 1948 to 1952 saw the fastest period of economic growth in history, a 35% increase in GDP. On October 30, 1918, representatives of the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Mudros, ending its participation in World War I. The treaty effectively dissolved the 6 centuries-old Empire, by forcing it to give up control of Dardanelle, the Bosporus Strait, and all of its holdings in the Middle East. The war for Turkish independence would break out a year later, and in 1922, Mehmed VI, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, left the country. On October 30, 1864, a committee of 7 residents of Last Chance Gulch in the Montana Territory meet to give their town a new name, having deemed the name given it by the four gold miners who established the town "too crass." They eventually settle on "Helena", suggested by a committee member who grew up in Helena County, Minnesota. It would take nearly 20 years, however, before agreement was reached on how the name was pronounced. The original committee put the stress on the first syllable, but a number of former Confederates in the town insisted on a second syllable accent, as it is pronounced in the city of Helena, Arkansas. Eventually the first syllable accent was agreed upon. (1870 photo of Helena, MT)
On October 31, 1776, King George III speaks to the British Parliament for the first time since the American Declaration of Independence reached his hands. Speaking of the colonial leaders who signed the document, George says, “for daring and desperate is the spirit of those leaders, whose object has always been dominion and power, that they have now openly renounced all allegiance to the crown, and all political connection with this country.” He also tells Parliament that, despite an English victory over the colonials at Long Island 2 months before, they should prepare to fund another military campaign. On October 31, 1943, Washington Redskins (yeh, I said it) quarterback Sammy Baugh throws for a NFL single game-record 6 TDs in a 48-10 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Slingin' Sammy accomplishes this feat in the 12th season of the NFL's history, but his new record won't even last a month. Chicago Bears QB Sid Luckman will throw for 7 TDs on November 14th in a 56-7 win over the New York Giants. On October 31, 1963, the Beatles return home after a successful tour of Sweden and are greeted by a mob of screaming teens at London's Heathrow Airport. Also in the airport is American TV entertainer Ed Sullivan, preparing to return home after a talent search on the continent for his variety program. He's never heard of the Beatles (manager Brian Epstein had to this point been unable to convince Capitol Records to release any Beatles material in the US; 3 singles including "She Loves You" had been released on minor labels with no publicity and had no impact). Sullivan decides to look into bringing these unknowns to the States for his program; Epstein would convince him - rather than bring them in as a mid-show novelty act - to book the Beatles for three headline performances. He then leverages that contract to finally convince Capitol to give them a try, with a single John and Paul wrote specifically for an American audience, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The song will be number one on the U.S. charts by the time the Beatles hit the Sullivan stage the following February.
