Post by farmgal on Oct 14, 2012 22:32:15 GMT -5
October 15 is the 289th day of this leap year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 77 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 22
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1582 Many Catholic countries switch to Gregorian calendar, skip 10 days. The Julian calendar was switched over to the Gregorian starting in 1582, at which point the 10 day difference between the actual time of year and traditional time of year on which calendrical events occurred became intolerable. The switchover was bitterly opposed by much of the populace, who feared it was attempt by landlords to cheat then out of a week and a half's rent. However, when Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582, the Catholic countries of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy complied. Various Catholic German countries (Germany was not yet unified), Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland followed suit within a year or two.
1764 Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspired him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire
Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant
1780 British retreat from Middleburgh. A combined force of 1,000 British regulars, Hessians, Loyalists and Indians, led by Loyalist Sir John Johnson and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, attempts an unsuccessful attack upon Middleburgh (or Middle Fort), New York, on this day in 1780.
Only 200 Continental soldiers under Major Melanchthon Woolsey were defending the fort, and unknown to the British, the Continentals were low on ammunition. In their ignorance of the Patriots’ weakness, the Loyalist forces retreated in the direction of the Schoharie Valley, contenting themselves with destroying everything in their path and continuing the civil war raging in upstate New York.
Johnson was the son of Sir William Johnson, Britain’s superintendent of Indian Affairs, who lived in the Mohawk Valley. The younger Johnson inherited his father’s sizable estate in 1774 only to relinquish it when he led a group of his tenants and native allies in flight to Montreal, Canada, after the outbreak of war between the colonies and Great Britain in 1775. Johnson’s cohort created the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, which fought throughout the war. For his efforts, Johnson became a British brigadier general in 1782.
Joseph Brant ranked among Britain’s best commanders during the American War for Independence. He was an educated Christian and Freemason who studied directly with Eleazer Wheelock at Moor’s Indian Charity School, the parent institution of Dartmouth College. His older sister Mary was Sir William Johnson’s common-law wife and also played a significant role in colonial and revolutionary Indian affairs. At the close of the war, the Brants and their Iroquois followers left the United States for Canada, where they found land and safety with their British allies.
sarsat.org/HistoricalAccounts/17801015BritishretreatfromMiddleburgh.htm
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-retreat-from-middleburgh
1789 First presidental tour--George Washington in New England.
1790 Ann Teresa Mathews (aka Mother Bernardina) and Frances Dickinson founded a convent of Discalced Carmelites (a contemplative working order) in Port Tobacco, Maryland. It was the first Catholic convent founded in the United States. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discalced_Carmelites
1840 In Mehlville, Missouri, the German Evangelical Church Society (Kirchenverein) of the West was founded. It became the German Evangelical Synod of North America in 1872, and the “German” was dropped in 1925. The denomination merged with the Reformed Church in June 1934 at Cleveland, Ohio, to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. This group merged with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 to form the United Church of Christ.
1860 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Lincoln, tells him to grow a beard. A excerpt of her letter reads "... I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President." Lincoln's replay stated, "As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Bedell
Drawing of the H. L. Hunley. Based on a photograph taken in 1863 by George S. Cook
1863 The C.S.S. Hunley, the first successful submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crewmembers.
Horace Lawson Hunley developed the submarine from a cylinder boiler. It was operated by a crew of eight—one person steered while the other seven turned a crank that drove the ship's propeller. The Hunley could dive, but it required calm seas for safe operations. It was tested successfully in Alabama's Mobile Bay in the summer of 1863, and Confederate commander General Pierre G.T. Beauregard recognized that the vessel might be useful to ram Union ships and break the blockade of Charleston Harbor. The Hunley was placed on a railcar and shipped to South Carolina.
The submarine experienced problems upon its arrival. During a test run, a crewmember became tangled in part of the craft's machinery and the craft dove with its hatch open; only two men survived the accident. The ship was raised and repaired, but it was difficult to find another crew that was willing to assume the risk of operating the submarine. Its inventor and namesake stepped forward to restore confidence in his creation. On October 15, he took the submarine into Charleston Harbor for another test. In front of a crowd of spectators, the Hunley slipped below the surface and did not reappear. Horace Hunley and his entire crew perished.
Surprisingly, another willing crew was assembled and the Hunley went back into the water. On February 17, 1864, the ship headed out of Charleston Harbor and approached the U.S.S. Housatanic. The Hunley stuck a torpedo into the Yankee ship and then backed away before the explosion. The Housatanic sank in shallow water, and the Hunley became the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Unfortunately, its first successful mission was also its last—the Hunley sank before it returned to Charleston, taking yet another crew down with it. The vessel was raised on August 8, 2000, and will now reside in an exhibit at the Charleston History Museum.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunley_(submarine)
1864 American Civil War: The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri, and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.
1878 Thomas Edison established the Edison Electric Light Company in N.Y. City with a syndicate of leading financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, who advanced him $30,000 for research and development. Edison proposed to connect his lights in a parallel circuit by subdividing the current, so that, unlike arc lights, which were connected in a series circuit, the failure of one light bulb would not cause a whole circuit to fail. He patented his electricity distribution system in 1880. The first investor-owned electric utility, Pearl Street Station, New York City, (1882) provided service for the 400 lamps of 85 customers. This company and its technological heritage became a part of General Electric in 1892.
1880 - A violent early season blizzard raked Minnesota and the Dakotas. Winds gusted to 70 mph at Yankton SD, and snow drifts 10 to 15 feet high were reported in northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota. Saint Paul MN reported a barometric pressure of 28.65 inches on the 16th. Railroads were blocked by drifts of snow which remained throughout the severe winter to follow. Gales did extensive damage to ships on the Great Lakes. (15th-16th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
1880 Germany’s Cologne Cathedral was completed 633 years after construction began.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral
1880 Chiricahua Apache leader Victorio is killed south of El Paso, Texas. The warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists of all time, dies this day, in 1880, in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso, Texas.
Born in New Mexico around 1809, Victorio grew up during a period of intense hostility between the native Apache Indians of the southwest and encroaching Mexican and American settlers. Determined to resist the loss of his homeland, Victorio began leading his small band of warriors on a long series of devastating raids against Mexican and American settlers and their communities in the 1850s.
After more than a decade of evading the best efforts of the Mexican and American armies to capture him, the U.S. Army managed to convince Victorio to accept resettlement of his people on an inhospitable patch of sunburnt land near San Carlos, Arizona, in 1869. But with summer temperatures reaching 110 degrees on the San Carlos reservation (an area also known as Hell's Forty Acres) and farming nearly impossible, Victorio decided the new reservation was unacceptable and moved his followers to more pleasant grounds at Ojo Caliente (Warm Springs), thus again becoming an outlaw in the eyes of the United States. In 1878, the U.S. Army attempted to force the Apaches back to the San Carlos reservation, but Victorio eluded capture, disappearing into the desert with 150 braves. Surviving by raiding the towns and farms of Chihuahua, Mexico, Victorio and his men began to take bloody revenge against their enemies, ambushing U.S. troops with devastating effect and killing any Mexican or American sheepherder unfortunate enough to cross their path.
In 1880, a combined force of U.S. and Mexican troops finally succeeded in tracking down the wily Apache and his warriors, surrounding them in the Tres Castillos Mountains of Mexico, just south of El Paso, Texas. Having sent the American troops away, the Mexican soldiers proceeded to kill all but 17 of the trapped Apaches, though the exact manner of Victorio's death remains unclear. Some claimed an Indian scout employed by the Mexican army killed the famous warrior. But according to the Apache, Victorio took his own life rather than surrender to the hated Mexicans. Regardless of how it happened, Victorio's death made him a martyr to the Apache people and strengthened the resolve of other warriors to continue the fight. The last of the great Apache warriors, Geronimo, would not surrender until 1886.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorio
1881 First American fishing magazine, American Angler published. The American Angler was the nation's first fishing magazine devoted to the sport and culture of fresh and saltwater fishing. It cost 10 cents an issue back in 1881, or you could subscribe, for three dollars a year. But American Angler was nothing like today's glossy magazines. The only graphic was on the cover; it was a lithograph of a black bass.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Angler
1892 Western Montana area opened to settlers. The U.S. government convinced the Crow Indians to give up 1.8 million acres of their reservation for 50 cents per acre. On this day, by presidential proclamation, the land in the mountainous area of western Montana was opened to settlers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow_Indians
1900 Pentecostal evangelist Charles Fox Parham opened Bethel Bible Institute in Topeka, Kansas. It was here on January 1, 1901 that the first Christian in modern times was reported to have spoken in tongues: student Agnes Ozman.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fox_Parham
1900 The Boston Symphony Hall was opened with an inaugural gala led by music director Wilhelm Gericke. The architects engaged Wallace Clement Sabine, a young assistant professor of physics at Harvard, to help them achieve the best sound quality for the hall, making it the first auditorium designed according to scientific acoustical principles. The sparse use of sound-muffling textiles provides for better resonance throughout the hall. It is 61 feet high, 75 feet wide and 124 feet long from the lower back wall to the front of the stage. With the exception of the wooden floors, the hall is built of brick, steel, and plaster. Still regarded as one of the world's finest concert halls, it is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Symphony_Hall
1905 President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal." In a 1905 article in The Ladies Home Journal, Cleveland wrote, "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence."
1917 World War I spy Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad. During World War I, in 1917, the German military attache in Madrid transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, were able to identify H-21 as Mata Hari. Remarkably, the messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, leaving historians to suspect that the messages were contrived so that, if she was in fact working for the French, they would be able to unmask her as a double agent and effectively neutralize her. Mata Hari was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers. Although it has been speculated since that there was no concrete evidence, she was nevertheless found guilty and was executed by firing squad on October 15, 1917, at the age of 41.
1919 300 mile horse race from Vermont to Massachusetts begins.
1928 The airship LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, christened on the 8th July 1928, landed in New Jersey after its first transatlantic crossing from Germany. It was 775 feet long and 100 feet high and had a crusing speed of 73 mph. The Naval Air Station Lakehurst, located in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was the western terminus for the commercial transatlantic flights of the German dirigibles Graf Zeppelin and also the Hindenburg. The Graf Zeppelin was a very successful airship whose success was eclipsed by the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.
1930 Duke Ellington records his first big hit, "Mood Indigo." The legendary composer and bandleader Duke Ellington was so famous for his poise and charm that it should be no surprise that he had a pithy story at the ready whenever he was asked about one of his most famous and enduring works, "Mood Indigo." Of the song he and his orchestra recorded for the very first time on this day in 1930, Ellington was fond of saying, "Well, I wrote that in 15 minutes while I was waiting for my mother to finish cooking dinner." As neatly as that version fit with his well-tended reputation for effortless sophistication, the true account of the song's development reflects the gifts for collaboration and adaptation that were always critical elements of Ellington's genius.
The genesis of "Mood Indigo" was a visit to New York City in 1930 by a New Orleans jazzman named Lorenzo Tio, Jr. Duke Ellington's clarinetist, Barney Bigard, was a former student of Tio's, and on Tio's visit to New York, he shared with Bigard a number of melodies he'd written, including one called "Dreamy Blues" that had served as the theme song for his group back home, Armand Piron's New Orleans Orchestra. "I asked him if I could borrow it," Bigard later wrote in his autobiography. "I took it home and kept fooling around with it...and got something together that mostly was my own but partly Tio's." Bigard's variation on "Dreamy Blues" would soon become the clarinet solo on "Mood Indigo," thanks to Duke Ellington's penchant for involving his band members in his composition process.
Indeed, the lyricist Ervin Drake would later refer to Ellington's orchestra as a kind of "musical kibbutz"—an environment in which all ideas were welcomed and collaboration was the rule rather than the exception. Taking Bigard and Tio's melody and composing a song of his own on top of it, Ellington created "Mood Indigo." It wasn't the elegance of the composition alone, however, that made the song Ellington's first big hit. It was the completely unexpected voicing of the horns in Ellington's original arrangement of the song. The clarinet, trumpet and trombone were generally arranged, in that order, from highest pitch to lowest in jazz music. But Ellington turned the typical structure upside down on "Mood Indigo," using the clarinet near the bottom of its register and the muted trombone near the top of its—an arrangement that also produced interesting overtones with the electronic microphones of the day.
With lyrics added by Mitchell Parish in 1931 (but credited to Ellington's manager Irving Mills), "Mood Indigo" became a vocal-jazz standard as well as an instrumental one, recorded memorably by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone among many others.
1932 A small party of supporters gathered in Liverpool, England, to send Gladys Aylward (1902–1970), a 28-year-old parlor maid, off on a dangerous missionary journey to China. Though she had been turned down by the missions agency she applied to, she went on to become one of the most amazing single woman missionaries of modern history. Her dramatic rescue of a hundred orphans is told in the movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Aylward
1938 The District of Columbia formally adopts a design for its flag.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia
1937 Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have & Have Not" published. It was about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain who runs contraband between Cuba and Florida. It was based on an earlier story, "One Trip Across."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_and_Have_Not
1939 The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Municipal_Airport
1944 The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes over the power in Hungary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Cross_Party
1946 Herman Goering dies. On this day in 1946, Herman Goering, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau, and Hitler's designated successor dies by his own hand.
Goering was an early member of the Nazi Party and was wounded in the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. That wound would have long-term effects, as Goering became increasingly addicted to painkillers. Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental in creating concentration camps for political enemies. Ostentatious and self-indulgent, he changed his uniform five times a day and was notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork. It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization" policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses.
Goering's failure to win the Battle of Britain and prevent the Allied bombing of Germany led to his loss of stature within the Party, aggravated by the low esteem with which he was always held by fellow officers because of his egocentrism and position as Hitler's right-hand man. As the war progressed, he dropped into depressions and continued to battle drug addiction.
When Goering fell into U.S. hands after Germany's surrender, he had in his possession a rich stash of paracodin pills, a morphine derivative. He was tried at Nuremberg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite a vigorous attempt at self-acquittal, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but before he could be executed, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Goering
1945 World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Laval
1949 Billy Graham begins his ministry. The best-known Christian evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham gained world attention in 1949 with a tent revival in downtown Los Angeles that was scheduled for three weeks and lasted six. In the ensuing 55 years and more, "Billy Graham Crusades" consistently drew audiences of thousands to arenas and stadiums throughout the world.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham
1949 "That Lucky Old Sun" by Frankie Laine topped the charts. "That's My Desire" hit number four in the American charts in 1947, and Laine re-entered the Top Ten in 1948 with "Shine." He hit the big time the following year, with two huge number one hits, "That Lucky Old Sun" and "Mule Train." Another chart-topper, 1950's "The Cry of the Wild Goose," was his last for Mercury, and he signed with Columbia just one year later.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Laine
1950 The first American radio paging service, Aircall of New York City, sent the first page to a doctor who was on a golf course 25 miles away. Subscribers carried a six-ounce pocket radio receiver and could hear their call numbers repeated in numerical sequence on the air at least once per minute within a 30-mile radius.
1951 "I Love Lucy" debuts on CBS TV. The classic television show I Love Lucy was partially based on a radio show called My Favorite Husband (1948-1951) starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning as Liz and George Cooper. Denning was eager to continue his role in the TV version, but Ball insisted on casting her real-life husband, Cuban-born musician Desi Arnaz. Although the studio heads were initially resistant to the idea, fearing audiences wouldn't find the "mixed marriage" believable, they eventually relented after Ball and Arnaz put together a successful vaudeville act featuring themselves as a married couple.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Lucy
1953 "The Teahouse of the August Moon" opened on Broadway. The play by John Patrick, is a comedy about the process of the Americanization of Japanese citizens on the island of Okinawa during the American Occupation of Japan following World War II. A hit Broadway production, Patrick's play won many awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play of the Year, the Pulitzer Prize in drama, and the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Teahouse_of_the_August_Moon_(play)
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1954 - Hurricane Hazel struck the Carolina coastline. The hurricane demolished every pier along a 170 mile stretch from Myrtle Beach SC to Cedar Island NC, and obliterated entire lines of beach homes. Hurricane Hazel also destroyed 1500 homes as it moved inland with seventeen foot tides. Winds between Myrtle Beach SC and Cape Fear NC gusted to 150 mph. Hurricane Hazel caused 163 million dollars damage, and claimed the lives of 98 persons. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hazel
1955 "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" by Four Aces topped the charts.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_a_Many-Splendored_Thing_(song)
1956 Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran
1959 "Untouchables" premieres. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it dealt with the experiences of Eliot Ness, a United States Justice Department agent, as he fought crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. The show starred Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and Neville Brand as Al Capone, and was narrated by Walter Winchell.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untouchables_(1959_TV_series)
1960 "Mr. Custer" by Larry Verne topped the charts. Country singer Larry Verne is best known for the plaintive "Mr. Custer" (1960) which topped the charts. He charted shortly thereafter with another novelty tune, "Mister Livingston."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Custer
1964 Craig Breedlove sets auto speed record of 526 mph. On October 13, Breedlove reached 468.719 mph (754.330 km/h) in the Spirit of America Sonic 1 at Bonneville Salt Flats, reclaiming the land speed record from Art Arfons. Just two days later, Breedlove beat his own record and breached the 500 mph barrier at 526.277 mph (846.861 km/h), still driving the Spirit of America Sonic 1 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Breedlove#Land_vehicle_speed_records
1965 Vietnam War: The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States to result in arrest under a new law.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coordinating_Committee_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam
1966 Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party
1966 LBJ signs a bill creating Department of Transportation. The mission of the Department is to: "Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Transportation
1966 Iowa experienced its worst late season tornado of record. In just one minute a twister tore through the town of Belmond leveling 75 percent of the businesses, and 100 homes, causing more than eleven million dollars damage. (The Weather Channel)
1966 "Reach Out, I'll Be There" by the Four Tops topped the charts. The Four Tops recorded "Reach Out, I'll Be There" in just 2 takes, and had practically forgotten about the song until it was released, assuming it was a "Throwaway" album track. Motown boss Berry Gordy had other ideas and released it as a single. Gordy had a knack for identifying hit songs, and got this one right. The Motown songwriting team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland (Holland/Dozier/Holland) wrote this. They told lead singer Levi Stubbs to sing like Bob Dylan on "Like a Rolling Stone," which explains the urgency in his lyrics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_Out_I%27ll_Be_There
1969 Oriole Earl Weaver becomes first manager ejected in a world series. A memorable World Series game pits Tom Seaver against Mike Cuellar. RF Ron Swoboda's questionable dive at Brooks Robinson's sinking liner with runners at 1B and 3B in the 9th inning results in a brilliant catch, even though Frank Robinson tags and scores the tying run. In the 10th, Mets pinch-hitter J.C. Martin, running illegally inside the 1B line after a bunt, is hit on the wrist by P Pete Richert's errant throw, enabling pinch runner Rod Gaspar to score from second as the Mets win 2-1. The game is enlivened by Earl Weaver getting thrown out after protesting ball and strike calls by Shag Crawford. Earl is the 3rd manager to leave early in a World Series, but the first since 1935.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Weaver
1969 Vietnam Moratorium Day; millions nationwide protest the war. Supporters of the Vietnam Moratorium wore black armbands to signify their dissent and paid tribute to American personnel killed in the war since 1961.The focal point was the capital, Washington DC, where more than 40 different activities were planned and about 250,000 demonstrators gathered to make their voices heard.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moratorium_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam
1971 The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2500_year_celebration_of_Iran_Monarchy
1971 "Garden Party", ironically, was Ricky Nelson’s biggest hit in years. In 1971, Nelson played a show with other stars from the '50s at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He was expected to play his hit, but when he played his newer material, the crowd booed him badly. This was one of the few songs Nelson wrote himself. Most of his hits were covers. It was Nelson's last hit. Before 1965, he had 34 Top-40 hits in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Party_(Rick_Nelson_song)
1977 Arkansas' Steve Little kicks a record tying 67 yard field goal. Little was an University of Arkansas kicker who shares the NCAA record for longest field goal, a 67-yard boot against Texas in 1977. A two-time All-American at Arkansas, he set team bowl records for PATs (4) in Arkansas' Cotton and Orange Bowl victories in 1976 and 1978 and held school record for career points (280).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Little_(American_football)
1977 Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life," goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks. At first, this was going to be sung by a jingle singer named Kasey Cisyk, and she recorded the original version that was used in the film. For over a year, no movie studio would release the film and no record company would release the song. When the movie finally got picked up, it was time to record the song as a single, and Brooks went with Debbie Boone instead of Cisyk. This won the 1977 Grammy for Song Of The Year. Boone also won that year for Best New Artist. It was by far the biggest hit of 1977. It was #1 for 10 weeks in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Boone
1979 NY Knicks retire 2nd number, # 10, Walt Frazier. As a Knicks player, Frazier scored 19.3 points per game, played in seven NBA All-Star Games, and was named to four All-NBA First Teams and seven NBA All-Defensive First Teams. He is especially remembered for his inspirational performance in the seventh and deciding game of a thrilling 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Frazier
1981 Stand up and cheer - the wave first seen at an A's - Yankee game. George Henderson, aka Krazy George, a longtime professional cheerleader, is widely recognized as the man who devised the "wave." Henderson contends he first got the wave rolling at an Oakland Athletics-New York Yankees playoff game at the oakland Coliseum on October 15, 1981, disputing claims by the University of Washington that it occurred at a Washington-Stanford football game.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_(audience)
1985 Shelley Taylor makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island. Shelley Taylor-Smith earned 7 consecutive World Marathon Swimming titles, 15 world race records, a solo English Channel crossing and won a record 5 race titles around New York City's Manhattan Island. Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds.
1987 NFL Players Association orders an end to the 24 day strike
1987 - Unseasonably cold weather continued in the eastern U.S., with thirteen cities reporting record low temperatures for the date. The low of 34 degrees at Montgomery AL was their coldest reading of record for so early in the season. Lows of 32 degrees at Harrisburg PA and 34 degrees at Parkersburg WV marked their third straight morning of record cold. (The National Weather Summary)
1988 Dodgers win game one of the World Series behind Kirk Gibson's HR. In one of the most improbable finishes in World Series history, pinch hitter Kirk Gibson hits a 2-run home run off Dennis Eckersley with two out in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win in game one. The injured Gibson was not expected to play in the NLCS, and will not play again in the Series. It is the first World Series game to end on a home run since game six in 1975.
1988 - The cold high pressure system responsible for the record low temperatures in the eastern U.S. began to move out to sea, giving way to a trend toward "Indian Summer". Thunderstorms developing ahead of a cold front produced golf ball size hail at Altamont KS and hail two inches in diameter at Yates City IL. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1989 - Hurricane Jerry made landfall at Galveston, TX, at 6:30 PM (CDT). Winds at the Galveston Airport reached 75 mph, with gusts to 100 mph. Tides along the island were six to eight feet, and rainfall totals ranged up to slightly more than six inches north of Beaumont. Three persons were killed when their vehicle was blown off the Galveston seawall into the pounding surf. Total damage along the Upper Texas Coast was estimated at fifteen million dollars. Thunderstorms produced severe weather in Lower Michigan during the late morning. Two persons were injured when a tree fell on their camper at the Traverse City State park. While strong northerly winds ushered much colder air into the central U.S., unseasonably warm weather continued in the south central and eastern U.S. The afternoon high of 82 degrees at Bluefield WV was a record for October. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Jerry_(1989)
1989 Billy Graham is given the 1,900th star on Hollywood Blvd.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham
1989 Wayne Gretsky passes Gordie Howes as NHL's all time top scorer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretsky
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Cold War tensions. Since coming to power in 1988, Gorbachev had undertaken to concentrate more effort and funds on his domestic reform plans by going to extraordinary lengths to reach foreign policy understandings with the noncommunist world.
Some of his accomplishments include four summits with President Ronald Reagan, including a 1987 meeting at which an agreement was reached to dismantle the U.S. and USSR intermediate-range missiles in Europe. He also began to remove Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988 and exerted diplomatic pressure on Cuba and Vietnam to remove their forces from Angola and Kampuchea (Cambodia), respectively. In a 1989 meeting with President George Bush, Gorbachev declared that the Cold War was over.
Gorbachev also earned the respect of many in the West through his policy of non-intervention in the political upheavals that shook the Eastern European "satellite" nations during the late-1980s and early-1990s. When Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, and other Iron Curtain countries began to move toward more democratic political systems and free market economies, Gorbachev kept Soviet intervention in check. (This policy did not extend to the Soviet republics; similar efforts by Lithuania and other republics were met with stern warnings and force to keep the Soviet Socialist Republics together.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev
1990 On October 15th, the killer bees reach the southern tip of Texas, in the city of Hidalgo. Texas was the first U.S. state to be invaded. Because of their more intense defensive swarming behavior, such non-native bees earned the name "killer bee" in the media. Arizona was the second state to be invaded, less than three years after this species spread north into Texas from Mexico. Since the fifties, the bees had extended their range northward through Central America. Their original source was from cross-breeding with tropical African bees imported into Brazil for experimental work.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee
1991 Pizza Hut, Inc. was trademark registered.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Hut
1991 Thomas confirmed to the Supreme Court. After a bitter confirmation hearing, the U.S. Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas
In July 1991, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, announced his retirement after 34 years. President George Bush quickly nominated Clarence Thomas, a 43-year-old African American judge known for his conservative beliefs, to fill the seat. Thomas had been chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) during the Reagan administration, and in 1990 Bush had appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals. As the confirmation hearings for Thomas' Supreme Court nomination got underway, he evaded controversy over his conservative views on issues such as abortion by refusing to state a clear political position. He seemed headed for an easy confirmation until Anita Hill, a former aide, stepped forward and accused him of sexual harassment.
Hill, who had served as an aide to Thomas at the Department of Education and the EEOC during the 1980s, alleged that the Supreme Court nominee had repeatedly made sexually offensive comments to her in an apparent campaign of seduction. Beginning on October 11, 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee held four days of televised hearings on Hill's charges. Americans were shocked by both the frankness of Hill's lurid testimony and the unsympathetic response of the all-male committee, some of whom were openly antagonistic toward Hill. Thomas, meanwhile, denied the charges, and some witnesses called on his behalf cast doubt on Hill's character and mental stability. On October 15, the Senate narrowly voted to approve Thomas' confirmation.
Although the hearings left the Senate and the nation deeply divided, the episode served to foster a greater public awareness of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. In taking over the seat of the ultra-liberal Thurgood Marshall, Thomas contributed significantly to the conservative character of the nation's highest court in the 1990s and after the turn of the century.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas
1997 The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens
2001 NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft)
2003 China became the third nation to send a man into space. Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, 38, was launched on a Long March CZ-2F rocket in the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft at 9 am local time (1 am GMT). He completed 14 Earth orbits during a 21-hour flight which ended with a parachute-assisted landing in the on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China. The Shenzhou spacecraft was based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule, but with extensive modifications. The country began planning manned spaceflight in 1992. Russia began providing advice on technology and astronaut training in 1995. The first of four unmanned test flights of a Shenzhou craft (took place in Nov 1999. The name Shenzhou translates as "divine vessel."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Liwei
2003 The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi runs into a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_J._Barberi
2004 "Funeral coaches" exempted from car-seat law. On this day in 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules that hearse manufacturers no longer have to install anchors for child-safety seats in their vehicles. In 1999, to prevent parents from incorrectly installing the seats using only their cars' seat belts, the agency had required all carmakers to put the standardized anchors on every passenger seat in every vehicle they built. Though it seemed rather odd, most hearse-builders complied with the rule and many thousands of their vehicles incorporated baby-seat latches on their front and back passenger seats.
However, the year after the agency issued the rule, one of the largest "funeral coach" manufacturers in the United States petitioned for an exemption. "Since a funeral coach is a single-purpose vehicle, transporting body and casket," the petition said, "children do not ride in the front seat." In fact, typically that seat is empty—after all, most people do try to avoid riding in hearses. On October 15, the agency agreed: All funeral coaches (now officially defined as "a vehicle that contains only one row of occupant seats, is designed exclusively for transporting a body and casket and that is equipped with features to secure a casket in place during the operation of the vehicle") were permanently exempt from all child-safety provisions. According to this formulation, those rare hearses that do have rear seats are not technically funeral coaches; therefore; they are subject to the same child-restraint rules as every other carmaker.
[a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearse"]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearse[/a][/url]
2005 A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Toledo_Riot
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www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_15
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mata-hari-executed
www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct15.html
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_15.htm
www.lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=387
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1015.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_15_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
There are 77 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days until Election Day, Tuesday November 6, 2012: 22
Countdown until Obama leaves Office www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1582 Many Catholic countries switch to Gregorian calendar, skip 10 days. The Julian calendar was switched over to the Gregorian starting in 1582, at which point the 10 day difference between the actual time of year and traditional time of year on which calendrical events occurred became intolerable. The switchover was bitterly opposed by much of the populace, who feared it was attempt by landlords to cheat then out of a week and a half's rent. However, when Pope Gregory XIII decreed that the day after October 4, 1582 would be October 15, 1582, the Catholic countries of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy complied. Various Catholic German countries (Germany was not yet unified), Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland followed suit within a year or two.
1764 Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspired him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Empire
Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant
1780 British retreat from Middleburgh. A combined force of 1,000 British regulars, Hessians, Loyalists and Indians, led by Loyalist Sir John Johnson and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, attempts an unsuccessful attack upon Middleburgh (or Middle Fort), New York, on this day in 1780.
Only 200 Continental soldiers under Major Melanchthon Woolsey were defending the fort, and unknown to the British, the Continentals were low on ammunition. In their ignorance of the Patriots’ weakness, the Loyalist forces retreated in the direction of the Schoharie Valley, contenting themselves with destroying everything in their path and continuing the civil war raging in upstate New York.
Johnson was the son of Sir William Johnson, Britain’s superintendent of Indian Affairs, who lived in the Mohawk Valley. The younger Johnson inherited his father’s sizable estate in 1774 only to relinquish it when he led a group of his tenants and native allies in flight to Montreal, Canada, after the outbreak of war between the colonies and Great Britain in 1775. Johnson’s cohort created the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, which fought throughout the war. For his efforts, Johnson became a British brigadier general in 1782.
Joseph Brant ranked among Britain’s best commanders during the American War for Independence. He was an educated Christian and Freemason who studied directly with Eleazer Wheelock at Moor’s Indian Charity School, the parent institution of Dartmouth College. His older sister Mary was Sir William Johnson’s common-law wife and also played a significant role in colonial and revolutionary Indian affairs. At the close of the war, the Brants and their Iroquois followers left the United States for Canada, where they found land and safety with their British allies.
sarsat.org/HistoricalAccounts/17801015BritishretreatfromMiddleburgh.htm
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-retreat-from-middleburgh
1789 First presidental tour--George Washington in New England.
1790 Ann Teresa Mathews (aka Mother Bernardina) and Frances Dickinson founded a convent of Discalced Carmelites (a contemplative working order) in Port Tobacco, Maryland. It was the first Catholic convent founded in the United States. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discalced_Carmelites
1840 In Mehlville, Missouri, the German Evangelical Church Society (Kirchenverein) of the West was founded. It became the German Evangelical Synod of North America in 1872, and the “German” was dropped in 1925. The denomination merged with the Reformed Church in June 1934 at Cleveland, Ohio, to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. This group merged with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 to form the United Church of Christ.
1860 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Lincoln, tells him to grow a beard. A excerpt of her letter reads "... I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President." Lincoln's replay stated, "As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affection if I were to begin it now?"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Bedell
Drawing of the H. L. Hunley. Based on a photograph taken in 1863 by George S. Cook
1863 The C.S.S. Hunley, the first successful submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crewmembers.
Horace Lawson Hunley developed the submarine from a cylinder boiler. It was operated by a crew of eight—one person steered while the other seven turned a crank that drove the ship's propeller. The Hunley could dive, but it required calm seas for safe operations. It was tested successfully in Alabama's Mobile Bay in the summer of 1863, and Confederate commander General Pierre G.T. Beauregard recognized that the vessel might be useful to ram Union ships and break the blockade of Charleston Harbor. The Hunley was placed on a railcar and shipped to South Carolina.
The submarine experienced problems upon its arrival. During a test run, a crewmember became tangled in part of the craft's machinery and the craft dove with its hatch open; only two men survived the accident. The ship was raised and repaired, but it was difficult to find another crew that was willing to assume the risk of operating the submarine. Its inventor and namesake stepped forward to restore confidence in his creation. On October 15, he took the submarine into Charleston Harbor for another test. In front of a crowd of spectators, the Hunley slipped below the surface and did not reappear. Horace Hunley and his entire crew perished.
Surprisingly, another willing crew was assembled and the Hunley went back into the water. On February 17, 1864, the ship headed out of Charleston Harbor and approached the U.S.S. Housatanic. The Hunley stuck a torpedo into the Yankee ship and then backed away before the explosion. The Housatanic sank in shallow water, and the Hunley became the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Unfortunately, its first successful mission was also its last—the Hunley sank before it returned to Charleston, taking yet another crew down with it. The vessel was raised on August 8, 2000, and will now reside in an exhibit at the Charleston History Museum.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunley_(submarine)
1864 American Civil War: The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri, and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.
1878 Thomas Edison established the Edison Electric Light Company in N.Y. City with a syndicate of leading financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, who advanced him $30,000 for research and development. Edison proposed to connect his lights in a parallel circuit by subdividing the current, so that, unlike arc lights, which were connected in a series circuit, the failure of one light bulb would not cause a whole circuit to fail. He patented his electricity distribution system in 1880. The first investor-owned electric utility, Pearl Street Station, New York City, (1882) provided service for the 400 lamps of 85 customers. This company and its technological heritage became a part of General Electric in 1892.
1880 - A violent early season blizzard raked Minnesota and the Dakotas. Winds gusted to 70 mph at Yankton SD, and snow drifts 10 to 15 feet high were reported in northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota. Saint Paul MN reported a barometric pressure of 28.65 inches on the 16th. Railroads were blocked by drifts of snow which remained throughout the severe winter to follow. Gales did extensive damage to ships on the Great Lakes. (15th-16th) (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
1880 Germany’s Cologne Cathedral was completed 633 years after construction began.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral
1880 Chiricahua Apache leader Victorio is killed south of El Paso, Texas. The warrior Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists of all time, dies this day, in 1880, in the Tres Castillos Mountains south of El Paso, Texas.
Born in New Mexico around 1809, Victorio grew up during a period of intense hostility between the native Apache Indians of the southwest and encroaching Mexican and American settlers. Determined to resist the loss of his homeland, Victorio began leading his small band of warriors on a long series of devastating raids against Mexican and American settlers and their communities in the 1850s.
After more than a decade of evading the best efforts of the Mexican and American armies to capture him, the U.S. Army managed to convince Victorio to accept resettlement of his people on an inhospitable patch of sunburnt land near San Carlos, Arizona, in 1869. But with summer temperatures reaching 110 degrees on the San Carlos reservation (an area also known as Hell's Forty Acres) and farming nearly impossible, Victorio decided the new reservation was unacceptable and moved his followers to more pleasant grounds at Ojo Caliente (Warm Springs), thus again becoming an outlaw in the eyes of the United States. In 1878, the U.S. Army attempted to force the Apaches back to the San Carlos reservation, but Victorio eluded capture, disappearing into the desert with 150 braves. Surviving by raiding the towns and farms of Chihuahua, Mexico, Victorio and his men began to take bloody revenge against their enemies, ambushing U.S. troops with devastating effect and killing any Mexican or American sheepherder unfortunate enough to cross their path.
In 1880, a combined force of U.S. and Mexican troops finally succeeded in tracking down the wily Apache and his warriors, surrounding them in the Tres Castillos Mountains of Mexico, just south of El Paso, Texas. Having sent the American troops away, the Mexican soldiers proceeded to kill all but 17 of the trapped Apaches, though the exact manner of Victorio's death remains unclear. Some claimed an Indian scout employed by the Mexican army killed the famous warrior. But according to the Apache, Victorio took his own life rather than surrender to the hated Mexicans. Regardless of how it happened, Victorio's death made him a martyr to the Apache people and strengthened the resolve of other warriors to continue the fight. The last of the great Apache warriors, Geronimo, would not surrender until 1886.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorio
1881 First American fishing magazine, American Angler published. The American Angler was the nation's first fishing magazine devoted to the sport and culture of fresh and saltwater fishing. It cost 10 cents an issue back in 1881, or you could subscribe, for three dollars a year. But American Angler was nothing like today's glossy magazines. The only graphic was on the cover; it was a lithograph of a black bass.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Angler
1892 Western Montana area opened to settlers. The U.S. government convinced the Crow Indians to give up 1.8 million acres of their reservation for 50 cents per acre. On this day, by presidential proclamation, the land in the mountainous area of western Montana was opened to settlers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow_Indians
1900 Pentecostal evangelist Charles Fox Parham opened Bethel Bible Institute in Topeka, Kansas. It was here on January 1, 1901 that the first Christian in modern times was reported to have spoken in tongues: student Agnes Ozman.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fox_Parham
1900 The Boston Symphony Hall was opened with an inaugural gala led by music director Wilhelm Gericke. The architects engaged Wallace Clement Sabine, a young assistant professor of physics at Harvard, to help them achieve the best sound quality for the hall, making it the first auditorium designed according to scientific acoustical principles. The sparse use of sound-muffling textiles provides for better resonance throughout the hall. It is 61 feet high, 75 feet wide and 124 feet long from the lower back wall to the front of the stage. With the exception of the wooden floors, the hall is built of brick, steel, and plaster. Still regarded as one of the world's finest concert halls, it is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Symphony_Hall
1905 President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal." In a 1905 article in The Ladies Home Journal, Cleveland wrote, "Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence."
1917 World War I spy Mata Hari was executed by a French firing squad. During World War I, in 1917, the German military attache in Madrid transmitted radio messages to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy, code-named H-21. French intelligence agents intercepted the messages and, from the information they contained, were able to identify H-21 as Mata Hari. Remarkably, the messages were in a code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, leaving historians to suspect that the messages were contrived so that, if she was in fact working for the French, they would be able to unmask her as a double agent and effectively neutralize her. Mata Hari was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers. Although it has been speculated since that there was no concrete evidence, she was nevertheless found guilty and was executed by firing squad on October 15, 1917, at the age of 41.
1919 300 mile horse race from Vermont to Massachusetts begins.
1928 The airship LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, christened on the 8th July 1928, landed in New Jersey after its first transatlantic crossing from Germany. It was 775 feet long and 100 feet high and had a crusing speed of 73 mph. The Naval Air Station Lakehurst, located in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was the western terminus for the commercial transatlantic flights of the German dirigibles Graf Zeppelin and also the Hindenburg. The Graf Zeppelin was a very successful airship whose success was eclipsed by the Hindenburg disaster in 1937.
1930 Duke Ellington records his first big hit, "Mood Indigo." The legendary composer and bandleader Duke Ellington was so famous for his poise and charm that it should be no surprise that he had a pithy story at the ready whenever he was asked about one of his most famous and enduring works, "Mood Indigo." Of the song he and his orchestra recorded for the very first time on this day in 1930, Ellington was fond of saying, "Well, I wrote that in 15 minutes while I was waiting for my mother to finish cooking dinner." As neatly as that version fit with his well-tended reputation for effortless sophistication, the true account of the song's development reflects the gifts for collaboration and adaptation that were always critical elements of Ellington's genius.
The genesis of "Mood Indigo" was a visit to New York City in 1930 by a New Orleans jazzman named Lorenzo Tio, Jr. Duke Ellington's clarinetist, Barney Bigard, was a former student of Tio's, and on Tio's visit to New York, he shared with Bigard a number of melodies he'd written, including one called "Dreamy Blues" that had served as the theme song for his group back home, Armand Piron's New Orleans Orchestra. "I asked him if I could borrow it," Bigard later wrote in his autobiography. "I took it home and kept fooling around with it...and got something together that mostly was my own but partly Tio's." Bigard's variation on "Dreamy Blues" would soon become the clarinet solo on "Mood Indigo," thanks to Duke Ellington's penchant for involving his band members in his composition process.
Indeed, the lyricist Ervin Drake would later refer to Ellington's orchestra as a kind of "musical kibbutz"—an environment in which all ideas were welcomed and collaboration was the rule rather than the exception. Taking Bigard and Tio's melody and composing a song of his own on top of it, Ellington created "Mood Indigo." It wasn't the elegance of the composition alone, however, that made the song Ellington's first big hit. It was the completely unexpected voicing of the horns in Ellington's original arrangement of the song. The clarinet, trumpet and trombone were generally arranged, in that order, from highest pitch to lowest in jazz music. But Ellington turned the typical structure upside down on "Mood Indigo," using the clarinet near the bottom of its register and the muted trombone near the top of its—an arrangement that also produced interesting overtones with the electronic microphones of the day.
With lyrics added by Mitchell Parish in 1931 (but credited to Ellington's manager Irving Mills), "Mood Indigo" became a vocal-jazz standard as well as an instrumental one, recorded memorably by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone among many others.
1932 A small party of supporters gathered in Liverpool, England, to send Gladys Aylward (1902–1970), a 28-year-old parlor maid, off on a dangerous missionary journey to China. Though she had been turned down by the missions agency she applied to, she went on to become one of the most amazing single woman missionaries of modern history. Her dramatic rescue of a hundred orphans is told in the movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Aylward
1938 The District of Columbia formally adopts a design for its flag.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia
1937 Ernest Hemingway novel "To Have & Have Not" published. It was about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain who runs contraband between Cuba and Florida. It was based on an earlier story, "One Trip Across."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_and_Have_Not
1939 The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Municipal_Airport
1944 The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes over the power in Hungary.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_Cross_Party
1946 Herman Goering dies. On this day in 1946, Herman Goering, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, president of the Reichstag, head of the Gestapo, prime minister of Prussia, chief forester of the Reich, chief liquidator of sequestered estates, supreme head of the National Weather Bureau, and Hitler's designated successor dies by his own hand.
Goering was an early member of the Nazi Party and was wounded in the failed Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. That wound would have long-term effects, as Goering became increasingly addicted to painkillers. Not long after Hitler's accession to power, Goering was instrumental in creating concentration camps for political enemies. Ostentatious and self-indulgent, he changed his uniform five times a day and was notorious for flaunting his decorations, jewelry, and stolen artwork. It was Goering who ordered the purging of German Jews from the economy following the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, initiating an "Aryanization" policy that confiscated Jewish property and businesses.
Goering's failure to win the Battle of Britain and prevent the Allied bombing of Germany led to his loss of stature within the Party, aggravated by the low esteem with which he was always held by fellow officers because of his egocentrism and position as Hitler's right-hand man. As the war progressed, he dropped into depressions and continued to battle drug addiction.
When Goering fell into U.S. hands after Germany's surrender, he had in his possession a rich stash of paracodin pills, a morphine derivative. He was tried at Nuremberg and charged with various crimes against humanity. Despite a vigorous attempt at self-acquittal, he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but before he could be executed, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide tablet he had hidden from his guards.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Goering
1945 World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Laval
1949 Billy Graham begins his ministry. The best-known Christian evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham gained world attention in 1949 with a tent revival in downtown Los Angeles that was scheduled for three weeks and lasted six. In the ensuing 55 years and more, "Billy Graham Crusades" consistently drew audiences of thousands to arenas and stadiums throughout the world.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham
1949 "That Lucky Old Sun" by Frankie Laine topped the charts. "That's My Desire" hit number four in the American charts in 1947, and Laine re-entered the Top Ten in 1948 with "Shine." He hit the big time the following year, with two huge number one hits, "That Lucky Old Sun" and "Mule Train." Another chart-topper, 1950's "The Cry of the Wild Goose," was his last for Mercury, and he signed with Columbia just one year later.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Laine
1950 The first American radio paging service, Aircall of New York City, sent the first page to a doctor who was on a golf course 25 miles away. Subscribers carried a six-ounce pocket radio receiver and could hear their call numbers repeated in numerical sequence on the air at least once per minute within a 30-mile radius.
1951 "I Love Lucy" debuts on CBS TV. The classic television show I Love Lucy was partially based on a radio show called My Favorite Husband (1948-1951) starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning as Liz and George Cooper. Denning was eager to continue his role in the TV version, but Ball insisted on casting her real-life husband, Cuban-born musician Desi Arnaz. Although the studio heads were initially resistant to the idea, fearing audiences wouldn't find the "mixed marriage" believable, they eventually relented after Ball and Arnaz put together a successful vaudeville act featuring themselves as a married couple.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Lucy
1953 "The Teahouse of the August Moon" opened on Broadway. The play by John Patrick, is a comedy about the process of the Americanization of Japanese citizens on the island of Okinawa during the American Occupation of Japan following World War II. A hit Broadway production, Patrick's play won many awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play of the Year, the Pulitzer Prize in drama, and the Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Teahouse_of_the_August_Moon_(play)
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1954 - Hurricane Hazel struck the Carolina coastline. The hurricane demolished every pier along a 170 mile stretch from Myrtle Beach SC to Cedar Island NC, and obliterated entire lines of beach homes. Hurricane Hazel also destroyed 1500 homes as it moved inland with seventeen foot tides. Winds between Myrtle Beach SC and Cape Fear NC gusted to 150 mph. Hurricane Hazel caused 163 million dollars damage, and claimed the lives of 98 persons. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hazel
1955 "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" by Four Aces topped the charts.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_a_Many-Splendored_Thing_(song)
1956 Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortran
1959 "Untouchables" premieres. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it dealt with the experiences of Eliot Ness, a United States Justice Department agent, as he fought crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. The show starred Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and Neville Brand as Al Capone, and was narrated by Walter Winchell.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untouchables_(1959_TV_series)
1960 "Mr. Custer" by Larry Verne topped the charts. Country singer Larry Verne is best known for the plaintive "Mr. Custer" (1960) which topped the charts. He charted shortly thereafter with another novelty tune, "Mister Livingston."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Custer
1964 Craig Breedlove sets auto speed record of 526 mph. On October 13, Breedlove reached 468.719 mph (754.330 km/h) in the Spirit of America Sonic 1 at Bonneville Salt Flats, reclaiming the land speed record from Art Arfons. Just two days later, Breedlove beat his own record and breached the 500 mph barrier at 526.277 mph (846.861 km/h), still driving the Spirit of America Sonic 1 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Breedlove#Land_vehicle_speed_records
1965 Vietnam War: The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States to result in arrest under a new law.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coordinating_Committee_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam
1966 Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party
1966 LBJ signs a bill creating Department of Transportation. The mission of the Department is to: "Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Transportation
1966 Iowa experienced its worst late season tornado of record. In just one minute a twister tore through the town of Belmond leveling 75 percent of the businesses, and 100 homes, causing more than eleven million dollars damage. (The Weather Channel)
1966 "Reach Out, I'll Be There" by the Four Tops topped the charts. The Four Tops recorded "Reach Out, I'll Be There" in just 2 takes, and had practically forgotten about the song until it was released, assuming it was a "Throwaway" album track. Motown boss Berry Gordy had other ideas and released it as a single. Gordy had a knack for identifying hit songs, and got this one right. The Motown songwriting team of Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland (Holland/Dozier/Holland) wrote this. They told lead singer Levi Stubbs to sing like Bob Dylan on "Like a Rolling Stone," which explains the urgency in his lyrics.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reach_Out_I%27ll_Be_There
1969 Oriole Earl Weaver becomes first manager ejected in a world series. A memorable World Series game pits Tom Seaver against Mike Cuellar. RF Ron Swoboda's questionable dive at Brooks Robinson's sinking liner with runners at 1B and 3B in the 9th inning results in a brilliant catch, even though Frank Robinson tags and scores the tying run. In the 10th, Mets pinch-hitter J.C. Martin, running illegally inside the 1B line after a bunt, is hit on the wrist by P Pete Richert's errant throw, enabling pinch runner Rod Gaspar to score from second as the Mets win 2-1. The game is enlivened by Earl Weaver getting thrown out after protesting ball and strike calls by Shag Crawford. Earl is the 3rd manager to leave early in a World Series, but the first since 1935.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Weaver
1969 Vietnam Moratorium Day; millions nationwide protest the war. Supporters of the Vietnam Moratorium wore black armbands to signify their dissent and paid tribute to American personnel killed in the war since 1961.The focal point was the capital, Washington DC, where more than 40 different activities were planned and about 250,000 demonstrators gathered to make their voices heard.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moratorium_to_End_the_War_in_Vietnam
1971 The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2500_year_celebration_of_Iran_Monarchy
1971 "Garden Party", ironically, was Ricky Nelson’s biggest hit in years. In 1971, Nelson played a show with other stars from the '50s at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He was expected to play his hit, but when he played his newer material, the crowd booed him badly. This was one of the few songs Nelson wrote himself. Most of his hits were covers. It was Nelson's last hit. Before 1965, he had 34 Top-40 hits in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Party_(Rick_Nelson_song)
1977 Arkansas' Steve Little kicks a record tying 67 yard field goal. Little was an University of Arkansas kicker who shares the NCAA record for longest field goal, a 67-yard boot against Texas in 1977. A two-time All-American at Arkansas, he set team bowl records for PATs (4) in Arkansas' Cotton and Orange Bowl victories in 1976 and 1978 and held school record for career points (280).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Little_(American_football)
1977 Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life," goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks. At first, this was going to be sung by a jingle singer named Kasey Cisyk, and she recorded the original version that was used in the film. For over a year, no movie studio would release the film and no record company would release the song. When the movie finally got picked up, it was time to record the song as a single, and Brooks went with Debbie Boone instead of Cisyk. This won the 1977 Grammy for Song Of The Year. Boone also won that year for Best New Artist. It was by far the biggest hit of 1977. It was #1 for 10 weeks in the US.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Boone
1979 NY Knicks retire 2nd number, # 10, Walt Frazier. As a Knicks player, Frazier scored 19.3 points per game, played in seven NBA All-Star Games, and was named to four All-NBA First Teams and seven NBA All-Defensive First Teams. He is especially remembered for his inspirational performance in the seventh and deciding game of a thrilling 1970 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Frazier
1981 Stand up and cheer - the wave first seen at an A's - Yankee game. George Henderson, aka Krazy George, a longtime professional cheerleader, is widely recognized as the man who devised the "wave." Henderson contends he first got the wave rolling at an Oakland Athletics-New York Yankees playoff game at the oakland Coliseum on October 15, 1981, disputing claims by the University of Washington that it occurred at a Washington-Stanford football game.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_(audience)
1985 Shelley Taylor makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island. Shelley Taylor-Smith earned 7 consecutive World Marathon Swimming titles, 15 world race records, a solo English Channel crossing and won a record 5 race titles around New York City's Manhattan Island. Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds.
1987 NFL Players Association orders an end to the 24 day strike
1987 - Unseasonably cold weather continued in the eastern U.S., with thirteen cities reporting record low temperatures for the date. The low of 34 degrees at Montgomery AL was their coldest reading of record for so early in the season. Lows of 32 degrees at Harrisburg PA and 34 degrees at Parkersburg WV marked their third straight morning of record cold. (The National Weather Summary)
1988 Dodgers win game one of the World Series behind Kirk Gibson's HR. In one of the most improbable finishes in World Series history, pinch hitter Kirk Gibson hits a 2-run home run off Dennis Eckersley with two out in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win in game one. The injured Gibson was not expected to play in the NLCS, and will not play again in the Series. It is the first World Series game to end on a home run since game six in 1975.
1988 - The cold high pressure system responsible for the record low temperatures in the eastern U.S. began to move out to sea, giving way to a trend toward "Indian Summer". Thunderstorms developing ahead of a cold front produced golf ball size hail at Altamont KS and hail two inches in diameter at Yates City IL. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1989 - Hurricane Jerry made landfall at Galveston, TX, at 6:30 PM (CDT). Winds at the Galveston Airport reached 75 mph, with gusts to 100 mph. Tides along the island were six to eight feet, and rainfall totals ranged up to slightly more than six inches north of Beaumont. Three persons were killed when their vehicle was blown off the Galveston seawall into the pounding surf. Total damage along the Upper Texas Coast was estimated at fifteen million dollars. Thunderstorms produced severe weather in Lower Michigan during the late morning. Two persons were injured when a tree fell on their camper at the Traverse City State park. While strong northerly winds ushered much colder air into the central U.S., unseasonably warm weather continued in the south central and eastern U.S. The afternoon high of 82 degrees at Bluefield WV was a record for October. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Jerry_(1989)
1989 Billy Graham is given the 1,900th star on Hollywood Blvd.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham
1989 Wayne Gretsky passes Gordie Howes as NHL's all time top scorer.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Gretsky
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Cold War tensions. Since coming to power in 1988, Gorbachev had undertaken to concentrate more effort and funds on his domestic reform plans by going to extraordinary lengths to reach foreign policy understandings with the noncommunist world.
Some of his accomplishments include four summits with President Ronald Reagan, including a 1987 meeting at which an agreement was reached to dismantle the U.S. and USSR intermediate-range missiles in Europe. He also began to remove Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1988 and exerted diplomatic pressure on Cuba and Vietnam to remove their forces from Angola and Kampuchea (Cambodia), respectively. In a 1989 meeting with President George Bush, Gorbachev declared that the Cold War was over.
Gorbachev also earned the respect of many in the West through his policy of non-intervention in the political upheavals that shook the Eastern European "satellite" nations during the late-1980s and early-1990s. When Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, and other Iron Curtain countries began to move toward more democratic political systems and free market economies, Gorbachev kept Soviet intervention in check. (This policy did not extend to the Soviet republics; similar efforts by Lithuania and other republics were met with stern warnings and force to keep the Soviet Socialist Republics together.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev
1990 On October 15th, the killer bees reach the southern tip of Texas, in the city of Hidalgo. Texas was the first U.S. state to be invaded. Because of their more intense defensive swarming behavior, such non-native bees earned the name "killer bee" in the media. Arizona was the second state to be invaded, less than three years after this species spread north into Texas from Mexico. Since the fifties, the bees had extended their range northward through Central America. Their original source was from cross-breeding with tropical African bees imported into Brazil for experimental work.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee
1991 Pizza Hut, Inc. was trademark registered.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Hut
1991 Thomas confirmed to the Supreme Court. After a bitter confirmation hearing, the U.S. Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas
In July 1991, Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court, announced his retirement after 34 years. President George Bush quickly nominated Clarence Thomas, a 43-year-old African American judge known for his conservative beliefs, to fill the seat. Thomas had been chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) during the Reagan administration, and in 1990 Bush had appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals. As the confirmation hearings for Thomas' Supreme Court nomination got underway, he evaded controversy over his conservative views on issues such as abortion by refusing to state a clear political position. He seemed headed for an easy confirmation until Anita Hill, a former aide, stepped forward and accused him of sexual harassment.
Hill, who had served as an aide to Thomas at the Department of Education and the EEOC during the 1980s, alleged that the Supreme Court nominee had repeatedly made sexually offensive comments to her in an apparent campaign of seduction. Beginning on October 11, 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee held four days of televised hearings on Hill's charges. Americans were shocked by both the frankness of Hill's lurid testimony and the unsympathetic response of the all-male committee, some of whom were openly antagonistic toward Hill. Thomas, meanwhile, denied the charges, and some witnesses called on his behalf cast doubt on Hill's character and mental stability. On October 15, the Senate narrowly voted to approve Thomas' confirmation.
Although the hearings left the Senate and the nation deeply divided, the episode served to foster a greater public awareness of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace. In taking over the seat of the ultra-liberal Thurgood Marshall, Thomas contributed significantly to the conservative character of the nation's highest court in the 1990s and after the turn of the century.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas
1997 The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens
2001 NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft)
2003 China became the third nation to send a man into space. Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, 38, was launched on a Long March CZ-2F rocket in the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft at 9 am local time (1 am GMT). He completed 14 Earth orbits during a 21-hour flight which ended with a parachute-assisted landing in the on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in northern China. The Shenzhou spacecraft was based on the three-seat Russian Soyuz capsule, but with extensive modifications. The country began planning manned spaceflight in 1992. Russia began providing advice on technology and astronaut training in 1995. The first of four unmanned test flights of a Shenzhou craft (took place in Nov 1999. The name Shenzhou translates as "divine vessel."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Liwei
2003 The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi runs into a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_J._Barberi
2004 "Funeral coaches" exempted from car-seat law. On this day in 2004, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules that hearse manufacturers no longer have to install anchors for child-safety seats in their vehicles. In 1999, to prevent parents from incorrectly installing the seats using only their cars' seat belts, the agency had required all carmakers to put the standardized anchors on every passenger seat in every vehicle they built. Though it seemed rather odd, most hearse-builders complied with the rule and many thousands of their vehicles incorporated baby-seat latches on their front and back passenger seats.
However, the year after the agency issued the rule, one of the largest "funeral coach" manufacturers in the United States petitioned for an exemption. "Since a funeral coach is a single-purpose vehicle, transporting body and casket," the petition said, "children do not ride in the front seat." In fact, typically that seat is empty—after all, most people do try to avoid riding in hearses. On October 15, the agency agreed: All funeral coaches (now officially defined as "a vehicle that contains only one row of occupant seats, is designed exclusively for transporting a body and casket and that is equipped with features to secure a casket in place during the operation of the vehicle") were permanently exempt from all child-safety provisions. According to this formulation, those rare hearses that do have rear seats are not technically funeral coaches; therefore; they are subject to the same child-restraint rules as every other carmaker.
[a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearse"]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearse[/a][/url]
2005 A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Toledo_Riot
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_15_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
