Post by farmgal on Oct 18, 2012 23:19:54 GMT -5
October 18 is the 292nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 74 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days left until November 06, 2012 19
Countdown until Obama leaves Office
www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1744 English revivalist George Whitefield, 29, arrived in Maine at the start of his second visit to America. Whitefield struggled to adapt the beliefs of Calvinism to the Arminian teachings of proto-Methodists John and Charles Wesley.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield
1769 Editorial accuses Jefferson of affair with slave. On this day in 1784, an essay appears in the Gazette of the United States in which a writer, mysteriously named "Phocion," slyly attacks presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson. Phocion turned out to be former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The essay typified the nasty, personal nature of political attacks in late 18th-century America.
When the article appeared, Jefferson, a Republican, was running against presidential incumbent John Adams, a Federalist, in an acrimonious campaign. The highly influential Hamilton, also a Federalist, supported Adams over Jefferson, one of Hamilton’s political rivals since the two men served together in George Washington’s first cabinet. According to Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, Hamilton wrote 25 essays under the name Phocion for the Gazette between October 15 and November 24, lambasting Jefferson and Jeffersonian republicanism. On October 19, Hamilton went further, accusing Jefferson of carrying on an affair with one of his slaves.
This would not be the last time such allegations would appear in print. In 1792, publisher James Callendar—then a supporter of Jefferson’s whose paper was secretly funded by Jefferson and his Republican allies--published a report of Alexander Hamilton’s adulterous affair with a colleague’s wife, to which Hamilton later confessed. However, in 1802, when then-President Jefferson snubbed Callendar’s request for a political appointment, Callendar retaliated with an expose on Jefferson’s "concubine." He is believed to have been referring to Sally Hemings, who was part black and also the likely half-sister of Jefferson’s deceased wife, Martha. Further, the article alleged that Sally’s son, John, bore a "striking…resemblance to those of the President himself." Jefferson chose not to respond to the allegations.
Rumors that the widowed Jefferson had an affair with one of his slaves persist to this day and have spawned years of scholarly and scientific research regarding his and Hemings’ alleged progeny. In 2000, a scholarly committee used DNA test results, original documents, oral histories and statistical data to conclude that a member of the Jefferson family had fathered at least one of Hemings’ six children.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson#Jefferson-Hemings_controversy
1781 British surrender at Yorktown. As their band played The World Turned Upside Down, the British Army marched out in formation and surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown. English and Hessian troops, led by British General Lord Cornwallis, surrendered to General George Washington. The war between Britain and its American colonies was effectively ended. The final peace treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown#British_surrender
1789 Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay
1844 - The famous "Lower Great Lakes Storm" occurred. Southwesterly winds were at hurricane force for five hours, driving lake waters into downtown Buffalo NY. The storm drowned 200 persons. (David Ludlum)
www.newportriweather.com/mwd/history/oct/oct19.html
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive an M.D. degree from an American medical school. She worked in clinics in London and Paris for two years, and studied midwifery at La Maternite where she contracted "purulent opthalmia" from a young patient. When Blackwell lost sight in one eye, she returned to New York City in 1851, giving up her dream of becoming a surgeon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Blackwell
1864 Approximately 25 Confederates make surprise attack on St Albans, VT. Twenty Confederate soldiers attacked the village of St. Albans, Vermont on October 19, 1864. The raid was planned to avenge assaults on Southern cities, to obtain money needed by the Confederacy, and to cause confusion and panic on the Northern border. The raiders robbed three banks of more than $200,000, killed one citizen and wounded two others, stole a number of horses, and tried unsuccessfully to burn down the town. The Confederates, with Vermonters in close pursuit, escaped across the Canadian border. Eventually several were captured and arrested by Canadians.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_Raid
1864 Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroy the Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cedar_Creek
1869 Construction begins on the Sutro Tunnel in Virginia City, Nevada. On this day in 1869, the famous Prussian-born mining engineer, Adolph Sutro, begins work on one of the most ambitious western engineering projects of the day: a four-mile-long tunnel through the solid rock of the Comstock Lode mining district.
One of the richest silver deposits in the world, the Comstock Lode had been discovered by prospectors in 1859, and it quickly became the focus of the most intensive mining activity in the West. But as miners sank shafts ever deeper into the rock in search of more silver and gold, they began to encounter large amounts of water that had to be pumped to the surface at great expense. If only some means could be found to drain the water horizontally, the mining companies would save a fortune.
Adolph Sutro's tunnel was intended to do just that. Sutro-who had already demonstrated his technical brilliance by inventing a new way to extract silver from waste rock-proposed to blast a large horizontal tunnel right through the rock of the neighboring Mt. Davidson and straight into the heart of the Comstock mine. Mine water would thus drain through the tunnel without need for expensive pumps, and the mining companies would also be able to use the tunnel to move men and ore in and out of the mine, greatly reducing transportation costs.
While all involved agreed that technically Sutro's tunnel would be a boon to the Comstock, progress on the project was continually slowed down by resistance from some of the major mining interests who feared that Sutro would use his tunnel to take control of the entire lode. Only after securing European capital was Sutro able to complete the $5-million project in 1878.
Every bit as successful as promised, the Sutro tunnel drained some two million gallons of water from the mines per year and greatly reduced transportation costs. Unfortunately, by 1878, the richer sections of the Comstock Lode had been tapped out, and the mine had begun to steadily decline in profitability. Sutro, though, succeeded in selling his tunnel in 1879 at a fantastic profit. He moved to San Francisco where he became one of the city's largest landowners as well as the city's mayor from 1894 to 1896.
[a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Tunnel"]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Tunnel[/a][/url]
1873 Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football
1904 Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytechnic_University_of_the_Philippines
1917 The Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Love_Field
1933 Berlin Olympic Committee vote to introduce basketball in 1936
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_basketball
1936 HR Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" wins a race around the world. In 1936, H.R. Ekins of the New York World-Telegram beat out Dorothy Kilgallen of the New York Journal and Leo Kieran of The New York Times in a round-the-world race on commercial flights that lasted 18 1/2 days. But the real winner was Kilgallen.During that time she covered her travels with a laptop typewriter. Dorothy made it in a little over 24 days, coming in second to Ekins. This "race" launched her as a celebrity. Every house on her block was decorated with American Flags and her picture. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to congratulate her. Her reports were put together in book form as Girl Around the World. A song was also written about her: "Hats off to Dorothy".
1937 "Woman’s Day", was first published. Following the 1936 opening of A&P's first supermarket (in Braddock, Pennsylvania), A&P expanded Woman's Day in 1937 through a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Stores Publishing Company. The magazine featured articles on crafts, food preparation and cooking, home decoration, needlework, health and childcare, selling for two cents a copy. Sold exclusively in A&P stores, Woman's Day had a circulation of 3,000,000 by 1944.
1937 The radio classic, "Big Town", made its debut on CBS radio. Big Town was perhaps the most famous series of reporter dramas. It featured the adventures of Steve Wilson, the crusading editor of The Illustrated Press. The show was written by Jerry McGill, an ex-newspaperman, and his reporters were diligent, sober champions of justice, zealously pushing freedom of the press, creating a memorable slogan; "Freedom of the press is a flaming sword! Use is justly--hold it high--guard it well." The shows occasionally attacked juvenile delinquency, racism and drink driving amongst other soapbox related incidents. The cast included Edward G. Robinson and was sponsored by Ironized Yeast, Bayer Aspirin, and Lifebuoy Soap.
1943 Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1944 Marlon Brando appeared in the Broadway hit, "I Remember Mama" I Remember Mama is a 1944 John Van Druten play, based on the memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes. The plot focuses on a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living in San Francisco in the 1910s.
1944 United States forces land in the Philippines.
1951 President Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany. Truman stated on the 24th that it had always been America's hope to create a treaty of peace with the government of a united and free Germany, but that Soviet policy had "made it impossible." The official end to the war came 10 years and two months after Congress had declared open war with Nazi Germany on December 11, 1941.
1953 First jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service. TWA introduced the Lockheed L.1049 Super Constellation on September 10, 1952. The new aircraft had a 35 percent greater passenger carrying capacity than its predecessor. TWA was the first airline to inaugurate regularly scheduled nonstop transcontinental service between Los Angeles and New York on October 19, 1953.
1953 Ray Bradbury's novel, "Fahrenheit 451" was copyright registered. "Fahrenheit 451" is a novel where censorship is banned and critical thought is suppressed; the central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this case, means "book burner"). 451 degrees Fahrenheit (about 233oC) is stated as "the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns ...". It was originally published as a shorter novella, The Fireman, in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.
1953 Singer Julius LaRosa is fired on TV by Arthur Godfrey. On the morning of October 19, after La Rosa had finished singing "Manhattan" on Arthur Godfrey Time, Godfrey fired him on the air, announcing, "that was Julie's swan song with us." Unaware the firing was coming (or what the phrase "swan song" meant), La Rosa tearfully met with Godfrey after the broadcast and thanked him for giving him his "break." La Rosa was then met at Godfrey's offices by his lawyer, manager and some reporters. The singer claimed he was "bewildered" by the events, but Rockwell was highly critical of Godfrey's behavior, angrily citing LaRosa's public humiliation.
1957 "Wake Up Little Suzie" by the Everly Brothers topped the charts. "Wake Up Little Susie" was written by the husband and wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote most of The Everly Brothers songs in the '50s. Their songs were also recorded by Bob Dylan, Elvis, and Buddy Holly. It is about a young couple who fall asleep at the drive-in, realize they are out past curfew, and make up a story to tell Susie's parents. Chet Atkins played guitar on this.
1958 The first Cold War World's Fair closes. In Brussels, Belgium, the first world's fair held since before World War II closes its doors, after nearly 42 million people have visited the various exhibits. Officially called the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, the fair's overall theme was "A World View, A New Humanism." As such, the fair was supposed to celebrate the universality of the human condition and encourage dialogue and peaceful relations among the nations of a world only recently torn asunder by war, and now caught in the clutches of the Cold War.
Officials in the United States, however, saw the fair as something quite different: An opportunity to promote America's particular "world view," and to meet the Soviets head-on in the continuing propaganda battle for the "hearts and minds" of the world's people. The fair, therefore, became a showplace for the American and Soviet ways of life, and their exhibition halls became the headquarters for this battle. The adversarial context was accentuated by the fact that the U.S. and Soviet exhibition halls were located directly across from one another.The Soviet exhibit centered on the technological and scientific accomplishments of the communist state. A replica of Sputnik I, the unmanned satellite put into orbit by the Soviets in 1957, was the centerpiece of the imposing exhibition hall. The United States decided on a different tack, and focused on the everyday life of Americans. Mock voting booths were set up; beautiful women showed off the latest fashions; home furnishings and appliances were in abundance; and a typical American "Main Street" was constructed. It probably came as something of a shock to both U.S. and Soviet officials when Czechoslovakia won first place for best exhibition hall.
1959 Twelve year old Patty Duke made her first Broadway appearance. After re-writes, "The Miracle Worker" opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on October 19, 1959, starring Anne Bancroft as teacher, Annie Sullivan, Patricia Neal as Helen's mother, Kate Keller, and Patty Duke as Helen Keller, the blind-deaf child. The show became one of the most electrifying theatrical events of the 1959-1960 season. It went on to win six Tony Awards, including best play.
1960 Martin Luther King Jr arrested in Atlanta sit-in
In October 1960, King's arrest during a student-initiated protest in Atlanta became an issue in the national presidential campaign when Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy intervened to secure his release from jail. Kennedy's action contributed to his narrow victory in the November election.
1960 The US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba. In July 1960, in response to the nationalizations and expropriations by the Castro government, the United States reduced the Cuban import quota of sugar by 700,000 tons; the Soviet Union responded by agreeing to purchase the sugar instead, and further Cuban expropriations followed. A partial economic embargo was imposed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 19, 1960, and diplomatic relations were broken on January 3, 1961-two years after Castro's rise to power.
1961 - Rain changed to a record early season, heavy wet snow over the southern mountains of West Virginia. Leaves were still on trees, resulting in the worst forest disaster since the fires of 1952 and 1953. One to two feet of snow fell near Summersville and Richwood. (19th-20th) (The Weather Channel)
1963 "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs topped the charts.
1968 "Hey Jude" by the Beatles topped the charts. Paul McCartney wrote this as "Hey Jules," a song meant to comfort John Lennon's son Julian as his parents were getting a divorce. The change to "Jude" was inspired by the character "Jud" in the musical Oklahoma!. This is the most commercially successful Beatles song. It was #1 in at least 12 countries and by the end of 1968 had sold more than 5 million copies. It was going to be the B-side to "Revolution," but it ended up the other way around. It is a testament to this song that it pushed "Revolution" to the other side of the record.
1970 One World Trade Center was ready for its first tenants. Construction began in 1966 and cost an estimated $1.5 billion. One World Trade Center was ready for its first tenants in late 1970, though the upper stories were not completed until 1972; Two World Trade Center was finished in 1973. When complete, the Center met with mixed reviews, but at 1,368 and 1,362 feet and 110 stories each, the twin towers were the world's tallest, and largest, buildings until the Sears Tower surpassed them both in 1974.
1973 President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_tapes
1973 A US Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and belatedly credited physicist John Atanasoff with developing the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or the ABC. Built in 1937-42 at Iowa State University by Atanadoff and a graduate student, Clifford Berry, it introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits. These ideas were communicated from Atanasoff to John Mauchly, who used them in the design of the better-known ENIAC built and patented several years later.
1984 - Thunderstorms deluged the town of Odem, TX (located 15 miles northwest of Corpus Christi) with 25 inches of rain in just three and a half hours. Most businesses in Odem were flooded, as were 1000 homes in nearby Sinton. (The Weather Channel)
1987 In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran's offshore oil platforms.
1987 "Black Monday" occurred on Wall Street as stocks plunged a record 508 points or 22.6 per cent, the largest one-day drop in stock market history
1987 - A cold front brought rainshowers to parts of the central U.S., and ushered cool Canadian air into the Great Plains Region. Daytime highs were only in the 30s in North Dakota and eastern Montana. (The National Weather Summary)
1988 - Thunderstorms produced high winds in eastern Colorado, with gusts to 63 mph reported at La Junta. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1988 Senate passes bill curbing ads during children`s TV shows
1989 - Record breaking snows fell across northern and central Indiana. Totals ranged up to 10.5 inches at Kokomo, and 9.3 inches was reported at Indianapolis. The 8.8 inch total at South Bend was a record for the month as a whole. Up to seven inches of snow fell in extreme southern Lower Michigan, and up to six inches fell in southwestern Ohio. The heavy wet snow downed many trees and power lines. Half the city of Cincinnati OH was without electricity during the morning hours. Temperatures dipped below freezing across much of the Great Plains Region. Twenty cities, including fourteen in Texas, reported record low temperatures for the date. North Platte NE reported a record low of 11 degrees. In Florida, four cities reported record high temperatures for the date. The record high of 92 degrees at Miami also marked a record fourteen days of 90 degree weather in October, and 116 such days for the year. (The National Weather Summary)
1991 Fire sweeps through Oakland hills. On this day in 1991, a fire begins in the hills of Oakland, California. It went on to burn thousands of homes and kill 25 people. Despite the fact that fires had ravaged the same area three times earlier in the century, people continued to build homes there.
Fires had previously raged through the hills in 1923, 1970 and 1980. Each time, the fires occurred during autumn in a year with relatively little precipitation, and, each time, the residents rebuilt and moved back in as soon as possible. The deadly 1991 fire can be traced to a small fire at 7151 Buckingham Boulevard on October 18. Firefighters responded quickly and thought they had brought the blaze under control. However, heat from the fire had caused pine needles to fall from the trees and cover the ground.
When highly flammable debris, also known as "duff," accumulates on the ground, fires can smolder unseen. At 10:45 a.m. on October 19, strong winds blew one of these unseen fires up a hillside; changing wind patterns then caused it to spread in different directions.
The winds were so intense and the area was so dry that within an hour close to 800 buildings were on fire. The wind then blew southwest, pushing the fire toward San Francisco Bay. In some places, the temperature reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it virtually impossible to fight the fire effectively. Homeowners attempted to hose down their roofs, but were often thwarted when water pipes burst from the fire. Also, many homes had wooden shingle roofs that were particularly susceptible to fire—it took only 10 minutes in some cases for a house to be brought down by the flames.
Firefighting efforts were constrained by the fact that the affected homes were located on steep hills with very narrow streets. This made it difficult to maintain radio communications and to move large fire engines close to the flames. The fire spread so rapidly that firefighters were unable to establish a perimeter. When the fire was finally contained the following day, 25 people had lost their lives, 150 people were injured and 3,000 homes and 1,500 acres had been consumed. The total tally of damages was $1.5 billion.
In the aftermath, authorities attempted to reduce the likelihood of a similar fire breaking out the in the future. Laws were changed regarding the maximum height of trees permitted and the type of vegetation that was allowable in the area. In addition, most homes that have been rebuilt do not have wooden roofs.
2003 Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997), born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
2005 Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2005 Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.
Births
1720 John Woolman (d 1772) in Rancocas, New Jersey, itinerant Quaker preacher, traveling throughout the American colonies, advocating against conscription, military taxation, and particularly slavery.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woolman
1784 John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, (d 1857) chief factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1840s his general store in Oregon City was famous as the last stop on the Oregon Trail.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLoughlin
1810 Cassius Marcellus Clay (d 1903), nicknamed "The Lion of White Hall", was an emancipationist from Madison County, Kentucky, United States. He was a cousin of Henry Clay and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassius_Marcellus_Clay_(politician)
1850 Annie Smith Peck, American mountaineer (d. 1935)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Smith_Peck
1856 Edmund Beecher Wilson (d 1939) American biologist known for his researches in embryology and cytology. His first experimental studies, in embryology, led him to investigations at the cellular level. His principal work was on the function of the cell in heredity and showed the chromosomal basis of sex determination in the embryo (1905). Wilson concluded that females have XX chromosomes, while males possess XY chromosomes. Following the process of meiosis, all eggs are left with an X chromosome, but sperm can have either X or Y. If an X chromosome sperm fertilizes an egg, the result is a female. If a Y chromosome sperm fertilizes and egg, the result is a male. He was the first scientist to publish photographs illustrating how a cell divides.
1868 Bertha Knight Landes (d 1943) first female mayor of a major American city. Landes served as mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1926 to 1928. She was born in Ware, Massachusetts to Charles Sanford Knight and Cordelia Cutter. Her father, a veteran of the Union Army, moved the family to Worchester in 1873. She attended Indiana University, where she received a degree in history and political science in 1891. After three years of teaching at the Classical High School in Worcester, Massachusetts, she married geologist Henry Landes, with whom she had two children and adopted one. She and her family later moved to Seattle.
1871 Walter Bradford Cannon (d 1945) American neurologist and physiologist who was the first to use X-rays in physiological studies. These led to his publication of The Mechanical Factors of Digestion (1911). He investigated hemorrhagic and traumatic shock during WW I. He devised the term homeostasis (1930) for how the body maintains its temperature. He worked on methods of blood storage and discovered sympathin (1931), an adrenaline-like substance that is liberated at the tips of certain nerve cells. He died from leukemia - probably a legacy from his early work with X rays He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1920 for his work on digestion, but his claim was ruled out as "too old." In 1934, 1935, and 1936 he was adjudged "prizeworthy" by the appropriate Nobel jurors but was not given a prize.
1873 John Barton "Bart" King (d 1965) American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King was one of the Philadelphian cricketers that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. This period of cricket in the United States was dominated by gentleman players—men of independent wealth who did not need to work. King was an amateur from a middle-class family, who was able to devote time to cricket thanks to a job set up by his teammates.
1876 Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed "Three Finger" or "Miner", American Major League Baseball pitcher at the turn of the 20th century. Due to a farm-machinery accident in his youth, Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand and eventually acquired his nickname as a result. Overcoming this handicap and turning it to his advantage, he became one of the elite pitchers of his era. He was known primarily for his awesome curveball, which broke radically before reaching the plate. Brown was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.
1885 Charles Edward Merrill (d 1956) American philanthropist, stockbroker and co-founder of Merrill Lynch & Company (previously called Charles E. Merrill & Co.).
1885 Lewis Mumford (d 1990) American historian and philosopher of technology and science. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a tremendously broad career as a writer that also included a period as an influential literary critic.
1895 Frank J. Durbin (d 1999) one of the last surviving American veterans of the First World War. Durbin was born in New Hampshire. By 1915, at age 20, he joined the United States Army. The next year, he was sent over to Verdun, and served with the American and French armies at the Battle of Verdun. Over there, Durbin hauled artillery over the front lines. He stayed in the service, guarded the Mexican border in the 1920s and served in The Second World War as well. After service, he worked for General Motors. By 1963, at age 68, he moved to Florida, and stayed there for the rest of his life. He died in Winter Haven at age 103.
1901 Admiral Arleigh Albert '31-knot' Burke (October 19, 1901 – January 1, 1996) was an admiral of the United States Navy who distinguished himself during World War II and the Korean War, and who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower administration.
1907 Roger Wolfe Kahn (d 1962) American jazz and popular musician, composer, and bandleader ("Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra").
1910 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (d 1995) Indian-born American astrophysicist who (with William A.Fowler) won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for formulating the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars. He was one of the first scientists to combine the disciplines of physics and astronomy. Early in his career he demonstrated that there is an upper limit, now called the Chandrasekhar limit, to the mass of a white dwarf star. A white dwarf is the last stage in the evolution of a star such as the Sun. When the nuclear energy source in the center of a star such as the Sun is exhausted, it collapses to form a white dwarf. Further, it shows that stars much more massive than the Sun must either explode or form black holes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar
1921 Bill Bright, American youth evangelist. Bill and his wife Vonette founded Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951, incorporating this evangelical Christian student organization in California in 1953.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bright
1922 Jack Northman Anderson (b 2005) American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret American policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson_(columnist)
1926 Joel Feinberg (d 2004) American political and social philosopher. He is known for his work in the fields of individual rights and the authority of the state. Feinberg helped in shaping the American legal landscape.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Feinberg
1936 Johnetta Cole Anthropologist and educator who was the first African-American woman president of Spelman College, in Atlanta, the oldest, private, liberal arts college for black women in the U.S. (1988). While president of Spelman, she taught one course per term in addition to her other academic responsibilities. Her interest in anthropology was sparked in part because it was new and unfamiliar, and a most unusual professional aspiration for an African-American woman during the 1950s. In 1960-62, she worked together with her new husband in Liberia, where they worked together on research for their respective dissertations. He conducted economic surveys and she engaged in fieldwork in the villages and towns of that West African nation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnetta_B._Cole
1958 Michael Stephen Steele American politician, serving since January 2009 as the first African American chairman of the Republican National Committee. From 2003 to 2007, he was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. During his time as Lieutenant Governor, he chaired the Minority Business Enterprise taskforce, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world
1962 Evander Holyfield, American boxer
Deaths
1747 David Brainerd, missionary among American Indians, died at Northampton, Massachusetts (b. 20 Apr 1718).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brainerd
1790 Lyman Hall (b 1724, physician, clergyman, and statesman, was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia. Hall County is named after him.
1848 Samuel Guthrie (b 1782) American physician and chemist who independently discovered chloroform and invented the percussion priming powder for firearms, which superseded flints. He performed experiments in a laboratory near his house, and had a mill about a mile away for manufacturing large quantities of this powder and other explosives (e.g., potassium chlorate and mercury fulminate). In 1830 he devised a process that rapidly converted potato starch into molasses. He made chloroform in 1831 by distilling chloride of lime with alcohol in a copper vessel, prior to the independent discoveries of Soubeiran (France,1831) and Liebig (Germany, 1832), and used it during amputation surgery in his hometown of Sackets Harbor, N.Y.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Guthrie_(physician)
1856 William Sprague, also known as William III or William Sprague III (b 1799), politician and industrialist from the U.S. state of Rhode Island, serving as Governor, U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator. He was the uncle of William Sprague IV, also a Governor and Senator from Rhode Island.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sprague_(Rhode_Island,_1799%E2%80%931856)
1893 Lucy Stone (b 1818) American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1839, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged and prevented from public speaking. Stone was the first recorded American woman to retain her own last name after marriage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Stone
1897 George Mortimer Pullman (b 1831) American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman (which was later annexed and absorbed by Chicago becoming a neighborhood).
1902 William O. Cushing (b. 31 Dec 1823), American Christian clergyman and hymn writer.
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/u/s/cushing_wo.htm
1950 Edna St. Vincent Millay (b 1892) American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She was the second woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work. Poet Richard Wilbur asserts: "She wrote some of the best sonnets of the century."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay
1956 Isham Jones (b 1894) United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter. (music to It Had to Be You)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isham_Jones
1972 Philip Drinker (b 1894) American engineer whose invention of the Iron Lung was a negative pressure ventilator that provided external respiration support. From its first use on 12 Oct 1928 to the 1950's, the iron lung was a vital technology to maintain life especially in cases of muscle paralysis caused by the poliomyelitis disease that was prevalent in that era. Victims of polio partially or totally lost their ability to breathe for themselves. A polio patient's entire body below the neck lay sealed in a metal chamber wherein pressure was increased and decreased by an air pump. Its cycle caused the lungs to expel and inhale air and mimic a normal breathing rate.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Drinker
1978 Gig Young (b 1913) American film, stage, and television actor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_Young
1984 Jerzy Popieuszko, Polish priest, associated with the Solidarity union, murdered by the agents of internal intelligence agency (b. 1947)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Popie%C5%82uszko
1994 Martha Raye, American comedian and actress (b. 1916)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Raye
2003 Margaret Thomas "Mardy" Murie (b 1902) naturalist, author, adventurer, and conservationist. Dubbed the "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement" by both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, she helped in the passage of the Wilderness Act, and was instrumental in creating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was the recipient of the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murie
2004 Lewis Frederick Urry (b 1927) Canadian-American chemical engineer who invented the ubiquitous alkaline batteries and, later, lithium batteries. After a few years working in Canada for the company that made Eveready batteries, he was transferred in 1955 to its Cleveland, Ohio, laboratory where he began work on a new battery with better life-span than the carbon-zinc type of the time. He succeeded by using manganese dioxide, an alkaline electrolyte and powdered zinc (which he realized had greater surface area than solid zinc). A patent was filed 9 Oct 1957, issued 15 Nov 1960, No. 2,960,558. Production began in 1959. Alkaline batteries are estimated to be 80% of all dry cell batteries now sold in the world. The Smithsonian Institution displays his prototype alkaline battery. Urry held over 50 patents.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Frederick_Urry
Christian Feast Day:
Aaron (Coptic Church)
Frideswide
Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, and Companions
October 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Righteous John of Kronstadt, Wonderworker (1908)
Prophet Joel (800 BC)
Martyrs Varus, Cleopatra, her son John, and six monks in Egypt (307)
Hieromartyr Sadoc (Sadoth), Bishop of Persia, and 128 martyrs with him (343)
Saint Leontius the Philosopher of St. Sabbas' Monastery (642)
Blessed Prochorus of Pechenga (Pchinja), Serbia (10th century)
Hieromartyr Felix and Deacon Eusebius
New Monk-martyr Nicholas Dvali of Jerusalem (1314)
St. Gabriel, abbot of St. Elias Skete, Mt. Athos (1901)
New Hieromartyr Alexis Stavrovsky, priest, of Petrograd (1918)
Other commemorations
Translation (1187) of the relics of Venerable John of Rila, abbot in Bulgaria (946)
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akaCG
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_19.htm
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www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct19.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_19
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-at-yorktown
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1019.htm
There are 74 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days left until November 06, 2012 19
Countdown until Obama leaves Office
www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1744 English revivalist George Whitefield, 29, arrived in Maine at the start of his second visit to America. Whitefield struggled to adapt the beliefs of Calvinism to the Arminian teachings of proto-Methodists John and Charles Wesley.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield
1769 Editorial accuses Jefferson of affair with slave. On this day in 1784, an essay appears in the Gazette of the United States in which a writer, mysteriously named "Phocion," slyly attacks presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson. Phocion turned out to be former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The essay typified the nasty, personal nature of political attacks in late 18th-century America.
When the article appeared, Jefferson, a Republican, was running against presidential incumbent John Adams, a Federalist, in an acrimonious campaign. The highly influential Hamilton, also a Federalist, supported Adams over Jefferson, one of Hamilton’s political rivals since the two men served together in George Washington’s first cabinet. According to Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, Hamilton wrote 25 essays under the name Phocion for the Gazette between October 15 and November 24, lambasting Jefferson and Jeffersonian republicanism. On October 19, Hamilton went further, accusing Jefferson of carrying on an affair with one of his slaves.
This would not be the last time such allegations would appear in print. In 1792, publisher James Callendar—then a supporter of Jefferson’s whose paper was secretly funded by Jefferson and his Republican allies--published a report of Alexander Hamilton’s adulterous affair with a colleague’s wife, to which Hamilton later confessed. However, in 1802, when then-President Jefferson snubbed Callendar’s request for a political appointment, Callendar retaliated with an expose on Jefferson’s "concubine." He is believed to have been referring to Sally Hemings, who was part black and also the likely half-sister of Jefferson’s deceased wife, Martha. Further, the article alleged that Sally’s son, John, bore a "striking…resemblance to those of the President himself." Jefferson chose not to respond to the allegations.
Rumors that the widowed Jefferson had an affair with one of his slaves persist to this day and have spawned years of scholarly and scientific research regarding his and Hemings’ alleged progeny. In 2000, a scholarly committee used DNA test results, original documents, oral histories and statistical data to conclude that a member of the Jefferson family had fathered at least one of Hemings’ six children.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson#Jefferson-Hemings_controversy
1781 British surrender at Yorktown. As their band played The World Turned Upside Down, the British Army marched out in formation and surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown. English and Hessian troops, led by British General Lord Cornwallis, surrendered to General George Washington. The war between Britain and its American colonies was effectively ended. The final peace treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown#British_surrender
1789 Chief Justice John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay
1844 - The famous "Lower Great Lakes Storm" occurred. Southwesterly winds were at hurricane force for five hours, driving lake waters into downtown Buffalo NY. The storm drowned 200 persons. (David Ludlum)
www.newportriweather.com/mwd/history/oct/oct19.html
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive an M.D. degree from an American medical school. She worked in clinics in London and Paris for two years, and studied midwifery at La Maternite where she contracted "purulent opthalmia" from a young patient. When Blackwell lost sight in one eye, she returned to New York City in 1851, giving up her dream of becoming a surgeon.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Blackwell
1864 Approximately 25 Confederates make surprise attack on St Albans, VT. Twenty Confederate soldiers attacked the village of St. Albans, Vermont on October 19, 1864. The raid was planned to avenge assaults on Southern cities, to obtain money needed by the Confederacy, and to cause confusion and panic on the Northern border. The raiders robbed three banks of more than $200,000, killed one citizen and wounded two others, stole a number of horses, and tried unsuccessfully to burn down the town. The Confederates, with Vermonters in close pursuit, escaped across the Canadian border. Eventually several were captured and arrested by Canadians.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Albans_Raid
1864 Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroy the Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cedar_Creek
1869 Construction begins on the Sutro Tunnel in Virginia City, Nevada. On this day in 1869, the famous Prussian-born mining engineer, Adolph Sutro, begins work on one of the most ambitious western engineering projects of the day: a four-mile-long tunnel through the solid rock of the Comstock Lode mining district.
One of the richest silver deposits in the world, the Comstock Lode had been discovered by prospectors in 1859, and it quickly became the focus of the most intensive mining activity in the West. But as miners sank shafts ever deeper into the rock in search of more silver and gold, they began to encounter large amounts of water that had to be pumped to the surface at great expense. If only some means could be found to drain the water horizontally, the mining companies would save a fortune.
Adolph Sutro's tunnel was intended to do just that. Sutro-who had already demonstrated his technical brilliance by inventing a new way to extract silver from waste rock-proposed to blast a large horizontal tunnel right through the rock of the neighboring Mt. Davidson and straight into the heart of the Comstock mine. Mine water would thus drain through the tunnel without need for expensive pumps, and the mining companies would also be able to use the tunnel to move men and ore in and out of the mine, greatly reducing transportation costs.
While all involved agreed that technically Sutro's tunnel would be a boon to the Comstock, progress on the project was continually slowed down by resistance from some of the major mining interests who feared that Sutro would use his tunnel to take control of the entire lode. Only after securing European capital was Sutro able to complete the $5-million project in 1878.
Every bit as successful as promised, the Sutro tunnel drained some two million gallons of water from the mines per year and greatly reduced transportation costs. Unfortunately, by 1878, the richer sections of the Comstock Lode had been tapped out, and the mine had begun to steadily decline in profitability. Sutro, though, succeeded in selling his tunnel in 1879 at a fantastic profit. He moved to San Francisco where he became one of the city's largest landowners as well as the city's mayor from 1894 to 1896.
[a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Tunnel"]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Tunnel[/a][/url]
1873 Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_American_football
1904 Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through the superintendence of the American C.A. O'Reilley.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytechnic_University_of_the_Philippines
1917 The Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Love_Field
1933 Berlin Olympic Committee vote to introduce basketball in 1936
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_basketball
1936 HR Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" wins a race around the world. In 1936, H.R. Ekins of the New York World-Telegram beat out Dorothy Kilgallen of the New York Journal and Leo Kieran of The New York Times in a round-the-world race on commercial flights that lasted 18 1/2 days. But the real winner was Kilgallen.During that time she covered her travels with a laptop typewriter. Dorothy made it in a little over 24 days, coming in second to Ekins. This "race" launched her as a celebrity. Every house on her block was decorated with American Flags and her picture. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote to congratulate her. Her reports were put together in book form as Girl Around the World. A song was also written about her: "Hats off to Dorothy".
1937 "Woman’s Day", was first published. Following the 1936 opening of A&P's first supermarket (in Braddock, Pennsylvania), A&P expanded Woman's Day in 1937 through a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Stores Publishing Company. The magazine featured articles on crafts, food preparation and cooking, home decoration, needlework, health and childcare, selling for two cents a copy. Sold exclusively in A&P stores, Woman's Day had a circulation of 3,000,000 by 1944.
1937 The radio classic, "Big Town", made its debut on CBS radio. Big Town was perhaps the most famous series of reporter dramas. It featured the adventures of Steve Wilson, the crusading editor of The Illustrated Press. The show was written by Jerry McGill, an ex-newspaperman, and his reporters were diligent, sober champions of justice, zealously pushing freedom of the press, creating a memorable slogan; "Freedom of the press is a flaming sword! Use is justly--hold it high--guard it well." The shows occasionally attacked juvenile delinquency, racism and drink driving amongst other soapbox related incidents. The cast included Edward G. Robinson and was sponsored by Ironized Yeast, Bayer Aspirin, and Lifebuoy Soap.
1943 Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University.
1944 Marlon Brando appeared in the Broadway hit, "I Remember Mama" I Remember Mama is a 1944 John Van Druten play, based on the memoir Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes. The plot focuses on a loving family of Norwegian immigrants living in San Francisco in the 1910s.
1944 United States forces land in the Philippines.
1951 President Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany. Truman stated on the 24th that it had always been America's hope to create a treaty of peace with the government of a united and free Germany, but that Soviet policy had "made it impossible." The official end to the war came 10 years and two months after Congress had declared open war with Nazi Germany on December 11, 1941.
1953 First jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service. TWA introduced the Lockheed L.1049 Super Constellation on September 10, 1952. The new aircraft had a 35 percent greater passenger carrying capacity than its predecessor. TWA was the first airline to inaugurate regularly scheduled nonstop transcontinental service between Los Angeles and New York on October 19, 1953.
1953 Ray Bradbury's novel, "Fahrenheit 451" was copyright registered. "Fahrenheit 451" is a novel where censorship is banned and critical thought is suppressed; the central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this case, means "book burner"). 451 degrees Fahrenheit (about 233oC) is stated as "the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns ...". It was originally published as a shorter novella, The Fireman, in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.
1953 Singer Julius LaRosa is fired on TV by Arthur Godfrey. On the morning of October 19, after La Rosa had finished singing "Manhattan" on Arthur Godfrey Time, Godfrey fired him on the air, announcing, "that was Julie's swan song with us." Unaware the firing was coming (or what the phrase "swan song" meant), La Rosa tearfully met with Godfrey after the broadcast and thanked him for giving him his "break." La Rosa was then met at Godfrey's offices by his lawyer, manager and some reporters. The singer claimed he was "bewildered" by the events, but Rockwell was highly critical of Godfrey's behavior, angrily citing LaRosa's public humiliation.
1957 "Wake Up Little Suzie" by the Everly Brothers topped the charts. "Wake Up Little Susie" was written by the husband and wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote most of The Everly Brothers songs in the '50s. Their songs were also recorded by Bob Dylan, Elvis, and Buddy Holly. It is about a young couple who fall asleep at the drive-in, realize they are out past curfew, and make up a story to tell Susie's parents. Chet Atkins played guitar on this.
1958 The first Cold War World's Fair closes. In Brussels, Belgium, the first world's fair held since before World War II closes its doors, after nearly 42 million people have visited the various exhibits. Officially called the Brussels Universal and International Exhibition, the fair's overall theme was "A World View, A New Humanism." As such, the fair was supposed to celebrate the universality of the human condition and encourage dialogue and peaceful relations among the nations of a world only recently torn asunder by war, and now caught in the clutches of the Cold War.
Officials in the United States, however, saw the fair as something quite different: An opportunity to promote America's particular "world view," and to meet the Soviets head-on in the continuing propaganda battle for the "hearts and minds" of the world's people. The fair, therefore, became a showplace for the American and Soviet ways of life, and their exhibition halls became the headquarters for this battle. The adversarial context was accentuated by the fact that the U.S. and Soviet exhibition halls were located directly across from one another.The Soviet exhibit centered on the technological and scientific accomplishments of the communist state. A replica of Sputnik I, the unmanned satellite put into orbit by the Soviets in 1957, was the centerpiece of the imposing exhibition hall. The United States decided on a different tack, and focused on the everyday life of Americans. Mock voting booths were set up; beautiful women showed off the latest fashions; home furnishings and appliances were in abundance; and a typical American "Main Street" was constructed. It probably came as something of a shock to both U.S. and Soviet officials when Czechoslovakia won first place for best exhibition hall.
1959 Twelve year old Patty Duke made her first Broadway appearance. After re-writes, "The Miracle Worker" opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on October 19, 1959, starring Anne Bancroft as teacher, Annie Sullivan, Patricia Neal as Helen's mother, Kate Keller, and Patty Duke as Helen Keller, the blind-deaf child. The show became one of the most electrifying theatrical events of the 1959-1960 season. It went on to win six Tony Awards, including best play.
1960 Martin Luther King Jr arrested in Atlanta sit-in
In October 1960, King's arrest during a student-initiated protest in Atlanta became an issue in the national presidential campaign when Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy intervened to secure his release from jail. Kennedy's action contributed to his narrow victory in the November election.
1960 The US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba. In July 1960, in response to the nationalizations and expropriations by the Castro government, the United States reduced the Cuban import quota of sugar by 700,000 tons; the Soviet Union responded by agreeing to purchase the sugar instead, and further Cuban expropriations followed. A partial economic embargo was imposed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 19, 1960, and diplomatic relations were broken on January 3, 1961-two years after Castro's rise to power.
1961 - Rain changed to a record early season, heavy wet snow over the southern mountains of West Virginia. Leaves were still on trees, resulting in the worst forest disaster since the fires of 1952 and 1953. One to two feet of snow fell near Summersville and Richwood. (19th-20th) (The Weather Channel)
1963 "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs topped the charts.
1968 "Hey Jude" by the Beatles topped the charts. Paul McCartney wrote this as "Hey Jules," a song meant to comfort John Lennon's son Julian as his parents were getting a divorce. The change to "Jude" was inspired by the character "Jud" in the musical Oklahoma!. This is the most commercially successful Beatles song. It was #1 in at least 12 countries and by the end of 1968 had sold more than 5 million copies. It was going to be the B-side to "Revolution," but it ended up the other way around. It is a testament to this song that it pushed "Revolution" to the other side of the record.
1970 One World Trade Center was ready for its first tenants. Construction began in 1966 and cost an estimated $1.5 billion. One World Trade Center was ready for its first tenants in late 1970, though the upper stories were not completed until 1972; Two World Trade Center was finished in 1973. When complete, the Center met with mixed reviews, but at 1,368 and 1,362 feet and 110 stories each, the twin towers were the world's tallest, and largest, buildings until the Sears Tower surpassed them both in 1974.
1973 President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_tapes
1973 A US Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and belatedly credited physicist John Atanasoff with developing the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or the ABC. Built in 1937-42 at Iowa State University by Atanadoff and a graduate student, Clifford Berry, it introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits. These ideas were communicated from Atanasoff to John Mauchly, who used them in the design of the better-known ENIAC built and patented several years later.
1984 - Thunderstorms deluged the town of Odem, TX (located 15 miles northwest of Corpus Christi) with 25 inches of rain in just three and a half hours. Most businesses in Odem were flooded, as were 1000 homes in nearby Sinton. (The Weather Channel)
1987 In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran's offshore oil platforms.
1987 "Black Monday" occurred on Wall Street as stocks plunged a record 508 points or 22.6 per cent, the largest one-day drop in stock market history
1987 - A cold front brought rainshowers to parts of the central U.S., and ushered cool Canadian air into the Great Plains Region. Daytime highs were only in the 30s in North Dakota and eastern Montana. (The National Weather Summary)
1988 - Thunderstorms produced high winds in eastern Colorado, with gusts to 63 mph reported at La Junta. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)
1988 Senate passes bill curbing ads during children`s TV shows
1989 - Record breaking snows fell across northern and central Indiana. Totals ranged up to 10.5 inches at Kokomo, and 9.3 inches was reported at Indianapolis. The 8.8 inch total at South Bend was a record for the month as a whole. Up to seven inches of snow fell in extreme southern Lower Michigan, and up to six inches fell in southwestern Ohio. The heavy wet snow downed many trees and power lines. Half the city of Cincinnati OH was without electricity during the morning hours. Temperatures dipped below freezing across much of the Great Plains Region. Twenty cities, including fourteen in Texas, reported record low temperatures for the date. North Platte NE reported a record low of 11 degrees. In Florida, four cities reported record high temperatures for the date. The record high of 92 degrees at Miami also marked a record fourteen days of 90 degree weather in October, and 116 such days for the year. (The National Weather Summary)
1991 Fire sweeps through Oakland hills. On this day in 1991, a fire begins in the hills of Oakland, California. It went on to burn thousands of homes and kill 25 people. Despite the fact that fires had ravaged the same area three times earlier in the century, people continued to build homes there.
Fires had previously raged through the hills in 1923, 1970 and 1980. Each time, the fires occurred during autumn in a year with relatively little precipitation, and, each time, the residents rebuilt and moved back in as soon as possible. The deadly 1991 fire can be traced to a small fire at 7151 Buckingham Boulevard on October 18. Firefighters responded quickly and thought they had brought the blaze under control. However, heat from the fire had caused pine needles to fall from the trees and cover the ground.
When highly flammable debris, also known as "duff," accumulates on the ground, fires can smolder unseen. At 10:45 a.m. on October 19, strong winds blew one of these unseen fires up a hillside; changing wind patterns then caused it to spread in different directions.
The winds were so intense and the area was so dry that within an hour close to 800 buildings were on fire. The wind then blew southwest, pushing the fire toward San Francisco Bay. In some places, the temperature reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it virtually impossible to fight the fire effectively. Homeowners attempted to hose down their roofs, but were often thwarted when water pipes burst from the fire. Also, many homes had wooden shingle roofs that were particularly susceptible to fire—it took only 10 minutes in some cases for a house to be brought down by the flames.
Firefighting efforts were constrained by the fact that the affected homes were located on steep hills with very narrow streets. This made it difficult to maintain radio communications and to move large fire engines close to the flames. The fire spread so rapidly that firefighters were unable to establish a perimeter. When the fire was finally contained the following day, 25 people had lost their lives, 150 people were injured and 3,000 homes and 1,500 acres had been consumed. The total tally of damages was $1.5 billion.
In the aftermath, authorities attempted to reduce the likelihood of a similar fire breaking out the in the future. Laws were changed regarding the maximum height of trees permitted and the type of vegetation that was allowable in the area. In addition, most homes that have been rebuilt do not have wooden roofs.
2003 Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II. Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997), born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
2005 Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
2005 Hurricane Wilma becomes the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum pressure of 882 mb.
Births
1720 John Woolman (d 1772) in Rancocas, New Jersey, itinerant Quaker preacher, traveling throughout the American colonies, advocating against conscription, military taxation, and particularly slavery.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woolman
1784 John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, (d 1857) chief factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1840s his general store in Oregon City was famous as the last stop on the Oregon Trail.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLoughlin
1810 Cassius Marcellus Clay (d 1903), nicknamed "The Lion of White Hall", was an emancipationist from Madison County, Kentucky, United States. He was a cousin of Henry Clay and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassius_Marcellus_Clay_(politician)
1850 Annie Smith Peck, American mountaineer (d. 1935)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Smith_Peck
1856 Edmund Beecher Wilson (d 1939) American biologist known for his researches in embryology and cytology. His first experimental studies, in embryology, led him to investigations at the cellular level. His principal work was on the function of the cell in heredity and showed the chromosomal basis of sex determination in the embryo (1905). Wilson concluded that females have XX chromosomes, while males possess XY chromosomes. Following the process of meiosis, all eggs are left with an X chromosome, but sperm can have either X or Y. If an X chromosome sperm fertilizes an egg, the result is a female. If a Y chromosome sperm fertilizes and egg, the result is a male. He was the first scientist to publish photographs illustrating how a cell divides.
1868 Bertha Knight Landes (d 1943) first female mayor of a major American city. Landes served as mayor of Seattle, Washington from 1926 to 1928. She was born in Ware, Massachusetts to Charles Sanford Knight and Cordelia Cutter. Her father, a veteran of the Union Army, moved the family to Worchester in 1873. She attended Indiana University, where she received a degree in history and political science in 1891. After three years of teaching at the Classical High School in Worcester, Massachusetts, she married geologist Henry Landes, with whom she had two children and adopted one. She and her family later moved to Seattle.
1871 Walter Bradford Cannon (d 1945) American neurologist and physiologist who was the first to use X-rays in physiological studies. These led to his publication of The Mechanical Factors of Digestion (1911). He investigated hemorrhagic and traumatic shock during WW I. He devised the term homeostasis (1930) for how the body maintains its temperature. He worked on methods of blood storage and discovered sympathin (1931), an adrenaline-like substance that is liberated at the tips of certain nerve cells. He died from leukemia - probably a legacy from his early work with X rays He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 1920 for his work on digestion, but his claim was ruled out as "too old." In 1934, 1935, and 1936 he was adjudged "prizeworthy" by the appropriate Nobel jurors but was not given a prize.
1873 John Barton "Bart" King (d 1965) American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. King was one of the Philadelphian cricketers that played from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I. This period of cricket in the United States was dominated by gentleman players—men of independent wealth who did not need to work. King was an amateur from a middle-class family, who was able to devote time to cricket thanks to a job set up by his teammates.
1876 Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed "Three Finger" or "Miner", American Major League Baseball pitcher at the turn of the 20th century. Due to a farm-machinery accident in his youth, Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand and eventually acquired his nickname as a result. Overcoming this handicap and turning it to his advantage, he became one of the elite pitchers of his era. He was known primarily for his awesome curveball, which broke radically before reaching the plate. Brown was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.
1885 Charles Edward Merrill (d 1956) American philanthropist, stockbroker and co-founder of Merrill Lynch & Company (previously called Charles E. Merrill & Co.).
1885 Lewis Mumford (d 1990) American historian and philosopher of technology and science. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a tremendously broad career as a writer that also included a period as an influential literary critic.
1895 Frank J. Durbin (d 1999) one of the last surviving American veterans of the First World War. Durbin was born in New Hampshire. By 1915, at age 20, he joined the United States Army. The next year, he was sent over to Verdun, and served with the American and French armies at the Battle of Verdun. Over there, Durbin hauled artillery over the front lines. He stayed in the service, guarded the Mexican border in the 1920s and served in The Second World War as well. After service, he worked for General Motors. By 1963, at age 68, he moved to Florida, and stayed there for the rest of his life. He died in Winter Haven at age 103.
1901 Admiral Arleigh Albert '31-knot' Burke (October 19, 1901 – January 1, 1996) was an admiral of the United States Navy who distinguished himself during World War II and the Korean War, and who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower administration.
1907 Roger Wolfe Kahn (d 1962) American jazz and popular musician, composer, and bandleader ("Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra").
1910 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (d 1995) Indian-born American astrophysicist who (with William A.Fowler) won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for formulating the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars. He was one of the first scientists to combine the disciplines of physics and astronomy. Early in his career he demonstrated that there is an upper limit, now called the Chandrasekhar limit, to the mass of a white dwarf star. A white dwarf is the last stage in the evolution of a star such as the Sun. When the nuclear energy source in the center of a star such as the Sun is exhausted, it collapses to form a white dwarf. Further, it shows that stars much more massive than the Sun must either explode or form black holes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar
1921 Bill Bright, American youth evangelist. Bill and his wife Vonette founded Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951, incorporating this evangelical Christian student organization in California in 1953.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bright
1922 Jack Northman Anderson (b 2005) American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret American policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson_(columnist)
1926 Joel Feinberg (d 2004) American political and social philosopher. He is known for his work in the fields of individual rights and the authority of the state. Feinberg helped in shaping the American legal landscape.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Feinberg
1936 Johnetta Cole Anthropologist and educator who was the first African-American woman president of Spelman College, in Atlanta, the oldest, private, liberal arts college for black women in the U.S. (1988). While president of Spelman, she taught one course per term in addition to her other academic responsibilities. Her interest in anthropology was sparked in part because it was new and unfamiliar, and a most unusual professional aspiration for an African-American woman during the 1950s. In 1960-62, she worked together with her new husband in Liberia, where they worked together on research for their respective dissertations. He conducted economic surveys and she engaged in fieldwork in the villages and towns of that West African nation.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnetta_B._Cole
1958 Michael Stephen Steele American politician, serving since January 2009 as the first African American chairman of the Republican National Committee. From 2003 to 2007, he was the seventh Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland. During his time as Lieutenant Governor, he chaired the Minority Business Enterprise taskforce, actively promoting an expansion of affirmative action in the corporate world
1962 Evander Holyfield, American boxer
Deaths
1747 David Brainerd, missionary among American Indians, died at Northampton, Massachusetts (b. 20 Apr 1718).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brainerd
1790 Lyman Hall (b 1724, physician, clergyman, and statesman, was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia. Hall County is named after him.
1848 Samuel Guthrie (b 1782) American physician and chemist who independently discovered chloroform and invented the percussion priming powder for firearms, which superseded flints. He performed experiments in a laboratory near his house, and had a mill about a mile away for manufacturing large quantities of this powder and other explosives (e.g., potassium chlorate and mercury fulminate). In 1830 he devised a process that rapidly converted potato starch into molasses. He made chloroform in 1831 by distilling chloride of lime with alcohol in a copper vessel, prior to the independent discoveries of Soubeiran (France,1831) and Liebig (Germany, 1832), and used it during amputation surgery in his hometown of Sackets Harbor, N.Y.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Guthrie_(physician)
1856 William Sprague, also known as William III or William Sprague III (b 1799), politician and industrialist from the U.S. state of Rhode Island, serving as Governor, U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator. He was the uncle of William Sprague IV, also a Governor and Senator from Rhode Island.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sprague_(Rhode_Island,_1799%E2%80%931856)
1893 Lucy Stone (b 1818) American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1839, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged and prevented from public speaking. Stone was the first recorded American woman to retain her own last name after marriage.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Stone
1897 George Mortimer Pullman (b 1831) American inventor and industrialist. He is known as the inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, and for violently suppressing striking workers in the company town he created, Pullman (which was later annexed and absorbed by Chicago becoming a neighborhood).
1902 William O. Cushing (b. 31 Dec 1823), American Christian clergyman and hymn writer.
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/u/s/cushing_wo.htm
1950 Edna St. Vincent Millay (b 1892) American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She was the second woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work. Poet Richard Wilbur asserts: "She wrote some of the best sonnets of the century."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay
1956 Isham Jones (b 1894) United States bandleader, saxophonist, bassist and songwriter. (music to It Had to Be You)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isham_Jones
1972 Philip Drinker (b 1894) American engineer whose invention of the Iron Lung was a negative pressure ventilator that provided external respiration support. From its first use on 12 Oct 1928 to the 1950's, the iron lung was a vital technology to maintain life especially in cases of muscle paralysis caused by the poliomyelitis disease that was prevalent in that era. Victims of polio partially or totally lost their ability to breathe for themselves. A polio patient's entire body below the neck lay sealed in a metal chamber wherein pressure was increased and decreased by an air pump. Its cycle caused the lungs to expel and inhale air and mimic a normal breathing rate.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Drinker
1978 Gig Young (b 1913) American film, stage, and television actor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_Young
1984 Jerzy Popieuszko, Polish priest, associated with the Solidarity union, murdered by the agents of internal intelligence agency (b. 1947)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Popie%C5%82uszko
1994 Martha Raye, American comedian and actress (b. 1916)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Raye
2003 Margaret Thomas "Mardy" Murie (b 1902) naturalist, author, adventurer, and conservationist. Dubbed the "Grandmother of the Conservation Movement" by both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society, she helped in the passage of the Wilderness Act, and was instrumental in creating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She was the recipient of the Audubon Medal, the John Muir Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor awarded by the United States.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Murie
2004 Lewis Frederick Urry (b 1927) Canadian-American chemical engineer who invented the ubiquitous alkaline batteries and, later, lithium batteries. After a few years working in Canada for the company that made Eveready batteries, he was transferred in 1955 to its Cleveland, Ohio, laboratory where he began work on a new battery with better life-span than the carbon-zinc type of the time. He succeeded by using manganese dioxide, an alkaline electrolyte and powdered zinc (which he realized had greater surface area than solid zinc). A patent was filed 9 Oct 1957, issued 15 Nov 1960, No. 2,960,558. Production began in 1959. Alkaline batteries are estimated to be 80% of all dry cell batteries now sold in the world. The Smithsonian Institution displays his prototype alkaline battery. Urry held over 50 patents.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Frederick_Urry
Christian Feast Day:
Aaron (Coptic Church)
Frideswide
Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, and Companions
October 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Righteous John of Kronstadt, Wonderworker (1908)
Prophet Joel (800 BC)
Martyrs Varus, Cleopatra, her son John, and six monks in Egypt (307)
Hieromartyr Sadoc (Sadoth), Bishop of Persia, and 128 martyrs with him (343)
Saint Leontius the Philosopher of St. Sabbas' Monastery (642)
Blessed Prochorus of Pechenga (Pchinja), Serbia (10th century)
Hieromartyr Felix and Deacon Eusebius
New Monk-martyr Nicholas Dvali of Jerusalem (1314)
St. Gabriel, abbot of St. Elias Skete, Mt. Athos (1901)
New Hieromartyr Alexis Stavrovsky, priest, of Petrograd (1918)
Other commemorations
Translation (1187) of the relics of Venerable John of Rila, abbot in Bulgaria (946)
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akaCG
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_19.htm
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct19.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_19
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-at-yorktown
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1019.htm