Post by farmgal on Oct 19, 2012 18:40:16 GMT -5
October 20 is the 293rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 73 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days left until November 06, 2012 18
Countdown until Obama leaves Office
www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1518 Martin Luther fled from Augsburg on threat of arrest by Thomas Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cardinal_Cajetan
1548 The city of Nuestra Senora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace) was founded by Captain Alonso de Mendoza by appointment of the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_La_Paz#History
1770 - An exceedingly great storm struck eastern New England causing extensive coastal damage from Massachusetts to Maine, and the highest tide in 47 years. (David Ludlum)
1774 All forms of entertainment and theatre cease in the Colonies. The new Continental Congress, the governing body of America's colonies, passed an order proclaiming that all citizens of the colonies "discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions and entertainment." Since this proclamation included acting, dancing, singing, and the playing of music, all forms of entertainment and all theatre productions ceased.
1803 US Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The agreement, which provided for the purchase of the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France at a price of less than three cents per acre, doubled the size of the country and paved the way for westward expansion beyond the Mississippi.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Treaty
1811 Fulton’s steamboat (designed by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston), "New Orleans", built in Pittsburgh, sailed to New Orleans. The New Orleans had a passenger and freight route on the lower Mississippi River. By 1814, Robert Fulton together with Edward Livingston (the brother of Robert Livingston), were offering regular steamboat and freight service between New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. Their boats traveled at the rates of eight miles per hour downstream and three miles per hour upstream.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_(steamboat)
1817 First Mississippi showboat leaves Nashville on maiden voyage
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showboat
1818 The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length. (end of 54'40" or fight)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_1818
1870 The First Vatican Council, which decreed papal infallibility under Pope Pius IX, closed. It had opened on 8 December 1869.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Vatican_Council
1873 Showman Phineus T. Barnum’s Hippodrome opens in NYC. The impressive place was the new home of "The Greatest Show on Earth"; the big top of what would be the greatest circus in the land.
1904 The song "Yankee Doodle Boy" was copyright registered. It was a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan. The play opened at the Liberty Theater on November 7, 1904.
1906 Dr. Lee DeForest (1873 - 1961), one of the "fathers of radio," announced his three-element electrical vacuum tube (now known as a triode) to a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers He had discovered that when a mesh, or grid, of wire was placed between the filament and collector "plate" in a diode tube (first made by J. Ambrose Fleming, 1904), a large voltage-amplifying effect could be produced. DeForest patented this vacuum tube on 15 Jan 1907. The ability of this tube to amplifiy weak signals was an invention as great as radio itself, because it made long-distance communication possible.
1910 First appearance of cork centered baseball in World Series. The A's dispose of Ed Reulbach in two innings, then pin the loss on reliever Harry McIntire, who lasts a third of a inning. Coombs coasts on one day's rest, 12-5, and helps himself with three hits. Cubs manager Frank Chance becomes the first player ejected from a World Series game when umpire Tom Connolly chases him for protesting a Danny Murphy home run drive against a sign over the RF bleachers. Chance opines too loudly that it should be a ground-rule double.
1925 The compotype was patented by its inventor, Clifton Chisholm of Cleveland, Ohio, as an "Embossing Machine" (U.S. No. 1,557,754). The keyboard-controlled machine embossed one line of characters on an aluminum strip with flanged edges. These could be arranged in a holder for several strips in parallel from which several lines of printed material could be produced. Blanks came from a ribbon of metal on a roll, automatically flanged to give a mounting channel shape, and fed between embossing dies. Each character was also printed on a record card, visible during operation. The machine was designed to provide an efficient mechanism for the rapid production of the embossed strips. The patent was assigned to the Multigraph Sales Co. of the same city.
1930 The "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" premiered on the NBC Radio Network. The early scripts followed Sir Arthur Conan Doyles canon, with such short stories as The Speckled Band, A Scandal in Boheia, The Red- Headed League, The Copper Beaches, and The Bascombe Valley. No audiences were allowed during the early broadcasts. William Gillette played the lead for the first episode.
1939 "All the Things You Are" was recorded by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra -- for the Victor label.
1941 World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
1944 US forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines. On October 20, 1944, the U.S. Sixth Army, supported by naval and air bombardment, landed on the favorable eastern shore of Leyte, one of the three large Philippine Islands, north of Mindanao. The miscalculated the relative strength of forces and attempted to destroy the landing through a major sea battle in Leyte Gulf, fought on 23-26 October. The decisive naval battle nearly eliminated Japan as a major sea power and only encouraged the invasion of Leyte.
1944 Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130. Two liquid gas tanks explode in Cleveland, Ohio, killing 130 people, on this day in 1944. It took all of the city's firefighters to bring the resulting industrial fire under control.
At 2:30 p.m., laboratory workers at the East Ohio Gas Company spotted white vapor leaking from the large natural gas tank at the company plant near Lake Erie. The circular tank had a diameter of 57 feet and could hold 90 million cubic feet of the highly flammable gas. Ten minutes later, a massive and violent explosion rocked the entire area. Flames went as high as 2,500 feet in the air. Everything in a half-mile vicinity of the explosion was completely destroyed.
Shortly afterwards, a smaller tank also exploded. The resulting out-of-control fire necessitated the evacuation of 10,000 people from the surrounding area. Every firefighting unit in Cleveland converged on the East Ohio Gas site. It still took nearly an entire day to bring the fire under control. When the flames went out, rescue workers found that 130 people had been killed by the blast and nearly half of the bodies were so badly burned that they could not be identified. Two hundred and fifteen people were injured and required hospitalization.
The explosion had destroyed two entire factories, 79 homes in the surrounding area and more than 200 vehicles. The total bill for damages exceeded $10 million. The cause of the blast had to do with the contraction of the metal tanks: The gas was stored at temperatures below negative 250 degrees and the resulting contraction of the metal had caused a steel plate to rupture.
Newer and safer techniques for storing gas and building tanks were developed in the wake of this disaster.
1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years. On October 20, 1947, the notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in Washington, as a Congressional committee begins investigating Communist influence in one of the world's richest and most glamorous communities: Hollywood.
After World War II, the Cold War began to heat up between the world's two superpowers—the United States and the communist-controlled Soviet Union. In Washington, conservative watchdogs worked to out communists in government before setting their sights on alleged "Reds" in the famously liberal movie industry. In an investigation that began in October 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) grilled a number of prominent witnesses, asking bluntly "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" Whether out of patriotism or fear, some witnesses—including director Elia Kazan, actors Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor and studio honchos Walt Disney and Jack Warner—gave the committee names of colleagues they suspected of being communists.
A small group known as the "Hollywood Ten" resisted, complaining that the hearings were illegal and violated their First Amendment rights. They were all convicted of obstructing the investigation and served jail terms. Pressured by Congress, the Hollywood establishment started a blacklist policy, banning the work of about 325 screenwriters, actors and directors who had not been cleared by the committee. Those blacklisted included composer Aaron Copland, writers Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker, playwright Arthur Miller and actor and filmmaker Orson Welles.
Some of the blacklisted writers used pseudonyms to continue working, while others wrote scripts that were credited to other writer friends. Starting in the early 1960s, after the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the most public face of anti-communism, the ban began to lift slowly. In 1997, the Writers' Guild of America unanimously voted to change the writing credits of 23 films made during the blacklist period, reversing—but not erasing—some of the damage done during the Red Scare.
1947 The radio rights to the World Series were sold for three years for $475,000.
1947 United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
1951 "Because of You" by Tony Bennett topped the charts. Bennett got a break when Bob Hope saw him performing with Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village and put him into his stage show, also suggesting a name change to Tony Bennett. In 1950, Columbia Records A&R director Mitch Miller heard his demonstration recording of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and signed him to the label. Bennett's first hit, "Because of You," topped the charts in September 1951, succeeded at number one by his cover of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart." Following another five chart entries over the next two years, he returned to number one in November 1953 with "Rags to Riches."
1951 The "Johnny Bright Incident" was a violent on-field assault against African-American player Johnny Bright by White American player Wilbanks Smith during an American college football game held on October 20, 1951 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The game was significant in itself as it marked the first time that an African American athlete with a national profile and of critical importance to the success of his Drake University team had played against Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) on their home field. Bright's injury also highlighted the racial tensions of the times and assumed notoriety when it was captured in what was later to become both a widely disseminated and eventually Pulitzer Prize winning photo sequence. The event later came to be known as the "Johnny Bright Incident".
1955 "No Time for Sergeants" opened on Broadway starring Andy Griffith. Ira Levin adapted Hyman's novel for a play which originally appeared as an episode on The United States Steel Hour television series in March 1955, starring Andy Griffith as Will Stockdale and Myron McCormick as his nemesis Sergeant Orville King. The play then opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on October 20, 1955, produced by Maurice Evans and directed by Morton DaCosta. Griffith and McCormick again starred, and Don Knotts made his Broadway debut as Corporal Manual Dexterity.
1955 "Day-O!" by Harry Belafonte hits was recorded for RCA Victor. In 1956, Belafonte issued two RCA albums: Belafonte, and Calypso. To call the LP popular would be the understatement of the century; each effort crested the pop charts and remained there, the latter album for well over seven months. As a result, calypso music, typified by the twin hits "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jamaica Farewell," became a national phenomenon.
1956 Dr. Hannes Lindemann began his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat (17 feet). Lindemann, a German physician on a U.S. Air Force base in Morocco. He wrote a book Alone at Sea, about his two journeys across the Atlantic Ocean. Battling thirst, hunger, mental disorientation, hallucinations, lack of sleep, and shark encounters, Lindemann succesfully sailed alone across the Atlantic in 1956 in 76 days in a Klepper foldboat double seat Aerius to which he added an outrigger and mizzensail. Leaving Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, he reached St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands just after Christmas. His prior crossing was in a 23-foot African dugout canoe in 1955. Alfred Johnson made the first solo Atlantic crossing in 1876.
1957 Walter Cronkite hosted the documentary "The 20th Century." From the one-hour premiere episode "Churchill, Man of the Century" to its last episode The 20th Century unit produced 112 half-hour historical compilation films and 107 half-hour "originally photographed documentaries" or contemporary documentaries. Narrated by Walter Cronkite, the series achieved critical praise, a substantial audience, and a dedicated sponsor, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, primarily with its historical compilation films. The compilation documentaries combined actuality footage from disparate archival sources--national and international, public and private--with testimony from eyewitnesses, to represent history.
1960 First fully mechanized post office opened, Providence, RI
1962 "Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett & the Crypt Kickers topped the charts. Pickett took the song to Gary Paxton, who was lead singer of The Hollywood Argyles, who had the hit "Alley Oop." They recorded the song Paxton and studio musicians Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae and Rickie Page, who were credited as "The Cryptkickers." The "Mash" in the song was inspired by the "Mashed Potato" dance craze. This being 1962, many of the sound effects had to be created in the studio. The coffin opening was a nail being pulled from a board; other noises were made by blowing bubbles through a straw and dropping chains on the floor.
1963 Jim Brown sets NFL single-season rushing record, 1,863 yds. Brown departed as the NFL record holder for both single-season (1,863 in 1963) and career rushing of 12,312 yards, as well as the all-time leader in rushing touchdowns (106) and total touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549). He was the first player ever to reach the 100 rushing touchdowns milestone.
1968 Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.
1968 Fosbury flops to an Olympic record On October 20, 1968, 21-year-old Oregonian Dick Fosbury wins gold—and sets an Olympic record—when he high-jumps 7 feet 4 1/4 inches at the Mexico City Games. It was the first American victory in the event since 1956. It was also the international debut of Fosbury’s unique jumping style, known as the "Fosbury Flop."
The Flop, according to one journalist, "looked like a guy falling off the back of a truck." Instead of the traditional scissors- or straddle-style forward kick over the bar, it featured a midair rotation so that the jumper landed back-of-the-head-first on the mat. Fosbury described it this way: "I take off on my right, or outside, foot rather than my left foot. Then I turn my back to the bar, arch my back over the bar and then kick my legs out to clear the bar." It looked odd, but it worked better than any other technique.
Fosbury had invented his Flop in high school, when he discovered that, though he was terrible at the scissors-kick, the straddle and the belly-roll, if he stretched out on his back and landed headfirst, he could jump higher than anyone on his high-school track team. "The advantage," he said, "from a physics standpoint is, it allows the jumper to run at the bar with more speed and, with the arch in your back, you could actually clear the bar and keep your center of gravity at or below the bar, so it was much more efficient." At Oregon State University, he used the Flop to win the 1968 NCAA title and the Olympic Trials.
"I think quite a few kids will begin trying it my way now," he said when the Games were over. "I don’t guarantee my results, and I don’t recommend my style to anyone. All I say is if a kid can’t straddle, he can try it my way." And indeed, kids everywhere began to practice the Flop over the backs of their sofas and into piles of leaves in the yard. Parents and coaches worried that Fosbury’s technique was dangerous—U.S. Olympic Coach Pat Jordan even warned that it would "wipe out an entire generation of high jumpers because they will all have broken necks"—but the Flop soon became standard practice at track meets. Within a decade, almost every elite high-jumper was doing it Fosbury’s way. Since 1980, no one using any other technique has held the world record.
1970 American agricultural pioneer Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the "green revolution" that increased grain production throughout the Third World by perfecting and introducing new strains of wheat and rice crops. Subsequently, he conceived the World Food Prize, awarded each fall for improving the world's food supply or access to it. In this way he made possible the wide recognition of others in the field.
1973 OPEC oil embargo begins
1973 Saturday Night Massacre in Washington, DC. The Saturday Night Massacre occurred during the Watergate scandal as President Richard M. Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned.
1973 President Nixon proclaims Jim Thorpe greatest athlete of 20th century.
1976 NY Nets Julius "Dr J" Erving sold to the Philadelphia 76ers
1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.
1977 – A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot.
1979 John F Kennedy Library dedicated in Boston.
1983 The length of the meter was redefined by the international body Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures (GCPM) by a method to give greater accuracy. Originally based on one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator, the meter was re-established as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
1983 - Remnants of Pacific Hurricane Tico caused extensive flooding in central and south central Oklahoma. Oklahoma City set daily rainfall records with 1.45 inch on the 19th, and 6.28 inches on the 20th. (17th-21st) (The Weather Channel)
1984 "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder topped the charts.
1984 The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened, the largest artificial environment for marine life, built on Cannery Row on the site of the old Hovden sardine cannery, with a $40 million grant from David Packard of Hewlett Packard, and housing 6500 marine animals from at least 525 species displayed on a grand scale. The idea for an aquarium devoted to showcasing Monterey Bay habitats came in 1977 from a group of four marine biologists at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. Currently, the aquarium has an active research program, with groups working on sea otter conservation and tuna conservation biology and a sister institution, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which conducts deep-sea research in the vast Monterey submarine canyon.
1987 - Cold arctic air invaded the Upper Midwest, and squalls in the Lake Superior snowbelt produced heavy snow in eastern Ashland County and northern Iron County of Wisconsin. Totals ranged up to 18 inches at Mellen. In the western U.S., the record high of 69 degrees at Seattle WA was their twenty-fifth of the year, their highest number of record highs for any given year. Bakersfield CA reported a record 146 days in a row with daily highs 80 degrees or above. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 - Unseasonably warm weather continued in the western U.S. In California, afternoon highs of 96 degrees at Redding and Red Bluff were records for the date. (The National Weather Summary)
1989 - Forty-nine cities reported record low temperatures for the date as readings dipped into the 20s and 30s across much of the south central and southeastern U.S. Lows of 32 degrees at Lake Charles LA and 42 degrees at Lakeland FL were records for October, and Little Rock AR reported their earliest freeze of record. Snow blanketed the higher elevations of Georgia and the Carolinas. Melbourne FL dipped to 47 degrees shortly before midnight to surpass the record low established that morning. Showers and thunderstorms brought heavy rain to parts of the northeastern U.S. Autumn leaves on the ground clogged drains and ditches causing flooding. Up to 4.10 inches of rain soaked southern Vermont in three days. Flood waters washed 600 feet of railroad track, resulting in a train derailment. (The National Weather Summary)(Storm Data)
2004 Scientists of the Human Genome Project reported a new estimate of human genes at 20k to 25k
2011 The former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and his son Mutassim Gaddafi are killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte while in the custody of NTC fighters.
Births
1711 Timothy Ruggles (d 1795) American military leader, jurist and politician. He was a delegate to the first Stamp Act congress of 1765.
1759 Chauncey Goodrich (d 1815) was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut who represented that state in the United States Congress as both a senator and a representative.
1812 Austin Flint (d 1886) American physician who was an eminent doctor and pioneer of heart research in the United States during the nineteenth century. In 1847, he founded Buffalo Medical College and taught at several medical schools. Flint was an authority on pulmonary and respiratory diseases, and popularized the use of the binaural stethoscope. The Austin Flint murmur is a heart disorder he described in 1862 in which blood from the aorta is regurgitated into the heart before contraction of the ventricles. The best known of his numerous textbooks is Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Medicine (1866).
1828 Horatio Gates Spafford (Troy, New York – d 16 Oct 1888, Jerusalem) was a prominent American lawyer, best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul, following a family tragedy in which four of his daughters died.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Spafford
1828 Horatio Gates Spafford, American lawyer In 1873, upon learning of the drowning of his four daughters following a ship collision in the Atlantic, Spafford penned the lines to the hymn, "It is Well With My Soul." (d 1888)
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/p/a/spafford_hg.htm
1853 Rudolph Kittel, in Wuerttemberg, Old Testament scholar, Germany (d 1929).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Kittel
1859 John Dewey (d 1952) American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
1864 James Fielding Hinkle (d 1951) American politician and the sixth Governor of New Mexico.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fielding_Hinkle
1882 Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor (d. 1956)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela_Lugosi
1907 Arlene Francis (Arline Francis Kazanjian) (d 2001) American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-standing role as a panelist on the television game show What's My Line?, on which she regularly appeared for 25 years, from 1950 through the mid-1970s.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Francis
1908 Stuart Hamblen (d 1989), born Carl Stuart Hamblen, was one of American radio's first singing cowboys in 1926, and later became a Christian songwriter, temperance supporter and recurring candidate for political office.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hamblen
1913 Mary A. Lathbury, American Methodist church leader and hymnist, died (b. 10 Aug 1841).
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/a/t/lathbury_ma.htm
1913 Louis Marshall Jones (d 1998), known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Marshall_Jones
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1919 Howard Tracy Hall (d 2008) American physical chemist, and the first person who grew a synthetic diamond according to a reproducible, verifiable and witnessed process, using a press of his own design.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Tracy_Hall
1925 Arthur Buchwald (d 2007) American humorist best known for his long-running column that he wrote in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary in 1982 and in 1986 was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Buchwald
1925 Tom Dowd (d 2002) American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method. Dowd worked on a virtual "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul records.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd
1927 Joyce Brothers American psychologist and advice columnist, publishing a daily syndicated newspaper column since 1960.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Brothers
1931 Mickey Charles Mantle (d 1995) American baseball player (Yankees), inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Charles_Mantle
1932 Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown, Jr. (d 2004) American football offensive lineman in the National Football League for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosey_Brown
1933 Barrie Chase American actress and dancer originally from Long Island, New York. When Barrie was six her father moved the family to California so he could start his screen-writing career. She grew up in Encino, and studied ballet. She abandoned her dream of being a ballerina in New York to stay in Los Angeles and help support her mother after her parents' bitter divorce. She worked in the chorus of many Hollywood musicals including, Hans Christian Andersen, Brigadoon, Deep in My Heart, Kismet, Les Girls, Pal Joey, and two Fred Astaire films, Daddy Long Legs and Silk Stockings.
1935 Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach (d 2004) American actor and singer, well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, as well as for being a noted musical theatre star; most notably Chuck Baxter in the original production of Promises, Promises (for which he won a Tony Award), Julian Marsh in 42nd Street, and Billy Flynn in the original production of Chicago.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Orbach
1935 Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez , Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic, former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Playing for the San Francisco Giants most of his career, Marichal was known for his high leg kick, pinpoint control and intimidation tactics, which included aiming pitches directly at the opposing batters' helmets. Marichal also played for the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers for the final two seasons of his career. Although he won more games than any other pitcher during the 1960s, he appeared in only one World Series game and he was often overshadowed by Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson in post-season awards. Marichal was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.
1937 Wanda Jackson Maud Okla, country singer (Let's Have a Party)
1940 Robert Pinsky American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry. His published work also includes critically acclaimed translations, including a collection of poems by Czesław Miłosz and Dante Alighieri. He teaches at Boston University and is the poetry editor at Slate.
1946 Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist (d. 1994)
1951 Kenneth Alfred Ham Australian president of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth creationists.
1953 Keith Barlow Hernandez (nicknamed "Mex") former Major League Baseball player and was an excellent fielding first baseman. He is now an award winning baseball analyst working for the New York Mets, for whom he played from 1983–1989, on SportsNet New York and WPIX television broadcasts.
1954 Steve Orich, Valley Stream, New York, Composer, Orchestrator and Musical Director, nominated for the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations in 2006 for his work on "Jersey Boys" which won the Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway. The album also won the 2006 Grammy Award. He has written orchestrations for many show, including "Paint Your Wagon," "110 in the Shade" and Cole Porter’s "You Never Know" and "Can-Can" at the Pasadena Playhouse as well as Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots.
1970 Michelle Malkin, American political commentator and author
Deaths
1788 Benjamin Rush "Ben" Milam (d 1835) leading figure in the Texas Revolution. Milam County, Texas was named in his honor. He was born in Kentucky.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Milam
1926 Eugene Debs, American labor leader and Socialist presidential candidate (b. 1855)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Debs
1936 Anne Sullivan, American teacher of Helen Keller (b. 1866)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sullivan
1964 Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover
1972 Harlow Shapley (b 1885) Astronomer, known as "The Modern Copernicus," who discovered the Sun's position in the galaxy. From 1914 to 1921 he was at Mt. Wilson Observatory, where he calibrated Henrietta S. Leavitt's period vs. luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars and used it to determine the distances of globular clusters. He boldly and correctly proclaimed that the globulars outline the Galaxy, and that the Galaxy is far larger than was generally believed and centered thousands of light years away in the direction of Sagittarius. In the early 1920's, Shapley entered a "Great Debate" with Heber D. Curtis. They truly argued over the "Scale of the Universe."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_Shapley
1977 – Members of the American rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd killed in a plane crash:
Cassie Gaines (b. 1948)
Steve Gaines (b. 1949)
Ronnie Van Zant (b. 1948)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd
1994 Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster (b 1913) American film actor, noted for his athletic physique, distinctive smile (which he called "The Grin") and, later, his willingness to play roles that went against his initial "tough guy" image. Initially dismissed as "Mr Muscles and Teeth", in the late 1950s Lancaster abandoned his "all-American" image and gradually came to be regarded as one of the best actors of his generation. Lancaster was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once, for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that performance, and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1980). His production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, was the most successful and innovative star-driven independent production company in 1950s Hollywood, making movies such as Marty (1955), Trapeze (1956), and Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Lancaster
1999 Calvin Robertson Griffith (b 1911), born Calvin Robertson in Montreal, Canada, was a Major League Baseball team owner (1955 - 1984). He was famous for his devotion to the game and for his sayings. He was the nephew of Clark Griffith, who raised Calvin from the age of 11. After Calvin's father died a year later, Clark adopted the boy. The senior Griffith owned the Washington Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955; upon his death, the team passed into the hands of Calvin, who had worked up through a variety of positions with the team, starting as a batboy, and serving a brief stint under Joe Engel and the Chattanooga Lookouts at Engel Stadium. Under Calvin Griffith's ownership, just a few years after his father's death, Calvin moved the Senators to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota in 1961. They were renamed the Minnesota Twins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Griffith
Holidays and observances
Birth of the Báb (Bahá'í Faith)
Christian Feast Day:
Acca of Hexham
Andrew of Crete
Artemius
Caprasius of Agen
Irene of Tomar
John Cantius (Extraordinary Form, celebrated by Traditionalist Catholic)
October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Martyr Artemius at Antioch (363)
Venerable Gerasimus of Cephalonia, the "New Ascetic" (1579)
Martyrs Eboras and Eunos of Persia (341)
Martyrs Aborsam and Senoe, of Persia (ca. 341)
Saint Matrona of Chios (1462)
Martyr Zebinas of Caesarea in Palaestina (308)
Greatmartyr Artemius of Verkolsk (1542)
Repose of Hieromonk Theodosius of Svyatogorsk Monastery (1850)
Repose of Abbot Theodosius (Popov) of Optina (1903)
New Hieromartyr Nicholas Lyubomudrov, priest of Latskoye village, Yaroslavl (1918)
New Hieromartyr Herman (Kokkel), bishop of Alatyr (1937)
Other Commemorations
Translation of the relics of New Monk-martyr Ignatius of Bulgaria and Mt. Athos (1814) from Constantinople to Mt. Athos.
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_20.htm
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct20.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_20
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-investigates-reds-in-hollywood
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_20_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1020.htm
There are 73 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days left until November 06, 2012 18
Countdown until Obama leaves Office
www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1518 Martin Luther fled from Augsburg on threat of arrest by Thomas Cardinal Cajetan (1469–1534).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cardinal_Cajetan
1548 The city of Nuestra Senora de La Paz (Our Lady of Peace) was founded by Captain Alonso de Mendoza by appointment of the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_La_Paz#History
1770 - An exceedingly great storm struck eastern New England causing extensive coastal damage from Massachusetts to Maine, and the highest tide in 47 years. (David Ludlum)
1774 All forms of entertainment and theatre cease in the Colonies. The new Continental Congress, the governing body of America's colonies, passed an order proclaiming that all citizens of the colonies "discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions and entertainment." Since this proclamation included acting, dancing, singing, and the playing of music, all forms of entertainment and all theatre productions ceased.
1803 US Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The agreement, which provided for the purchase of the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France at a price of less than three cents per acre, doubled the size of the country and paved the way for westward expansion beyond the Mississippi.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Treaty
1811 Fulton’s steamboat (designed by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston), "New Orleans", built in Pittsburgh, sailed to New Orleans. The New Orleans had a passenger and freight route on the lower Mississippi River. By 1814, Robert Fulton together with Edward Livingston (the brother of Robert Livingston), were offering regular steamboat and freight service between New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. Their boats traveled at the rates of eight miles per hour downstream and three miles per hour upstream.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_(steamboat)
1817 First Mississippi showboat leaves Nashville on maiden voyage
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showboat
1818 The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length. (end of 54'40" or fight)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_1818
1870 The First Vatican Council, which decreed papal infallibility under Pope Pius IX, closed. It had opened on 8 December 1869.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Vatican_Council
1873 Showman Phineus T. Barnum’s Hippodrome opens in NYC. The impressive place was the new home of "The Greatest Show on Earth"; the big top of what would be the greatest circus in the land.
1904 The song "Yankee Doodle Boy" was copyright registered. It was a patriotic song from the Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones written by George M. Cohan. The play opened at the Liberty Theater on November 7, 1904.
1906 Dr. Lee DeForest (1873 - 1961), one of the "fathers of radio," announced his three-element electrical vacuum tube (now known as a triode) to a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers He had discovered that when a mesh, or grid, of wire was placed between the filament and collector "plate" in a diode tube (first made by J. Ambrose Fleming, 1904), a large voltage-amplifying effect could be produced. DeForest patented this vacuum tube on 15 Jan 1907. The ability of this tube to amplifiy weak signals was an invention as great as radio itself, because it made long-distance communication possible.
1910 First appearance of cork centered baseball in World Series. The A's dispose of Ed Reulbach in two innings, then pin the loss on reliever Harry McIntire, who lasts a third of a inning. Coombs coasts on one day's rest, 12-5, and helps himself with three hits. Cubs manager Frank Chance becomes the first player ejected from a World Series game when umpire Tom Connolly chases him for protesting a Danny Murphy home run drive against a sign over the RF bleachers. Chance opines too loudly that it should be a ground-rule double.
1925 The compotype was patented by its inventor, Clifton Chisholm of Cleveland, Ohio, as an "Embossing Machine" (U.S. No. 1,557,754). The keyboard-controlled machine embossed one line of characters on an aluminum strip with flanged edges. These could be arranged in a holder for several strips in parallel from which several lines of printed material could be produced. Blanks came from a ribbon of metal on a roll, automatically flanged to give a mounting channel shape, and fed between embossing dies. Each character was also printed on a record card, visible during operation. The machine was designed to provide an efficient mechanism for the rapid production of the embossed strips. The patent was assigned to the Multigraph Sales Co. of the same city.
1930 The "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" premiered on the NBC Radio Network. The early scripts followed Sir Arthur Conan Doyles canon, with such short stories as The Speckled Band, A Scandal in Boheia, The Red- Headed League, The Copper Beaches, and The Bascombe Valley. No audiences were allowed during the early broadcasts. William Gillette played the lead for the first episode.
1939 "All the Things You Are" was recorded by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra -- for the Victor label.
1941 World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
1944 US forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur return to the Philippines. On October 20, 1944, the U.S. Sixth Army, supported by naval and air bombardment, landed on the favorable eastern shore of Leyte, one of the three large Philippine Islands, north of Mindanao. The miscalculated the relative strength of forces and attempted to destroy the landing through a major sea battle in Leyte Gulf, fought on 23-26 October. The decisive naval battle nearly eliminated Japan as a major sea power and only encouraged the invasion of Leyte.
1944 Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130. Two liquid gas tanks explode in Cleveland, Ohio, killing 130 people, on this day in 1944. It took all of the city's firefighters to bring the resulting industrial fire under control.
At 2:30 p.m., laboratory workers at the East Ohio Gas Company spotted white vapor leaking from the large natural gas tank at the company plant near Lake Erie. The circular tank had a diameter of 57 feet and could hold 90 million cubic feet of the highly flammable gas. Ten minutes later, a massive and violent explosion rocked the entire area. Flames went as high as 2,500 feet in the air. Everything in a half-mile vicinity of the explosion was completely destroyed.
Shortly afterwards, a smaller tank also exploded. The resulting out-of-control fire necessitated the evacuation of 10,000 people from the surrounding area. Every firefighting unit in Cleveland converged on the East Ohio Gas site. It still took nearly an entire day to bring the fire under control. When the flames went out, rescue workers found that 130 people had been killed by the blast and nearly half of the bodies were so badly burned that they could not be identified. Two hundred and fifteen people were injured and required hospitalization.
The explosion had destroyed two entire factories, 79 homes in the surrounding area and more than 200 vehicles. The total bill for damages exceeded $10 million. The cause of the blast had to do with the contraction of the metal tanks: The gas was stored at temperatures below negative 250 degrees and the resulting contraction of the metal had caused a steel plate to rupture.
Newer and safer techniques for storing gas and building tanks were developed in the wake of this disaster.
1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years. On October 20, 1947, the notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in Washington, as a Congressional committee begins investigating Communist influence in one of the world's richest and most glamorous communities: Hollywood.
After World War II, the Cold War began to heat up between the world's two superpowers—the United States and the communist-controlled Soviet Union. In Washington, conservative watchdogs worked to out communists in government before setting their sights on alleged "Reds" in the famously liberal movie industry. In an investigation that began in October 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) grilled a number of prominent witnesses, asking bluntly "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" Whether out of patriotism or fear, some witnesses—including director Elia Kazan, actors Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor and studio honchos Walt Disney and Jack Warner—gave the committee names of colleagues they suspected of being communists.
A small group known as the "Hollywood Ten" resisted, complaining that the hearings were illegal and violated their First Amendment rights. They were all convicted of obstructing the investigation and served jail terms. Pressured by Congress, the Hollywood establishment started a blacklist policy, banning the work of about 325 screenwriters, actors and directors who had not been cleared by the committee. Those blacklisted included composer Aaron Copland, writers Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker, playwright Arthur Miller and actor and filmmaker Orson Welles.
Some of the blacklisted writers used pseudonyms to continue working, while others wrote scripts that were credited to other writer friends. Starting in the early 1960s, after the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the most public face of anti-communism, the ban began to lift slowly. In 1997, the Writers' Guild of America unanimously voted to change the writing credits of 23 films made during the blacklist period, reversing—but not erasing—some of the damage done during the Red Scare.
1947 The radio rights to the World Series were sold for three years for $475,000.
1947 United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
1951 "Because of You" by Tony Bennett topped the charts. Bennett got a break when Bob Hope saw him performing with Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village and put him into his stage show, also suggesting a name change to Tony Bennett. In 1950, Columbia Records A&R director Mitch Miller heard his demonstration recording of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and signed him to the label. Bennett's first hit, "Because of You," topped the charts in September 1951, succeeded at number one by his cover of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart." Following another five chart entries over the next two years, he returned to number one in November 1953 with "Rags to Riches."
1951 The "Johnny Bright Incident" was a violent on-field assault against African-American player Johnny Bright by White American player Wilbanks Smith during an American college football game held on October 20, 1951 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The game was significant in itself as it marked the first time that an African American athlete with a national profile and of critical importance to the success of his Drake University team had played against Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) on their home field. Bright's injury also highlighted the racial tensions of the times and assumed notoriety when it was captured in what was later to become both a widely disseminated and eventually Pulitzer Prize winning photo sequence. The event later came to be known as the "Johnny Bright Incident".
1955 "No Time for Sergeants" opened on Broadway starring Andy Griffith. Ira Levin adapted Hyman's novel for a play which originally appeared as an episode on The United States Steel Hour television series in March 1955, starring Andy Griffith as Will Stockdale and Myron McCormick as his nemesis Sergeant Orville King. The play then opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on October 20, 1955, produced by Maurice Evans and directed by Morton DaCosta. Griffith and McCormick again starred, and Don Knotts made his Broadway debut as Corporal Manual Dexterity.
1955 "Day-O!" by Harry Belafonte hits was recorded for RCA Victor. In 1956, Belafonte issued two RCA albums: Belafonte, and Calypso. To call the LP popular would be the understatement of the century; each effort crested the pop charts and remained there, the latter album for well over seven months. As a result, calypso music, typified by the twin hits "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jamaica Farewell," became a national phenomenon.
1956 Dr. Hannes Lindemann began his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat (17 feet). Lindemann, a German physician on a U.S. Air Force base in Morocco. He wrote a book Alone at Sea, about his two journeys across the Atlantic Ocean. Battling thirst, hunger, mental disorientation, hallucinations, lack of sleep, and shark encounters, Lindemann succesfully sailed alone across the Atlantic in 1956 in 76 days in a Klepper foldboat double seat Aerius to which he added an outrigger and mizzensail. Leaving Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, he reached St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands just after Christmas. His prior crossing was in a 23-foot African dugout canoe in 1955. Alfred Johnson made the first solo Atlantic crossing in 1876.
1957 Walter Cronkite hosted the documentary "The 20th Century." From the one-hour premiere episode "Churchill, Man of the Century" to its last episode The 20th Century unit produced 112 half-hour historical compilation films and 107 half-hour "originally photographed documentaries" or contemporary documentaries. Narrated by Walter Cronkite, the series achieved critical praise, a substantial audience, and a dedicated sponsor, The Prudential Insurance Company of America, primarily with its historical compilation films. The compilation documentaries combined actuality footage from disparate archival sources--national and international, public and private--with testimony from eyewitnesses, to represent history.
1960 First fully mechanized post office opened, Providence, RI
1962 "Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett & the Crypt Kickers topped the charts. Pickett took the song to Gary Paxton, who was lead singer of The Hollywood Argyles, who had the hit "Alley Oop." They recorded the song Paxton and studio musicians Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae and Rickie Page, who were credited as "The Cryptkickers." The "Mash" in the song was inspired by the "Mashed Potato" dance craze. This being 1962, many of the sound effects had to be created in the studio. The coffin opening was a nail being pulled from a board; other noises were made by blowing bubbles through a straw and dropping chains on the floor.
1963 Jim Brown sets NFL single-season rushing record, 1,863 yds. Brown departed as the NFL record holder for both single-season (1,863 in 1963) and career rushing of 12,312 yards, as well as the all-time leader in rushing touchdowns (106) and total touchdowns (126), and all-purpose yards (15,549). He was the first player ever to reach the 100 rushing touchdowns milestone.
1968 Jacqueline Kennedy marries Aristotle Onassis.
1968 Fosbury flops to an Olympic record On October 20, 1968, 21-year-old Oregonian Dick Fosbury wins gold—and sets an Olympic record—when he high-jumps 7 feet 4 1/4 inches at the Mexico City Games. It was the first American victory in the event since 1956. It was also the international debut of Fosbury’s unique jumping style, known as the "Fosbury Flop."
The Flop, according to one journalist, "looked like a guy falling off the back of a truck." Instead of the traditional scissors- or straddle-style forward kick over the bar, it featured a midair rotation so that the jumper landed back-of-the-head-first on the mat. Fosbury described it this way: "I take off on my right, or outside, foot rather than my left foot. Then I turn my back to the bar, arch my back over the bar and then kick my legs out to clear the bar." It looked odd, but it worked better than any other technique.
Fosbury had invented his Flop in high school, when he discovered that, though he was terrible at the scissors-kick, the straddle and the belly-roll, if he stretched out on his back and landed headfirst, he could jump higher than anyone on his high-school track team. "The advantage," he said, "from a physics standpoint is, it allows the jumper to run at the bar with more speed and, with the arch in your back, you could actually clear the bar and keep your center of gravity at or below the bar, so it was much more efficient." At Oregon State University, he used the Flop to win the 1968 NCAA title and the Olympic Trials.
"I think quite a few kids will begin trying it my way now," he said when the Games were over. "I don’t guarantee my results, and I don’t recommend my style to anyone. All I say is if a kid can’t straddle, he can try it my way." And indeed, kids everywhere began to practice the Flop over the backs of their sofas and into piles of leaves in the yard. Parents and coaches worried that Fosbury’s technique was dangerous—U.S. Olympic Coach Pat Jordan even warned that it would "wipe out an entire generation of high jumpers because they will all have broken necks"—but the Flop soon became standard practice at track meets. Within a decade, almost every elite high-jumper was doing it Fosbury’s way. Since 1980, no one using any other technique has held the world record.
1970 American agricultural pioneer Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the "green revolution" that increased grain production throughout the Third World by perfecting and introducing new strains of wheat and rice crops. Subsequently, he conceived the World Food Prize, awarded each fall for improving the world's food supply or access to it. In this way he made possible the wide recognition of others in the field.
1973 OPEC oil embargo begins
1973 Saturday Night Massacre in Washington, DC. The Saturday Night Massacre occurred during the Watergate scandal as President Richard M. Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigned.
1973 President Nixon proclaims Jim Thorpe greatest athlete of 20th century.
1976 NY Nets Julius "Dr J" Erving sold to the Philadelphia 76ers
1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.
1977 – A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot.
1979 John F Kennedy Library dedicated in Boston.
1983 The length of the meter was redefined by the international body Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures (GCPM) by a method to give greater accuracy. Originally based on one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator, the meter was re-established as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
1983 - Remnants of Pacific Hurricane Tico caused extensive flooding in central and south central Oklahoma. Oklahoma City set daily rainfall records with 1.45 inch on the 19th, and 6.28 inches on the 20th. (17th-21st) (The Weather Channel)
1984 "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder topped the charts.
1984 The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened, the largest artificial environment for marine life, built on Cannery Row on the site of the old Hovden sardine cannery, with a $40 million grant from David Packard of Hewlett Packard, and housing 6500 marine animals from at least 525 species displayed on a grand scale. The idea for an aquarium devoted to showcasing Monterey Bay habitats came in 1977 from a group of four marine biologists at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. Currently, the aquarium has an active research program, with groups working on sea otter conservation and tuna conservation biology and a sister institution, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which conducts deep-sea research in the vast Monterey submarine canyon.
1987 - Cold arctic air invaded the Upper Midwest, and squalls in the Lake Superior snowbelt produced heavy snow in eastern Ashland County and northern Iron County of Wisconsin. Totals ranged up to 18 inches at Mellen. In the western U.S., the record high of 69 degrees at Seattle WA was their twenty-fifth of the year, their highest number of record highs for any given year. Bakersfield CA reported a record 146 days in a row with daily highs 80 degrees or above. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1988 - Unseasonably warm weather continued in the western U.S. In California, afternoon highs of 96 degrees at Redding and Red Bluff were records for the date. (The National Weather Summary)
1989 - Forty-nine cities reported record low temperatures for the date as readings dipped into the 20s and 30s across much of the south central and southeastern U.S. Lows of 32 degrees at Lake Charles LA and 42 degrees at Lakeland FL were records for October, and Little Rock AR reported their earliest freeze of record. Snow blanketed the higher elevations of Georgia and the Carolinas. Melbourne FL dipped to 47 degrees shortly before midnight to surpass the record low established that morning. Showers and thunderstorms brought heavy rain to parts of the northeastern U.S. Autumn leaves on the ground clogged drains and ditches causing flooding. Up to 4.10 inches of rain soaked southern Vermont in three days. Flood waters washed 600 feet of railroad track, resulting in a train derailment. (The National Weather Summary)(Storm Data)
2004 Scientists of the Human Genome Project reported a new estimate of human genes at 20k to 25k
2011 The former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and his son Mutassim Gaddafi are killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte while in the custody of NTC fighters.
Births
1711 Timothy Ruggles (d 1795) American military leader, jurist and politician. He was a delegate to the first Stamp Act congress of 1765.
1759 Chauncey Goodrich (d 1815) was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut who represented that state in the United States Congress as both a senator and a representative.
1812 Austin Flint (d 1886) American physician who was an eminent doctor and pioneer of heart research in the United States during the nineteenth century. In 1847, he founded Buffalo Medical College and taught at several medical schools. Flint was an authority on pulmonary and respiratory diseases, and popularized the use of the binaural stethoscope. The Austin Flint murmur is a heart disorder he described in 1862 in which blood from the aorta is regurgitated into the heart before contraction of the ventricles. The best known of his numerous textbooks is Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Medicine (1866).
1828 Horatio Gates Spafford (Troy, New York – d 16 Oct 1888, Jerusalem) was a prominent American lawyer, best known for penning the Christian hymn It Is Well With My Soul, following a family tragedy in which four of his daughters died.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Spafford
1828 Horatio Gates Spafford, American lawyer In 1873, upon learning of the drowning of his four daughters following a ship collision in the Atlantic, Spafford penned the lines to the hymn, "It is Well With My Soul." (d 1888)
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/p/a/spafford_hg.htm
1853 Rudolph Kittel, in Wuerttemberg, Old Testament scholar, Germany (d 1929).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Kittel
1859 John Dewey (d 1952) American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey, along with Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, is recognized as one of the founders of the philosophy of pragmatism and of functional psychology. He was a major representative of the progressive and progressive populist philosophies of schooling during the first half of the 20th century in the USA.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey
1864 James Fielding Hinkle (d 1951) American politician and the sixth Governor of New Mexico.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fielding_Hinkle
1882 Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-born actor (d. 1956)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bela_Lugosi
1907 Arlene Francis (Arline Francis Kazanjian) (d 2001) American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist. She is known for her long-standing role as a panelist on the television game show What's My Line?, on which she regularly appeared for 25 years, from 1950 through the mid-1970s.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlene_Francis
1908 Stuart Hamblen (d 1989), born Carl Stuart Hamblen, was one of American radio's first singing cowboys in 1926, and later became a Christian songwriter, temperance supporter and recurring candidate for political office.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Hamblen
1913 Mary A. Lathbury, American Methodist church leader and hymnist, died (b. 10 Aug 1841).
www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/a/t/lathbury_ma.htm
1913 Louis Marshall Jones (d 1998), known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Marshall_Jones
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1919 Howard Tracy Hall (d 2008) American physical chemist, and the first person who grew a synthetic diamond according to a reproducible, verifiable and witnessed process, using a press of his own design.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Tracy_Hall
1925 Arthur Buchwald (d 2007) American humorist best known for his long-running column that he wrote in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary in 1982 and in 1986 was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Buchwald
1925 Tom Dowd (d 2002) American recording engineer and producer for Atlantic Records. He was credited with innovating the multi-track recording method. Dowd worked on a virtual "who's who" of recordings that encompassed blues, jazz, pop, rock and soul records.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd
1927 Joyce Brothers American psychologist and advice columnist, publishing a daily syndicated newspaper column since 1960.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Brothers
1931 Mickey Charles Mantle (d 1995) American baseball player (Yankees), inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Charles_Mantle
1932 Roosevelt "Rosey" Brown, Jr. (d 2004) American football offensive lineman in the National Football League for the New York Giants from 1953 to 1965.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosey_Brown
1933 Barrie Chase American actress and dancer originally from Long Island, New York. When Barrie was six her father moved the family to California so he could start his screen-writing career. She grew up in Encino, and studied ballet. She abandoned her dream of being a ballerina in New York to stay in Los Angeles and help support her mother after her parents' bitter divorce. She worked in the chorus of many Hollywood musicals including, Hans Christian Andersen, Brigadoon, Deep in My Heart, Kismet, Les Girls, Pal Joey, and two Fred Astaire films, Daddy Long Legs and Silk Stockings.
1935 Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach (d 2004) American actor and singer, well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, as well as for being a noted musical theatre star; most notably Chuck Baxter in the original production of Promises, Promises (for which he won a Tony Award), Julian Marsh in 42nd Street, and Billy Flynn in the original production of Chicago.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Orbach
1935 Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez , Laguna Verde, Dominican Republic, former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Playing for the San Francisco Giants most of his career, Marichal was known for his high leg kick, pinpoint control and intimidation tactics, which included aiming pitches directly at the opposing batters' helmets. Marichal also played for the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers for the final two seasons of his career. Although he won more games than any other pitcher during the 1960s, he appeared in only one World Series game and he was often overshadowed by Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson in post-season awards. Marichal was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.
1937 Wanda Jackson Maud Okla, country singer (Let's Have a Party)
1940 Robert Pinsky American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry. His published work also includes critically acclaimed translations, including a collection of poems by Czesław Miłosz and Dante Alighieri. He teaches at Boston University and is the poetry editor at Slate.
1946 Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist (d. 1994)
1951 Kenneth Alfred Ham Australian president of Answers in Genesis USA. He is a vocal advocate for a young Earth and a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, and his cross-country speaking tours and many books make him one of the better known young-Earth creationists.
1953 Keith Barlow Hernandez (nicknamed "Mex") former Major League Baseball player and was an excellent fielding first baseman. He is now an award winning baseball analyst working for the New York Mets, for whom he played from 1983–1989, on SportsNet New York and WPIX television broadcasts.
1954 Steve Orich, Valley Stream, New York, Composer, Orchestrator and Musical Director, nominated for the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations in 2006 for his work on "Jersey Boys" which won the Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway. The album also won the 2006 Grammy Award. He has written orchestrations for many show, including "Paint Your Wagon," "110 in the Shade" and Cole Porter’s "You Never Know" and "Can-Can" at the Pasadena Playhouse as well as Stephen Schwartz’s Snapshots.
1970 Michelle Malkin, American political commentator and author
Deaths
1788 Benjamin Rush "Ben" Milam (d 1835) leading figure in the Texas Revolution. Milam County, Texas was named in his honor. He was born in Kentucky.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Milam
1926 Eugene Debs, American labor leader and Socialist presidential candidate (b. 1855)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Debs
1936 Anne Sullivan, American teacher of Helen Keller (b. 1866)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sullivan
1964 Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States (b. 1874)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover
1972 Harlow Shapley (b 1885) Astronomer, known as "The Modern Copernicus," who discovered the Sun's position in the galaxy. From 1914 to 1921 he was at Mt. Wilson Observatory, where he calibrated Henrietta S. Leavitt's period vs. luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars and used it to determine the distances of globular clusters. He boldly and correctly proclaimed that the globulars outline the Galaxy, and that the Galaxy is far larger than was generally believed and centered thousands of light years away in the direction of Sagittarius. In the early 1920's, Shapley entered a "Great Debate" with Heber D. Curtis. They truly argued over the "Scale of the Universe."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlow_Shapley
1977 – Members of the American rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd killed in a plane crash:
Cassie Gaines (b. 1948)
Steve Gaines (b. 1949)
Ronnie Van Zant (b. 1948)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynyrd_Skynyrd
1994 Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster (b 1913) American film actor, noted for his athletic physique, distinctive smile (which he called "The Grin") and, later, his willingness to play roles that went against his initial "tough guy" image. Initially dismissed as "Mr Muscles and Teeth", in the late 1950s Lancaster abandoned his "all-American" image and gradually came to be regarded as one of the best actors of his generation. Lancaster was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once, for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that performance, and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1980). His production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, was the most successful and innovative star-driven independent production company in 1950s Hollywood, making movies such as Marty (1955), Trapeze (1956), and Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Lancaster
1999 Calvin Robertson Griffith (b 1911), born Calvin Robertson in Montreal, Canada, was a Major League Baseball team owner (1955 - 1984). He was famous for his devotion to the game and for his sayings. He was the nephew of Clark Griffith, who raised Calvin from the age of 11. After Calvin's father died a year later, Clark adopted the boy. The senior Griffith owned the Washington Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955; upon his death, the team passed into the hands of Calvin, who had worked up through a variety of positions with the team, starting as a batboy, and serving a brief stint under Joe Engel and the Chattanooga Lookouts at Engel Stadium. Under Calvin Griffith's ownership, just a few years after his father's death, Calvin moved the Senators to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota in 1961. They were renamed the Minnesota Twins.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Griffith
Holidays and observances
Birth of the Báb (Bahá'í Faith)
Christian Feast Day:
Acca of Hexham
Andrew of Crete
Artemius
Caprasius of Agen
Irene of Tomar
John Cantius (Extraordinary Form, celebrated by Traditionalist Catholic)
October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Saints
Martyr Artemius at Antioch (363)
Venerable Gerasimus of Cephalonia, the "New Ascetic" (1579)
Martyrs Eboras and Eunos of Persia (341)
Martyrs Aborsam and Senoe, of Persia (ca. 341)
Saint Matrona of Chios (1462)
Martyr Zebinas of Caesarea in Palaestina (308)
Greatmartyr Artemius of Verkolsk (1542)
Repose of Hieromonk Theodosius of Svyatogorsk Monastery (1850)
Repose of Abbot Theodosius (Popov) of Optina (1903)
New Hieromartyr Nicholas Lyubomudrov, priest of Latskoye village, Yaroslavl (1918)
New Hieromartyr Herman (Kokkel), bishop of Alatyr (1937)
Other Commemorations
Translation of the relics of New Monk-martyr Ignatius of Bulgaria and Mt. Athos (1814) from Constantinople to Mt. Athos.
www.todayinsci.com/10/10_20.htm
www.weatherforyou.com/cgi-bin/weather_history/today2S.pl
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.amug.org/~jpaul/oct20.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_20
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-investigates-reds-in-hollywood
www.scopesys.com/cgi-bin/today2.cgi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_20_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
www.hymntime.com/tch/index.htm
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1020.htm