Contract of Interest
Oct 1 Barbra Streisand signs her 1st recording contract (with Columbia)
Barbra Streisand
Event of Interest
Oct 1 Johnny Carson hosts his 1st "The Tonight Show", Joan Crawford guests
Johnny Carson
Joan Crawford
- Oct 1 The Lucy Show premieres
- Oct 1 UN gives Netherlands control of New Guinea
- Oct 1 US National Radio Astronomy Obs gets a 300' (91m) radio telescope
- Oct 1 WEDH TV channel 24 in Hartford, CT (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Oct 2 San Francisco Giants beat rival LA Dodgers, 8-7 in 4 hours 18 minutes in Game 2 NL tie-break series; longest 9-inning game in MLB history; Giants win series, 2-1
- Oct 2 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- Oct 3 "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" opens at Shubert NYC for 886 performances
- Oct 3 SF Giants (103-62) beat rivals LA Dodgers (102-63), 6-4 in season ending NL pennant decider; Dodgers set MLB record season attendance 2,755,184
- Oct 3 Wally Schirra in Sigma 7 launched into Earth orbit
- Oct 4 USAF Maj Robert A Rushworth takes X-15 to 32,300m
Event of Interest
Oct 4 Willie Mays scores in the 2nd inning for the Giants ending Whitey Ford's record Baseball World Series consecutive scoreless inning streak at 33 2⁄3; Yankees beat Giants, 6-2 in Game 1 and 4-3 in the series
Willie Mays
Whitey Ford
- Oct 5 The Beatles release their first record, "Love Me Do"
Film Premier
Oct 5 "Dr. No", 1st James Bond film based on the novel by Ian Fleming and starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, premieres in London
Sean Connery
- Oct 6 16th NHL All-Star Game, Maple Leaf Garden, Toronto, ON: Toronto Maple Leafs beat All-Stars, 4-1; MVP: Eddie Shack, Toronto, LW
- Oct 6 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- Oct 7 LPGA Championship, Stardust CC, LV: Judy Kimball wins her only major title by 4 strokes ahead of runner-up Shirley Spork
- Oct 7 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Oct 8 Algeria admitted as 109th member of UN
- Oct 8 North Korea reports 100% election turnout, miraculously 100% vote for the Workers' Party
- Oct 8 Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes article "Bedingt abwehrbereit" ("Conditionally prepared for defense") about NATO manoeuver called "Fallex 62", uncovering sorry state of West German army. Magazine soon accused of treason.
- Oct 9 Battles to decide Algeria-Morocco boundary kills 130
- Oct 9 NASA civilian test pilot John B McKay takes X-15 to 39,200 m
- Oct 9 Uganda becomes independent from the United Kingdom
- Oct 10 Indies assault up Chinese positions in North-India attack
- Oct 11 1st appearance of a Gabor sister on Merv Griffin Show
Event of Interest
Oct 11 Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) convened by Pope John XXIII
John XXIII
Theater Premiere
Oct 13 Edward Albee's play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opens on Broadway featuring actress Uta Hagen
Edward Albee
- Oct 14 Houston Oiler George Blanda throws for 6 TD passes vs NY Titans 56-17
- Oct 14 US U-2 espionage planes locate missile launchers in Cuba
- Oct 14 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Oct 15 Byron R White appointed to Supreme Court
- Oct 15 WLOX TV channel 13 in Biloxi-Gulfport, MS (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Oct 16 Byron R White becomes a Supreme Court Justice
Cuban Missile Crisis
Oct 16 Cuban missile crisis begins as JFK is shown photos confirming the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba
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John F. Kennedy
Music Recording
Oct 18 Tony Sheridan & Beat Brothers record "Let's Dance"
Tony Sheridan
Nobel Prize
Oct 18 James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA
Francis Crick
James Watson
Event of Interest
Oct 20 Peter, Paul and Mary's debut folk album "Peter, Paul and Mary" reaches No. 1 on US album charts
Mary Travers
- Oct 20 Musical "Mr President" opens at St James Theater New York for 265 performances
- Oct 20 Chinese army lands in India
- Oct 20 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- Oct 22 Cuban missile crisis: US President John F. Kennedy addresses TV about Russian missile bases in Cuba and imposes a naval blockade on Cuba, beginning the missile crisis
- Oct 22 JFK receives Ugandan premier Milton Obote
- Oct 22 Pacific Science Center opens at Seattle Center
- Oct 22 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
United Nations Speech
Oct 23 Adlai Stevenson speaks at the United Nations about the Cuba crisis
Adlai Stevenson II
Film Release
Oct 24 "The Manchurian Candidate", directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, is released
Frank Sinatra
Nobel Prize
Oct 25 American author John Steinbeck awarded Nobel Prize for Literature
John Steinbeck
- Oct 25 US Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson demands USSR UN rep Zorin answer regarding Cuban missile bases saying "I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over"
- Oct 26 The Beatles record "Please Please Me" & "Ask Me Why"
- Oct 26 JFK warns Russia that the USA will not allow Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba
Event of Interest
Oct 26 Nikita Khrushchev sends note to JFK offering to withdraw his missiles from Cuba if US closed its bases in Turkey: offer is rejected
Nikita Khrushchev
- Oct 26 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- Oct 27 "Beyond the Fringe" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 673 performances
- Oct 27 Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis: An American spy plane is shot down over Cuba and the navy drops warning depth charges on Soviet submarines
- Oct 27 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- Oct 27 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Oct 27 The plane of Enrico Mattei, Italian oil industry's most powerful figure, crashes in mysterious circumstances
- Oct 28 Jo Weatherly in a Pontiac finishes 2nd to Rex White in season-ending Dixie 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to clinch his 1st of 2 consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Championships
- Oct 28 NY Giant YA Tittle passes for 7 touchdowns vs Wash Redskins (49-34)
- Oct 28 Radio Moscow reports nuclear missiles in Cuba deactivated
- Oct 28 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Oct 28 Cuban missile crisis: US President JFK receives letter from Soviet Leaderr Khrushchev suggesting agreement
- Oct 30 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
- Oct 31 "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" horror film released directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, based on novel by Henry Farrell