- Oct 1 63 arrested in riot to buy Rolling Stone tickets in Milan, Italy
- Oct 1 Phillies beat Montreal Expos, 2-1 in final game played at Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia; fans swarm onto field and destroy it after the game
- Oct 2 Detroit general manager Jim Campbell gives controversial Billy Martin a 2-year deal (1971-72) to manage the Tigers at a well above MLB average annual salary of $65,000
- Oct 2 14 members of the Wichita State University Football team as well as 17 administrators and supporters are killed in a plane crash in the Rocky Mountains
- Oct 3 "Coco" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 333 performances
- Oct 3 First umpires strike in MLB history lasts one day during League Championship Series; AL and NL presidents recognise newly-formed MLB Umpires Association; negotiate labor contract
- Oct 3 WAPT TV channel 16 in Jackson, MS (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Oct 4 Umps return after 1-day walkout in quest of higher wages
- Oct 4 WFYI TV channel 20 in Indianapolis, IN (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Oct 4 Herbert Schmidtz makes highest parachute jump from a tower by leaping from a 1,984 ft TV mast in Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Oct 4 Jochen Rindt of Austria posthumously clinches Formula 1 World Drivers Championship at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen when contender Jacky Ickx finishes 4th; Rindt killed in a practice accident at the Italian GP at Monza 5/9/70
- Oct 5 John Creach joins Jefferson Airplane
- Oct 5 Quebec separatists kidnap British trade commissioner James Cross
- Oct 5 PBS becomes a US television network.
- Oct 5 MLB Championship Series both end on the same day with same score; (AL) Baltimore Orioles beat Minnesota Twins, 3-0; (NL) Cincinnati Reds down Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0; Orioles win WS, 4-1
Nobel Prize
Oct 8 Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Oct 8 The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) propose that a system of Proportional Representation (PR) should be used in elections in Northern Ireland
- Oct 9 Khmer Republic (Cambodia) declares independence
- Oct 10 Fiji gains independence from Britain (National Day)
- Oct 12 Rock Memorabilia Auction at Filmore East
- Oct 13 Angela Davis arrested in NYC
- Oct 13 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
- Oct 13 A man dies in a premature bomb explosion in Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Event of Interest
Oct 13 2 future Basketball Hall of Famers debut; guard Calvin Murphy for San Diego Rockets in 111-96 loss in Chicago; forward Dave Cowens for Boston Celtics in 114-107 loss in New York
Dave Cowens
Music Awards
Oct 14 4th Country Music Association Award: Merle Haggard wins
Merle Haggard
- Oct 14 Cleveland Cavaliers lose to Buffalo Braves in their 1st game 107-92
- Oct 14 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Oct 14 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Oct 15 Baltimore Orioles beat Cincinnati Reds, 4 games to 1 in 67th World Series
- Oct 15 Bridge over Yarra River in Melbourne crashes; killing 35
- Oct 15 Russian passenger flight hijacked to Turkey
Election of Interest
Oct 15 Anwar Sadat elected 3rd President of Egypt, succeeding Gamal Abdel Nasser
Anwar Sadat
Event of Interest
Oct 16 Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act as a response to the October Crisis, the only peacetime use of the War Measures Act in Canadian history.
Pierre Trudeau
- Oct 17 Anwar Sadat sworn in as the 3rd President of Egypt
- Oct 18 Sachio Kinugasa begins 2,215 cons game streak for Hiroshima Carp
- Oct 19 Amdahl Corp forms at Sunnyvale, California
- Oct 19 John Frazier kills Ohta's declares WW 3 has begun
- Oct 20 American Norman Borlaug awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Oct 20 Zond 8 Launch (Moon Orbit & Return)
- Oct 21 777 Unification church couples wed in Korea
- Oct 21 Caledonian Airways takes over British United Airways
- Oct 21 Nobel prize of peace awarded to Norman E Borlaugh
- Oct 21 Bernadette Devlin is released from prison having served four months of her six month sentence for riotous behaviour
- Oct 23 Gary Gabelich sets auto speed record 622.4 mph (1,001 kph)
- Oct 23 Charles Haughey and two others are found not guilty of illegal arms importation by a Dublin jury; the 'Arms Trial' began on 28 May 1970
- Oct 24 Nancy Walker creates Ida Morgenstein role on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"
Election of Interest
Oct 24 Marxist Salvador Allende elected President of Chile by the Chilean Congress
Salvador Allende
- Oct 25 Austrian driver Jochen Rindt wins F1 World Drivers Championship by 5 points from Jacky Ickx after Mexican GP; only season World Championship awarded posthumously, after Rindt's death in Italian GP practice at Monza
- Oct 26 "Doonesbury" comic strip debuts in 28 newspapers
- Oct 26 Tanzania begins building railway Lusaka-Drone ash Salaam
- Oct 27 "Light, Lively & Yiddish" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 87 performances
- Oct 28 NBA Cleveland Cavaliers 1st home game, lose to San Diego 110-99
- Oct 28 US/USSR sign an agreement to discuss joint space efforts
- Oct 29 WYEA (now WLTZ) TV channel 38 in Columbus, GA (NBC) 1st broadcast
- Oct 29 The Electoral Reform Society calls for the introduction of Proportional Representation (PR) in elections in Northern Ireland
- Oct 30 KVEW TV channel 42 in Kennewick, WA (ABC) begins broadcasting
- Oct 30 There are serious riots in the Catholic Ardoyne area of Belfast which last for three nights
Meeting of Interest
Oct 30 Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark meets with British Home Secretary Reginald Maulling to discuss matters related to reforms and security
James Chichester-Clark
Event of Interest
Oct 31 Jim Morrison is sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine for indecent exposure and open profanity, though remains free on a $50,000 bond pending appeal
Jim Morrison