- Oct 1 "Don't Play Us Cheap" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 164 performances
- Oct 1 New York City Marathon: men's event won by Sheldon Karlin in 2:27:52; Nina Kuscsik wins women's race in 3:08:41
- Oct 2 "From Israel with Love" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 8 performances
- Oct 2 Aeroflot Il-18 crashes near Black Sea resort of Sochi, kills 105
- Oct 2 Bill Stoneman of Montreal pitches his 2nd no-hitter, beating Mets, 7-0
- Oct 2 Danish population votes for membership of the European Common Market
- Oct 2 Montreal Expos' pitcher Bill Stoneman no-hits the New York Mets, 7 - 0 at Parc Jarry; first MLB no-hitter ever pitched in Canada
- Oct 2 Ron Johnson becomes 1st NY Giant to score 4 TDs (vs Philadelphia)
- Oct 3 Spaceflight 71-2 launched; 1st flexible substrate photovoltaic flown
Event of Interest
Oct 3 Future Baseball Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher Steve Carlton wins 27th game as Philadelphia beats Cubs, 11-1 at Wrigley Field; almost half Phillies' 59 wins
Steve Carlton
Event of Interest
Oct 4 Future Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams manages his final game as Texas Rangers lose to KC Royals, 4-0 in the last game played at Municipal Stadium; Williams replaced by Whitey Herzog
Ted Williams
- Oct 5 Herbert Mullin 1st kills, claiming it was to prevent earthquakes
- Oct 6 22-car train carrying 2,000 pilgrims derails, kills 208 in Mexico
- Oct 6 Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Jack Lynch closes the Sinn Féin office in Dublin
- Oct 7 1st season game at Nassau Coliseum, Flames-3, Islanders-2
- Oct 8 "From Israel with Love" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 8 performances
- Oct 8 Harold Carmichael begins NFL streak of 127 consecutive game receptions
- Oct 8 In Game 2 of ALCS, Oakland A's Bert Campaneris fires his bat at Det pitcher
- Oct 8 Lerrin LaGrow Campy, who had been hit by a pitch, is fined & suspended
- Oct 8 Despite retiring with suspension trouble at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, Emerson Fittipaldi becomes first Brazilian to win the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins by 16 points from Jackie Stewart
- Oct 9 "Dude" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 16 performances
- Oct 10 3 members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) die in a premature explosion in a house in Balkan Street, Lower Falls, Belfast
- Oct 11 World Hockey Association officially makes it's debut as the Alberta Oilers defeat the Ottawa Nationals, 7-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre
- Oct 11 Panama adopts constitution
- Oct 11 Prison uprising at Washington, D.C. jail
- Oct 11 MLB National League Championship: Cincinnati Reds beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 3 games to 2
- Oct 12 "Hurry, Harry" opens at Ritz Theater NYC for 2 performances
- Oct 12 46 sailors injured in race riot on American aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk
- Oct 12 Billy Harris failed in 1st Islander penalty shot
- Oct 12 Mariner 9 takes pictures of Martian north pole
- Oct 12 MLB American League Championship: Oakland Athletics beat Detroit Tigers, 3 games to 2
- Oct 13 "Hurry, Harry" closes at Ritz Theater NYC after 2 performances
- Oct 13 Aeroflot Il-62 crashes in large pond outside Moscow, 176 die
- Oct 13 Commish Bowie Kuhn allows Bert Campaneris to play in World Series
- Oct 13 Uruguay to Chile plane crashes in Andes Mountains, (passengers eat crash victims to survive, 16 of 45 rescued 2 months later)
- Oct 14 Oakland A Gene Tenace is 1st to homer in 1st 2 World Series at bats
- Oct 14 North Irish Loyalist paramilitaries raid Headquarters of the 10 Ulster Defence Regiment in Belfast and stole rifles and ammunition
- Oct 15 61st Davis Cup: USA beats Romania in Bucharest (3-2)
- Oct 15 Omni in Atlanta opens - Hawks beat NY Knicks 109-101
Event of Interest
Oct 15 17 year old American tennis prodigy Chris Evert wins inaugural WTA Tour Championship at Boca Raton, Florida; beats Australian Kerry Melville Reid 7-5, 6-4; Evert not eligible for prize money
Chris Evert
- Oct 16 "Pacific Paradise" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 5 performances
- Oct 16 Rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival break up
- Oct 16 2 members of the Official Irish Republican Army are shot dead by the British Army in County Tyrone
- Oct 16 A Protestant youth member (15) of the Ulster Defence Association, and a UDA member (26) are run over by British Army vehicles during riots in east Belfast
- Oct 17 1st time Islanders shut-out-5-0 vs Penguins
- Oct 17 Bob Randall's "6 Rooms Riv Vu," premieres in NYC
#1 in the Charts
Oct 17 Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-ling," is #1
Chuck Berry
- Oct 17 The Ulster Defence Association open fire on the British Army in several areas of Belfast
- Oct 19 "Mother Earth" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 12 performances
- Oct 19 Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig speaks at a meeting of right-wing Members of Parliament at Westminster: "We are prepared to come out and shoot and kill"
- Oct 20 Queen Juliana visits Yugoslavia
Appointment of Interest
Oct 20 John Betjeman is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II
- Oct 21 "Dude" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 16 performances
- Oct 21 "Man of La Mancha" closes at Beaumont Theater NYC after 140 performances
- Oct 21 "Pacific Paradise" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 5 performances
- Oct 22 World Series Baseball: Oakland A's beat Reds, 3-2 in Cincinnati for a 4-3 series win; Athletics' first C'ship since 1930 and first in Oakland
- Oct 23 "Pippin" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 1944 performances
- Oct 23 Access credit cards introduced in Great Britain
- Oct 23 WNJS TV channel 23 in Camden, NJ (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Oct 23 Loyalist paramilitaries carry out raid on an Ulster Defence Regiment
- Oct 23 "I'm Still in Love with You" 5th studio album by Al Green is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1973)
- Oct 24 2 Catholic men are found dead at a farm at Aughinahinch, near Newtownbbutler, County Fermanagh - British soldiers carry out the killings
- Oct 25 Eddy Merckx (Belgium) covers 30 miles, 1,258 yards in 1 hr
- Oct 25 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Kenneth J Arrow & John R Hicks
Historic Invention
Oct 26 Edwin Land introduces the first truly instant camera the Polaroid SX-70 camera at an event in Miami, Florida
Edwin Land
Closure of Alcatraz
Oct 26 Guided tours of the former prison at Alcatraz by the National Park Service begin
Learn More
Event of Interest
Oct 26 Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam
Henry Kissinger
- Oct 27 Golden Gate National Recreation Area created
- Oct 27 OPEC approves plan providing for 25 percent government ownership of all Western oil interests operating within Kuwait, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia
- Oct 28 "Mother Earth" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 12 performances
- Oct 29 Don Cockroft of Cleveland Browns kicks 57-yard field goal
- Oct 30 Worst US rail accident in 14 years; 45 die in Chicago, llinois
- Oct 30 The Northern Ireland Office issues a discussion document 'The Future of Northern Ireland'; the paper states Britain's commitment to the union as long as the majority of people wish to remain part of the United Kingdom
- Oct 30 Loyalist paramilitaries carry out a raid on Royal Ulster Constabulary station in County Derry, and steal 4 British Army Sterling sub-machine Guns
- Oct 31 Gaylord Perry wins AL Cy Young award
- Oct 31 2 Catholic children (6 and 4) playing on the street are killed in a Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) car bomb attack on a bar in Ship Street, Belfast