Historical Events in October 1972

Sports History

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 season wins

Oct 3 Roric Harrison homers as Baltimore beats Cleveland, 4-3; last AL pitcher to homer until MLB inter-league play 25 years later
Oct 3 Spaceflight 71-2 launched; 1st flexible substrate photovoltaic flown
Oct 3 USSR performs nuclear test

Sports History

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

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

Event of Interest

Oct 6 Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Jack Lynch closes the Sinn Féin office in Dublin

Oct 7 First NY Islanders NHL game at Nassau Coliseum; Calgary Flames win, 3-2

F1 World Champion

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 8 Harold Carmichael begins NFL streak of 127 consecutive game receptions

Sports History

Oct 8 In Game 2 of ALCS, Oakland A's Bert Campaneris fires his bat at Det pitcher

Oct 8 International music revue "From Israel with Love" closes limited run at Palace Theater, NYC, after 8 performances
Oct 8 MLB Detroit Tiger pitcher Lerrin LaGrow and Oakland A's shortstop Bert Campaneris, each fined and suspended when Campaneris flung his bat at the mound after getting hit by a pitch
Oct 9 "Dude" opens at Broadway Theater, NYC; runs 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 MLB National League Championship: Cincinnati Reds beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 3 games to 2
Oct 11 Panama adopts constitution
Oct 11 Prison uprising at Washington, D.C. jail
Oct 11 World Hockey Association officially debuts as the Alberta Oilers defeat the Ottawa Nationals, 7-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre
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 Uruguay to Chile plane crashes in Andes Mountains, (passengers eat crash victims to survive, 16 of 45 rescued 2 months later)
Oct 14 North Irish Loyalist paramilitaries raid Headquarters of the 10 Ulster Defence Regiment in Belfast and stole rifles and ammunition
Oct 14 Oakland catcher Gene Tenace is first to homer in first 2 World Series at-bats as A's beat Reds, 3-2 in Game 1 at Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati

Sports History

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

Oct 15 61st Davis Cup: USA beats Romania in Bucharest (3-2)
Oct 15 Omni in Atlanta opens - Hawks beat NY Knicks 109-101
Oct 16 "Pacific Paradise" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 5 performances
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 16 Rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival break up
Oct 17 Bob Randall's "6 Rooms Riv Vu," premieres in NYC

#1 in the Charts

Oct 17 Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Lng," is #1

Rock Guitarist and Singer-Songwriter 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"

Appointment of Interest

Oct 20 John Betjeman is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Elizabeth II

Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II

Oct 20 Queen Juliana visits Yugoslavia
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 Baseball World Series: Oakland A's beat Reds, 3-2 in Cincinnati for a 4-3 series win; A's first C'ship since 1930, first in Oakland: MVP: A's catcher Gene Tenace
Oct 23 "I'm Still in Love with You" 5th studio album by Al Green is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1973)
Oct 23 Access credit cards introduced in Great Britain
Oct 23 Loyalist paramilitaries carry out raid on an Ulster Defence Regiment

Music Premiere

Oct 23 Stephen Schwartz' musical "Pippin", starring Ben Vereen; Irene Ryan, and Jill Clayburgh, and directed by Bob Fosse, opens at Imperial Theater, NYC; runs for 1944 performances, winning 5 Tony Awards

Oct 23 WNJS TV channel 23 in Camden, NJ (PBS) begins broadcasting
Oct 24 2 Catholic men are found dead at a farm at Aughinahinch, near Newtownbbutler, County Fermanagh - British soldiers carry out the killings

Sports History

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

Closure of Alcatraz

Oct 26 Guided tours of the former prison at Alcatraz by the National Park Service begin

The last prisoners walk down Broadway as Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes

Event of Interest

Oct 26 Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam

US Secretary of State and Political Scientist Henry Kissinger

Music History

Oct 26 Ringo Starr and singer Lulu appear in non-speaking cameos on "Monty Python's Flying Circus" program

Beatles Drummer, Singer, and Actor Ringo Starr

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 Loyalist paramilitaries carry out a raid on Royal Ulster Constabulary station in County Derry, and steal 4 British Army Sterling sub-machine Guns
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 Worst US rail accident in 14 years; 45 die in Chicago, llinois
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