- Oct 1 "Don't Play Us Cheap" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 164 performances
- Oct 1 NYC Men's Marathon is 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
- 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
- Oct 3 USSR performs nuclear test
- Oct 3 Roric Harrison homers as Baltimore beats Cleveland, 4-3; last AL pitcher to homer until MLB inter-league play 25 years later
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 Offical 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
- Oct 17 Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-ling," is #1
- 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 Oakland A's 1st championship; beat Reds, 4 games to 3 in World Series
- 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
- Oct 26 Guided tours of Alcatraz (by Park Service) begin
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