- Oct 1 US Department of Energy established
Hall of Fame
Oct 1 Elton John honored by MSG Hall of Fame
Elton John
Baseball Record
Oct 2 Dusty Baker hits his 30th homer of the season against Astros' J.R. Richard; Dodgers become the first team in MLB history to have 4 players hit 30 or more HRs; joins Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32) and Ron Cey (30)
Steve Garvey
Event of Interest
Oct 2 Austrian Ferrari driver Niki Lauda finishes 4th in the US Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen to clinch his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; Englishman James Hunt wins the race
Niki Lauda
Event of Interest
Oct 3 "Comedy with Music (Victor Borge)" opens at Imperial NYC for 66 performances
Victor Borge
Event of Interest
Oct 3 Indira Gandhi arrested
Indira Gandhi
- Oct 5 "Hair" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 43 performances
- Oct 6 DL Coburns "Gin Game" premieres in NYC
- Oct 6 Yankees win AL pennant by rallying for 3 runs in 9th to beat KC Royals 5-3 in 5th & deciding playoff game
- Oct 6 In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
- Oct 7 Guitarist Steve Hackett quits Genesis
- Oct 7 USSR adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
- Oct 8 Largest baseball crowd in Penns, 64,924 see Dodgers beat Phillies 4-1 in 4th NL championship game (Dodgers win pennant)
- Oct 8 MLB National League Championship: Los Angeles Dodgers beat Philadelphia Phillies, 3 games to 1
- Oct 9 Soyuz 25 launched to Saluyt 6, but returned after failing to dock
- Oct 9 Yanks rally for 3 in 9th & beat Royals 5-3 for pennant #31
- Oct 9 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Kansas City Royals, 3 games to 2
- Oct 10 11th Country Music Association Award: Ronnie Milsap wins
- Oct 11 Soyuz 25 returns to Earth
Historic Invention
Oct 11 American inventor Gordon Gould issued his first US patent for a optically pumped laser amplifier, 20 years after first claiming to have invented the laser
Gordon Gould
- Oct 12 "Throwaway Game" Catfish Hunter loses WS 6-1 resting Yank pitchers
- Oct 12 4th test of space shuttle Enterprise
- Oct 12 Psychic Romark attempts to drive blindfolded, smashed into cop van
- Oct 12 US Supreme Court heard arguments in "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke, white student denied admission to University of California Med School
Event of Interest
Oct 14 Linda Ronstadt sings national anthem at World Series
Linda Ronstadt
- Oct 14 Princess Beatrice opens Amsterdam metro
- Oct 14 Rock band Kiss release their 2nd live album "Alive II"
- Oct 15 Arkansas' Steve Little kicks a record tying 67 yard field goal
- Oct 15 Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks
- Oct 15 Don Ritchie runs world record 100 mile (11:30:51)
- Oct 15 "Serpentine Fire" single released by Earth, Wind & Fire (Billboard Song of the Year 1978)
- Oct 17 Canada begins regular live TV coverage of Parliament
- Oct 17 West German commandos storm hijacked Lufthansa in Mogadishu, Somalia freeing all 86 hostages & killing 3 of 4 hijackers
- Oct 18 1st Islander 0-0 tie-Kings at Nassau-25th time shutout-Resch's 15th
- Oct 18 NY Yankees win their 21st World Championship, 4 games
- Oct 18 West German commandos liberate Boeing 737 with 86 hostages at Mogadishu
Baseball Record
Oct 18 Reggie Jackson hits 3 consecutive homers tying Ruth's series record
Reggie Jackson
Event of Interest
Oct 20 David Mamet's "Life in the Theater" premieres in NYC
David Mamet
- Oct 20 Hamilton Deane & John Balderstons "Dracula" premieres in NYC
- Oct 20 Plane chartered by rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd runs out of fuel and crashes in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi. Six people are killed, including band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gains, and Cassie Gaines, and road manager Dean Kilpatrick
- Oct 21 US recalls William Bowdler, ambassador to South Africa
- Oct 21 The European Patent Institute is founded.
- Oct 22 International Sun-Earth Explorers 1 & 2 launched into Earth orbit
- Oct 23 New York City Marathon: defending champion Bill Rodgers wins in 2:11:38; Miki Gorman retains women's title in 2:43:10
- Oct 23 Panamanians vote 2:1 to approve new Canal treaties
- Oct 23 Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announces discovery of a 3.4-billion year old one-celled fossil, one of the earliest life forms on Earth
- Oct 23 Despite not driving in season ending Japanese Grand Prix, Austrian Niki Lauda wins his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 17 points from Jody Scheckter of South Africa
- Oct 25 Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0.
- Oct 26 5th & final test of space shuttle Enterprise
- Oct 26 Dr Clifford R Wharton Jr named chancellor of State University of New York
- Oct 26 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Oct 26 Last natural case of smallpox discovered in Merca district, Somalia. Considered the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination
- Oct 27 Amsterdam businessman M Caransa kidnapped
- Oct 27 NASA launches space vehicle S-200
- Oct 29 "Act" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 233 performances
- Oct 29 Texas' Russell Erideben kicks his 3rd 60 yard field goal of the season
- Oct 29 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Oct 30 Panama 747SP lands after polar flight around Earth in record 54:07