- Oct 1 US Department of Energy established
Hall of Fame
Oct 1 Elton John honored by MSG Hall of Fame
Elton John
- Oct 1 New York Yankees end MLB season with 100-62 record; win 2nd consecutive AL East title; go on the win World Series 4-2 v LA Dodgers
- Oct 2 Pakistani general Zia ul-Haq bans all opposition
- 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)
- Oct 2 Austrian Ferrari driver Niki Lauda finishes 4th in the US Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen to clinch his second World Formula 1 Drivers title; Englishman James Hunt wins the race
- Oct 3 "Comedy with Music (Victor Borge)" opens at Imperial NYC for 66 performances
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
- Oct 14 Linda Ronstadt sings national anthem at World Series
- 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
- Oct 18 Yanks beat Dodgers 8-4 for 21st world championship, 1st in 15 years
- Oct 19 Corpse of kidnapped West German, H M Schleyer, found
- Oct 19 Supersonic Concorde jet's 1st landing in NYC
- Oct 20 David Mamet's "Life in the Theater" premieres in NYC
- Oct 20 Hamilton Deane & John Balderstons "Dracula" premieres in NYC
- Oct 20 Six killed in Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash in McComb, Mississippi including band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gains, Cassie Gaines and Dean Kilpatrick
- Oct 20 Plane chartered by rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi, killing six
- 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 7th NYC Women's Marathon won by Miki Gorman in 2:43:10
- Oct 23 8th NYC Marathon won by Bill Rodgers in 2:11:38
- 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, the earliest life form
- Oct 23 Despite not driving in season ending Japanese Grand Prix, Austrian Niki Lauda wins his second World Formula 1 Drivers title 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