Event of Interest
Oct 3 Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson release "Say, Say, Say" in UK
Michael Jackson
Paul McCartney
- Oct 4 Richard Noble driving Thrust2 reaches new land speed record of 650.88 mph (1,047.49 km/h) at Black Rock Desert, Nevada
Nobel Prize
Oct 5 Lech Wałęsa wins Nobel Peace Prize
Lech Wałęsa
NHL Record
Oct 5 Edmonton super star Wayne Gretzky scores a goal and assist in 5-4 win over Toronto in the Oilers season opener; starts NHL record 51-game scoring streak; ends 28/1/84
Wayne Gretzky
NHL Record
Oct 6 Islander's Mike Bossy's 25th career hat trick
Mike Bossy
- Oct 6 NY Jets announce they are leaving Shea for Meadowlands
- Oct 6 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Oct 8 1st regular season Islander OT game beat Caps 8-7
- Oct 8 Washington Capitals 1st NHL overtime game losing to NY Islanders 8-7
- Oct 8 MLB National League Championship: Philadelphia Phillies beat Los Angeles Dodgers, 3 games to 1
- Oct 8 MLB American League Championship: Baltimore Orioles beat Chicago White Sox, 3 games to 1
- Oct 9 Buffalo Bill QB Joe Ferguson passes 419 yards with 5 TDs
- Oct 9 4 South Korean government ministers assassinated in Rangoon Burma
- Oct 10 17th Country Music Association Award: Alabama wins
- Oct 10 Israel's Knesset votes 60-53 to endorse Yitzḥak Shamir as PM
- Oct 10 Tom Monaghan becomes CEO of Detroit Tigers
- Oct 10 NBC premiere of true life drama "Adam", based on John Walsh's son's murder
- Oct 11 Last hand-cranked telephones US went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched over to direct-dial
Album Release
Oct 11 "Can't Slow Down" 2nd studio album by Lionel Richie is released
Lionel Richie
- Oct 12 5225 Loral & 5424 Covington
- Oct 13 Ameritech Mobile Communications (now Cingular) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
- Oct 14 Grenada Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard launches a leftist coup within the revolutionary government and takes power for 3 days
- Oct 14 US Marine peacekeeper Sgt Allen Soifert killed by sniper in Beirut
- Oct 15 Black Hawks & Maple Leafs combine for fastest 5 goals (84 seconds)
- Oct 15 Columbia beats Yale 21-18 in football, will lose next 44 games
- Oct 15 US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut International Airport
Event of Interest
Oct 15 Nelson Piquet of Brazil finishes 3rd in the season ending South African Grand Prix at Kyalami to clinch his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins by 2 points from Alain Prost
Alain Prost
- Oct 16 "Zorba" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 362 performances
Ryder Cup
Oct 16 Ryder Cup Golf, PGA National GC: US wins 14½-13½; Bernard Gallacher's missed 3-foot putt for bogey gives Tom Watson 2 & 1 win and the US winning point
Tom Watson
Television Debut
Oct 17 Talk show "The Sally Jessy Raphael Show" with Sally Jessy Raphael debuts on KSDK
Sally Jessy Raphael
Event of Interest
Oct 19 US Senate establishes Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday
Martin Luther King Jr.
- Oct 20 IBM-PC DOS Version 2.1 released
Appointment of Interest
Oct 21 Pope John Paul II names 3 new Dutch bishops
John Paul II
- Oct 22 Two correctional officers are killed by inmates in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspired the Supermax model of prisons.
- Oct 23 13th NYC Women's Marathon won by Grete Waitz in 2:27:00
- Oct 23 14th NYC Marathon won by Rod Dixon in 2:08:59
- Oct 23 400,000 demonstrate in Brussels, against cruise missile
- Oct 23 Suicide terrorist truck bomb kills 243 US personnel in Beirut
- Oct 25 US invades Grenada, a country 1/2,000 its population (US Wins!)
- Oct 26 Hugh Whitemore's "Pack of Lies" premieres in London
- Oct 26 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- Oct 29 550,000 Dutch demonstrate against cruise missile
- Oct 29 Notre Dame's Gil Fenerty rushes for 337 yards & 6 touchdowns
- Oct 30 The first democratic elections are held in Argentina after seven years of military rule.
Album Release
Oct 31 Paul McCartney releases "Pipes of Peace" album
Paul McCartney
- Oct 31 Ron Grant completes a 217 day, 8,316 mile run around Australia