Event of Interest
Oct 3 Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson release "Say, Say, Say" in UK

Michael Jackson
- 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
- Oct 6 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Event of Interest
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 leftist coup under vice-premier Coard
- 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
- Oct 15 34th Formula One WDC: Nelson Piquet wins by two points
- Oct 16 "Zorba" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 362 performances
- Oct 16 25th Ryder Cup: US, 14½-13½ at PGA National Golf Club (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, US)
- Oct 16 Balt Orioles beat Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 3 in 80th World Series
- Oct 17 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Gerard Debreu
- Oct 17 STS-9 vehicle moves to Vandenberg AFB due to SRB nozzle problem
- Oct 19 Columbia moves to Orbiter Processing Facility
- Oct 19 Grenada general Hudson Austin forms "revolutionary council"
- Oct 19 Philadelphia Flyers begin 13 NHL game win streak
Event of Interest
Oct 19 Senate establishes Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday

Martin Luther King Jr.
- Oct 20 IBM-PC DOS Version 2.1 released
Event 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