Events in History
- Oct 1 1st Dutch casino opens
- Oct 3 Helmuth Kohl's CDU wins German parliament election
- Oct 4 Official launch of the Intercity 125 High Speed Train (HST).
- Oct 4 Supreme Court lifts 1972 ban on death penalty for convicted murderers
- Oct 4 US Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz resigns after telling a racial joke
- Oct 6 "Gang of Four" arrested in Beijing
- Oct 6 Cubana Flight 455 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean after two bombs, placed by terrorists with connections to the CIA, explode onboard shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados, killing all 73 people on board
Event of Interest
Oct 6 US President Gerald Ford says there is "no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe"
Event of Interest
Oct 7 Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao as Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Event of Interest
Oct 10 Beijing reports arrest of Mao Zedong's widow
Event of Interest
Oct 11 Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing and the "Gang of Four" are arrested and charged with plotting a coup
- Oct 12 Hua Guo-feng succeeds Mao Zedong as chairman of Communist Party
- Oct 13 A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground)
- Oct 13 First electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle obtained by Dr. F.A. Murphy, working at the C.D.C.
Nobel Prize
Oct 14 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to American economist Milton Friedman
- Oct 14 Soyuz 23 carries 2 to Salyut 6, but returns without docking
Event of Interest
Oct 15 1st debate of major-ticket US Vice President nominees, Walter Mondale (D) vs Bob Dole (R)
- Oct 16 Soyuz 23 returns to Earth
- Oct 17 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- Oct 18 Nobel prize for chemistry awarded to American William Lipscomb
- Oct 19 Battle of Aishiya, Lebanon during Lebanese Civil War.
- Oct 19 US President Gerald Ford signs 1st major revision of copyright law since 1909
- Oct 20 70 die as Norwegian tanker Frosta collides with George Prince
Nobel Prize
Oct 21 Nobel prize for literature awarded to American Saul Bellow
- Oct 22 Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
- Oct 24 1st Jewish film & TV festival
- Oct 25 5th Enterprise, approach & lands test (ALT) flight
- Oct 25 Governor Wallace grants full pardon to Clarence Norris, last known survivor of 9 Scottsboro Boys who were convicted in 1931 rape
- Oct 26 Transkei gains independence, not recognized outside of South Africa
- Oct 26 Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic
- Oct 28 Train collision at Goes Neth, 7 die
- Oct 30 Jane Pauley becomes news co-anchor of Today Show
- Oct 30 Rev Joseph Evans elected president of United Church of Christ
Birthdays in History
- Oct 1 Antonio Roybal, American painter and sculptor
- Oct 2 Anita Kulcsár, Hungarian handball player (d. 2005)
- Oct 2 Jason Dodson, American political consultant and teacher of esotericism
- Oct 4 Ueli Steck, Swiss mountain climber, born in Emmental (d. 2017)
- Oct 5 Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechen President, born in Tsentaroy, Russia
- Oct 14 Ben Pridmore, World Memory Champion
- Oct 16 Ryan Fitzgerald, Australian football (AFL) player and media personality
- Oct 21 Mélanie Turgeon, French Canadian alpine skier
- Oct 29 Mohsen Emadi, Iranian-Mexican Poet, born in Sari, Iran
Weddings in History
Benjamin Spock
Oct 24 Pediatrician Benjamin Spock (73) weds Mary Morgan
Deaths in History
Carlo Gambino (1902-1976)
Oct 15 Italian-born American mafioso (Gambino family), dies of a heart attack at 74