1565 - The French surrendered under the terms of a truce that guaranteed them amnesty to Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the Spanish navigator, who had captured the French Huguenot colony at Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. However, after they surrendered, Mendendez hanged them, putting a sign over the bodies that read: “I do this not to Frenchmen but to Lutherans.” In 1568, the fort was recaptured by a Huguenot corsair, Dominque de Gourges, who took his revenge by killing all his prisoners. His sing read: “I do this not to Spaniards...but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers.”
    1789 – In the first Presidential tour, President George Washington visited New England.
    1790 - Ann Teresa Mathews (aka Mother Bernardina) and Frances Dickinson founded a convent of Discalced Carmelites (a contemplative working order) in Port Tobacco, Maryland. It was the first Catholic convent founded in the United States. 
    1840 - In Melville, Missouri, the Evangelical Synod of North America was founded. It later became one of the branches of today's United Church of Christ. 
    1858 - Birthday of John L. Sullivan (d. 1918), boxer, born at Roxbury, MA.  “The Great John L” was one of America's first sports heroes. He captured the world's bare-knuckle heavyweight championship on Feb 7, 1882, and went six years without defending the tile. He won the last bare-knuckle fight in 1889 and then lost the title to James J. Corbett in 1892. This was the first fight in which the boxers used gloves and were governed by the Marquess of Queensberry rules.
    1860 - 11-year-old Grace Bedell (1848-1936), of Westfield, NY, wrote to Abraham Lincoln, telling him to grow a beard.
    1863 - The C.S.S. Hunley, the first successful submarine, sinks during a test run, killing its inventor and seven crewmembers. Horace Lawson Hunley developed the submarine from a cylinder boiler. It was operated by a crew of eight--one person steered while the other seven turned a crank that drove the ship's propeller. The Hunley could dive, but it required calm seas for safe operations. It was tested successfully in Alabama's Mobile Bay in the summer of 1863, and Confederate commander General Pierre G.T. Beauregard recognized that the vessel might be useful to ram Union ships and break the blockade of Charleston Harbor. The Hunley was placed on a railcar and shipped to South Carolina. The submarine experienced problems upon its arrival. During a test run, a crewmember became tangled in part of the craft's machinery and the craft dove with its hatch open; only two men survived the accident. The ship was raised and repaired, but it was difficult to find another crew that was willing to assume the risk of operating the submarine. Its inventor and namesake stepped forward to restore confidence in his creation. On October 15, he took the submarine into Charleston Harbor for another test. In front of a crowd of spectators, the Hunley slipped below the surface and did not reappear. Horace Hunley and his entire crew perished. Surprisingly, another willing crew was assembled and the Hunley went back into the water. On February 17, 1864, the ship headed out of Charleston Harbor and approached the U.S.S. Housatanic. The Hunley stuck a torpedo into the Yankee ship and then backed away before the explosion. The Housatanic sank in shallow water, and the Hunley became the first submarine to sink a ship in battle. Unfortunately, its first successful mission was also its last--the Hunley sank before it returned to Charleston, taking yet another crew down with it. The vessel was raised on August 8, 2000, and now resides in an exhibit at the Charleston History Museum.
    1874 - Child labor law passed, prohibiting 12 year olds from working.
    1878 – Thomas Edison opened the doors to the Edison Electric Company at 65 Fifth Avenue, New York City.  Three thousand shares with a par value of $100 each were issued for the express purpose of financing Thomas Alva Edison's work on the incandescent lamp. J.P. Morgan and his friends were enthusiastic investors. Though commercial electric light had eluded inventors for over fifty years, Edison had vowed that he would create the first incandescent lamp, and as important, build a plant to support the electricity to run the lights. He quickly made good on his promise. His company was soon flush with profits, and competitors hoping to cash in on the burgeoning market were springing up everywhere. Reportedly learning quickly from his investors, Edison adopted the aggressive tactics of vertical integration, buying his rivals and transforming his company into a model modern enterprise, re-christening it General Electric Company.
    1885 – Ol’ Hoss Radbourn, of the Providence Grays, won his 60th game of the season.  Some sources credited him with 59, but either way, this is the most wins by a pitcher in Major League history.  The NY Highlanders’ Jack Chesbro won 41 in 1904 which is the record in the modern era, post 1901. Radbourn was among the first elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame, in 1939.
    1892 - By Presidential Proclamation, 1.8 million acres of Crow Indian reservation were opened to settlers. The government had induced the Crow to give up a portion of their land in the mountainous western area in the state of Montana, for which they received 50 cents per acre.
    1892 - On the last day the season, Cincinnati Reds P Bumpus Jones, in his first major league appearance, threw a no-hitter against Pittsburgh. This will turn out to be the latest date in the season that a no-hitter is ever pitched in the Majors. After that, Jones will pitch only one more season, in 1893, leading to a 2-4 career record with 10 strikeouts and a 7.99 ERA in 41 2/3 innings.
    1900 - Pentecostal evangelist Charles Fox Parham opened Bethel Bible Institute in Topeka, Kansas. It was here on January 1, 1901 that the first Christian in modern times was reported to have spoken in tongues: student Agnes Ozman.
    1904 - Birthday of Marty Mann (d. 1980), American social activist and author, at Chicago, IL. She was a founder in 1944 of the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism and author of “A New Primer on Alcoholism”. 
    1906 – Former Sen. Hiram Fong of Hawaii (d.  2004) was born in Honolulu.  He is the first Asian-American and Chinese-American to be elected as such. In 1964, Fong became the first Asian-American to run for the Republican Party nomination for President.
    1908 – Economist John Kenneth Galbraith (d. 2006) was born in Ontario, Canada.  His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s, during which time he fulfilled the role of public intellectual. He leaned toward Post-Keynesian economics.  Galbraith was a long-time Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics. He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books, including several novels, and published more than a thousand articles and essays on various subjects. Among his most famous works was a popular trilogy on economics, “American Capitalism” (1952), “The Affluent Society” (1958), and “The New Industrial State” (1967).
    1909 - The first apartment house to occupy a square city block was the Belnord Apartment House, a 12-story building in New York City. It was bounded by 86th street on the south, 87th street on the north, Broadway on the west and Amsterdam Avenue on the east. At the time, it was the largest apartment house in the world. Its area was 64,614 square feet with an interior court of 22,033 square feet. It contained six separate passenger elevators and 178 suites, each with 7 to 11 rooms and two to four baths. Every room was an outside room. Annual rentals ranged from $2,100 upwards. Philip Hiss and H. Hobart Weekes were the architects.
    1909 – Newsman Robert Trout (d. 2000) was born Robert Albert Blondheim in Washington, DC.  Trout was behind the microphone for many of broadcasting's firsts. He was the first to report on live congressional hearings from Capitol Hill, first to transmit from a flying airplane and, by some definitions, the first to broadcast a daily news program, creating the news anchorman role.  In the mid-1930s, he passed on to a then-new CBS executive, Edward R. Murrow, the value of addressing the radio audience intimately, as if the announcer was talking to one person. Trout played a key role in Murrow's development as a broadcaster, and the two would remain colleagues until Murrow departed the network in 1961, and friends until Murrow's death in 1965.  On Sunday night, March 13, 1938, after Hitler’s Germany had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, Trout hosted a shortwave "roundup" of reaction from multiple cities in Europe—the first such multi-point live broadcast on network radio. The broadcast included reports from correspondent William L. Shirer in London (on the annexation, which he had witnessed firsthand in Vienna) and Murrow, who filled in for Shirer in Vienna so that Shirer could report without Austrian censorship.  The special gave Trout the distinction of being one of broadcasting's first true "anchormen" (in the sense of handing off the air to someone else as if it were a baton). It became the inspiration for the “CBS World News Roundup”, a forerunner of television's CBS Evening News, which began later in 1938 and to this day continues to air each weekday morning and evening on the CBS Radio Network.  Trout emceed not only news and special events but also occasional entertainment programs during his first tenure at CBS, from 1932 to 1948, including a stint in London while Murrow was back in the United States. He was the announcer on CBS' “The American school of the Air” and on “Professor Quiz”, radio's first true quiz program. Trout anchored the network's live early morning coverage of the June 6, 1944 Normandy invasion on D-Day by the Allies and was behind the microphone when the bulletins announcing the end of World War II in Europe, and later Japan, came over the air.
    1910 – The airship “America” took off from Atlantic City on the world’s first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.  America was a non-rigid airship built by Mutin Godard in France in 1906 for journalist Walter Wellman’s attempt to reach the North Pole by air.  Instead, Wellman resolved to make the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. He had America enlarged to 345,000 cu ft.  After takeoff, condensing water on the airship's skin added excess weight, and it was difficult to gain height. A passing storm also made forward navigation difficult. The engines failed 38 hours into the flight, apparently due to contamination by beach sand, and she drifted. The crew jettisoned all excess weight, including one of the defunct engines.  The ship had gone as far as a point east of New Hampshire and south of Nova Scotia before floating generally south.  After another 33 hours, and having now traveled a total distance of 1,370 miles from launching, they sighted a Royal Mail steamship west of Bermuda. After attracting the ship's attention by a signaling lamp using Morse code, Operator Jack Irwin made the first aerial distress call by radio. The crew, and mascot cat "Kiddo", got into the lifeboat and, after opening the gas valves on the airship, abandoned America which drifted out of sight and was never seen again. The steamship, having barely avoided running down the lifeboat in a high crosswind, was able to rescue the crew and returned them to New York.  The first successful aerial crossings of the Atlantic came nine years later.
    1912 - At Fenway Park which opened this year, the NY Giants defeated Smokey Joe Wood and the Red Sox, 11-4 in Game 6 of the World Series. Boston center fielder Tris Speaker turned an unassisted double play in the 8th inning, the only one by an outfielder in Series history.
    1915 - Birthday of pianist Nellie Lutcher (d. 2007), Lake Charles, LA.
    1916 - Birthday of trumpet player Al Killian (d. 1950) in Birmingham. AL.
(most notable for playing with Basie '40-'44, Ellington '47-'50)
    1917 - The Chicago White Sox captured the World Series when no one from the Giants covered home plate, allowing Eddie Collins to score the winning run.  Catcher Bill Rariden had run up the third base line to start a rundown, expecting the pitcher or 1B to cover home. However, neither of them budged, forcing 3B Heinie Zimmerman to chase Collins while pawing helplessly in the air with the ball in an attempt to tag him. Two years before the issue of baseball betting reached its peak, Zimmerman found himself having to publicly deny purposely allowing the run to score, i.e. to deny that he had "thrown" the game. In truth, McGraw blamed Benton and Holke for failing to cover the plate. A quote often attributed to Zim, but actually invented by writer Ring Lardner some years later, was that when asked about the incident Zim replied, "Who the hell was I supposed to throw to, Klem (umpire Bill Klem, who was working the plate)?" Conventional wisdom has it that Collins was much faster than Zimmerman, but existing photos of the play show that Zimmerman was only a step or two behind Collins, who actually slid across the plate while Zim jumped over him to avoid trampling him. Zimmerman would eventually be banned for life due to various accusations of corruption.  Additionally, the great Jim Thorpe made his only World Series "appearance" during Game 5, where he was listed in the lineup card as starting in right field; but for his turn at bat in the top of the first inning he was replaced by a left-handed hitting Dave Robertson.
    1917 – Arthur Schlesinger (d. 2007) was born in Columbus, OH.  A specialist in American history, much of Schlesinger's work explored the history of 20th-century American liberalism. In particular, his work focused on leaders such as Truman, Roosevelt and the Kennedys. In the 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns, he was a primary speechwriter and adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson.   Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of the Kennedy Administration, from the 1960 presidential campaign to the president's state funeral, titled “A Thousand Days:  John F. Kennedy in the White House” which won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize.
    1918 - The leading film studios announce they will stop releasing films temporarily because of the influenza epidemic. Many theaters had been closed by cities throughout the country to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. Two years earlier, New York City had banned children from theaters in an attempt to halt the spread of polio.
    1920 – Novelist Mario Puzo (d. 1999) born NYC.  Best known for his “Godfather” trilogy, made more famous by director-producer Francis Ford Coppola’s film trilogy.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mpuzo.htm
http://www.mariopuzo.com/biography.shtml
    1923 – In their first World Series victory, the Yankees scored five runs in the 8th inning to post a comeback victory in Game 6. Babe Ruth hit a 1st-inning home run in the Yankees' 6 - 4 victory over the rival New York Giants.  This was also the first World Series at the then-new Yankee Stadium.  Co-incidentally, in 2009, when the new Yankee Stadium opened, the Yanks won their 27th World Series.
    1924 – President Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty to be a National Monument.
    1925 – Birthday of guitarist/singer Mickey Baker, (d. 2012) was born MacHouston Baker in Louisville, KY.  He formed Mickey and Sylvia with Sylvia Robinson, one of his guitar students, in the mid-1950s.  Together, they had a hit single with "Love is Strange” in 1956. 
    1928 - The airship Graf Zeppelin completed its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, NJ, a 6,168 mile, 111 hour crossing from Friedrichshafen, Germany with Dr. Eckener in command. Capt. Ernst Lehmann, who would be killed in the crash of the Hindenburg at Lakehurst eight and a half years later, served as First Officer on the flight.
    1937 – One time New Christy Minstrels member, gravelly voiced singer of “Eve of Destruction,” Staff Sgt. Barry McGuire was born in Oklahoma City, OK. One of the things that set them apart from the other folk groups of their time was the concept of signing new players, like all pro-sports teams. New blood was always being added to the group, while seasoned musicians went off to make careers of their own. Famed alumni include: Kenny Rogers, The First Edition, Karen Black, John Denver, Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark, Kim Carnes and many, many more.
http://www.tsimon.com/mcguire.htm
    1937 - Ernest Hemingway novel “To Have and Have Not” is published.
http://www.hemingwaysociety.org/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037382/
http://www.culturevulture.net/Movies/ToHave.htm
    1939 – LaGuardia Airport opened in Queens, NYC as New York Municipal Airport.
    1946 - With two outs, and St. Louis Cardinals' Enos Slaughter on first, Harry Walker hit a line drive to left-center. Slaughter got an early jump as Boston Red Sox pitcher Bob Klinger failed to hold him on the bag. Leon Culberson (in center) bobbled Walker's single and shortstop Johnny Pesky hesitated on the cutoff (checking the runner on first instead of throwing home). Ignoring third base coach Mike Gonzalez, Slaughter rounded third and scored. Pitcher Harry Brecheen shut down the Red Sox in the ninth and St. Louis won the game, 4-3, and the World Series, four games to three. The '46 Series will always be remembered in Red Sox lore as the one in which “Pesky held the ball.”
    1947 - Top Hits
“I Wish I Didn't Love You So” - Vaughn Monroe
“Feudin' and Fightin'” - Dorothy Shay
“Near You” - The Francis Craig Orchestra (vocal: Bob Lamm)
“Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” - Tex Williams
    1950 - The first radio paging service was instituted in New York City area by Aircall The first call was for a doctor who was on a golf course 25 miles away. Subscribers equipped with six-ounce Aircall pocket radio receivers could hear their call numbers repeated in numerical sequence on the air at least once per minute within a 30-mile area.
    1951 - “I Love Lucy” premiers on television. This enormously popular sitcom, TV's first smash hit, starred the real-life husband and wife team of Cuban actor/bandleader Desi Arnaz and talented redheaded actress/comedienne Lucille Ball. They played Ricky and Lucy Ricardo, a New York bandleader and his aspiring actress/home­maker wife who was always scheming to get on stage. Costarring were William Frawley and Vivian Vance as Fred and Ethel Mertz, the Ricardo’s' landlords and good friends who participated in the escapades and dealt with the consequences of Lucy's often well-intentioned plans. Famous actors guest-starred on the show, including Harpo Marx, Rock Hudson, William Holden, Hedda Hopper and John Wayne. This was the first sitcom to be filmed live before a studio audience, and it did extremely well in the rat­ings both the first time around and in reruns. The last telecast ran Sept 24, 1961 but “I Love Lucy” lives on in re-runs.
    1952 - POMEROY, RALPH E., Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company E, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kumhwa, Korea, 15 October 1952. Entered service at: Quinwood, W. Va. Born: 26 March 1930, Quinwood, W. Va. G.O. No.: 97, 30 December 1953. Citation: Pfc. Pomeroy, a machine gunner with Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. While his comrades were consolidating on a key terrain feature, he manned a machine gun at the end of a communication trench on the forward slope to protect the platoon flank and prevent a surprise attack. When the enemy attacked through a ravine leading directly to his firing position, he immediately opened fire on the advancing troops inflicting a heavy toll in casualties and blunting the assault. At this juncture the enemy directed intense concentrations of artillery and mortar fire on his position in an attempt to neutralize his gun. Despite withering fire and bursting shells, he maintained his heroic stand and poured crippling fire into the ranks of the hostile force until a mortar burst severely wounded him and rendered the gun mount inoperable. Quickly removing the hot, heavy weapon, he cradled it in his arms and, moving forward with grim determination, raked the attacking forces with a hail of fire. Although wounded a second time he pursued his relentless course until his ammunition was expended within 10 feet of the foe and then, using the machine gun as a club, he courageously closed with the enemy in hand-to-hand combat until mortally wounded. Pfc. Pomeroy's consummate valor, inspirational actions and supreme sacrifice enabled the platoon to contain the attack and maintain the integrity of the perimeter, reflecting lasting glory upon himself and upholding the noble traditions of the military service.
    1954 - Hurricane Hazel made landfall near Cape Fear, NC with winds near 150 mph, a category 4 storm. Tides reached 18 feet above normal with extreme destruction along the North Carolina coast. At Long Beach, 300 homes vanished, no debris remained. Every fishing pier from Myrtle Beach, SC to Cedar Island, NC, a total of 170 miles, was destroyed. As the storm came inland it quickly transformed into a powerful extra tropical storm and raced north northwestward though the mid-Atlantic states. Washington, D.C. had a record sustained wind of 78 mph with gusts to 98 mph. Hazel killed 98 and caused $251 million in damages
    1955 - “Fury” premiers on TV.  This popular series starred Bobby Diamond as Joey Newton, an orphan living on the streets. He is relocated to a ranch owned by recent widower Jim Newton (Peter Graves), who eventually adopts Joey. Joey's friend is a black horse given to him by Newton, called Fury. Also featured were William Fawcett, Roger Mobley and Jimmy Baird. In syndication, the series was retiled “Brave Stal­lion.”
    1955 - Top Hits
“Love is a Many”-Splendored Thing - The Four Aces
“Autumn Leaves” - Roger Williams
“Black Denim Trousers” - The Cheers
“The Cattle Call” - Eddy Arnold
    1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language, was shared with the coding community for the first time.
    1957 – The New York Giants, on the way to San Francisco, traded their minor league franchise in Minneapolis to the Boston Red Sox, for the Red Sox’ San Francisco Seals franchise.  The players of the teams were not involved.
    1959 - Van Johnson was originally slated to play Eliot Ness, but he backed out in a dispute over money the weekend before filming was to begin. Robert Stack was hastily recruited for the starring role in "The Untouchables" on a Sunday morning. He was fitted for costumes in the afternoon, and started filming the first episode, "The Empty Chair", on Monday morning. "The Untouchables", with the chatter of machine-gun fire and the squeal of tires on the streets of Chicago, began a four-year run this day on ABC-TV. With Stack as G-man Ness were Nick Georgiade (as Enrico Rossi), Jerry Paris (as Martin Flaherty), Abel Fernandez (as William Youngfellow), Anthony George (as Cam Allison), Paul Picerni (as Lee Hobson), Steve London (as Agent Rossman) and Bruce Gordon (as Frank Nitti). The unforgettable narrator was radio's famous Walter Winchell.
http://www.tvparty.com/untouch.html
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-674/
    1963 - Top Hits
“Sugar Shack” - Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs
“Be My Baby” - The Ronettes
“Cry Baby” - Garnet Mimms and The Enchanters
“Talk Back Trembling Lips” - Ernest Ashworth
    1963 - The Rip Chords record "Hey Little Cobra", which features Doris Day's son Terry Melcher on lead vocal, with the high harmony added by future Beach Boys member, Bruce Johnston, who played in my band in high school. The record will enter the Hot 100 next January and reach #4.
    1964 - For St. Louis, it was the first time a Cardinal team had appeared in the World Series since 1946 (see above), and the first of three Series appearances in the 1960s. For the Yankees, it was their last Series appearance for 12 years, and the last hurrah in a long string of Fall Classics for legendary players Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle. The Cards won the Series in seven games, with Bob Gibson's complete game, nine strike-out performance in game seven. Lou Brock's fifth-inning home run triggered a second 3-run inning and a 6-0 lead for Gibson. Mickey Mantle, Clete Boyer, and Phil Linz homered for New York, but it wasn't enough. The Cards won the game, 7-5, and the series, four games to three.
    1965 – Pitching on two days rest and with an arthritic elbow, the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax three-hit the Minnesota Twins in Game 7, 2-0, to win the 1965 World Series.  Koufax had trouble throwing his curveball for strikes but escaped a couple of early jams. Fighting the pain from the torque on his arm from throwing the curve, he gave up on it and pitched the late innings almost exclusively with fastballs. In the fourth inning, Dodger left fielder Lou Johnson told Koufax that he would get him the only run he would need. Johnson promptly stepped to the plate and hit one off the left-field foul pole to give the Dodgers a 1–0 lead. Ron Fairly followed with a double and scored on a Wes Parker single. The two runs came on three consecutive pitches off Twins lefty Jim Kaat who was also on two days’ rest.  Many consider this feat among the two or three greatest pitched games in World Series history.  Koufax contemplated retiring, which he did after the 1966 season, at age 31.
    1965 - The Catholic Worker Movement staged an anti-war rally in Manhattan including a public burning of a draft card; the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.
    1966 - A bill creating the Department of Transportation, the 12th Cabinet department, was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
    1966 - Bill Russell made his debut as the first black coach in the NBA as his Boston Celtics defeated the San Francisco Warriors, 121-113, at Boston Garden. Russell served as the Celtics' player-coach for three seasons and won two NBA titles.
    1966 - Although they would continue to crank out the hits into the 1980s, The Four Tops enjoyed their last US number 1 song with "Reach Out I'll Be There". 
    1966 - Grace Slick quits the local San Francisco band The Great Society to join Jefferson Airplane. She replaces Signe Toly Anderson, who left the band to have a baby.
    1966 – The Black Panther Party was created by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton.  The core practice was its armed citizens' patrols to monitor the behavior of police officers and challenge police brutality in Oakland, CA. In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The Black Panther Party instituted a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, and community health clinics
    1967 - ANDERSON, WEBSTER, MEDAL OF HONOR
Rank and organization: Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, Battery A, 2d Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 101st Airborne Infantry Division (Airmobile). Place and date: Tam Ky, Republic of Vietnam, 15 October 1967. Entered service at: Winnsboro, S.C. Born: 15 July 1933, Winnsboro, S.C. Citation: Sfc. Anderson (then S/Sgt.), distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as chief of section in Battery A, against a hostile force. During the early morning hours Battery A's defensive position was attacked by a determined North Vietnamese Army infantry unit supported by heavy mortar, recoilless rifle, rocket propelled grenade and automatic weapon fire. The initial enemy onslaught breached the battery defensive perimeter. Sfc. Anderson, with complete disregard for his personal safety, mounted the exposed parapet of his howitzer position and became the mainstay of the defense of the battery position. Sfc. Anderson directed devastating direct howitzer fire on the assaulting enemy while providing rifle and grenade defensive fire against enemy soldiers attempting to overrun his gun section position. While protecting his crew and directing their fire against the enemy from his exposed position, 2 enemy grenades exploded at his feet knocking him down and severely wounding him in the legs. Despite the excruciating pain and though not able to stand, Sfc. Anderson valorously propped himself on the parapet and continued to direct howitzer fire upon the closing enemy and to encourage his men to fight on. Seeing an enemy grenade land within the gun pit near a wounded member of his gun crew, Sfc. Anderson heedless of his own safety, seized the grenade and attempted to throw it over the parapet to save his men. As the grenade was thrown from the position it exploded and Sfc. Anderson was again grievously wounded. Although only partially conscious and severely wounded, Sfc. Anderson refused medical evacuation and continued to encourage his men in the defense of the position. Sfc. Anderson by his inspirational leadership, professionalism, devotion to duty and complete disregard for his welfare was able to maintain the defense of his section position and to defeat a determined attack. Sfc. Anderson's gallantry and extraordinary heroism at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
    1968 - Wyomia Tyus becomes the first person to win a gold medal in the 100 meter race in two consecutive Olympiads.
    1971 - Rick Nelson was booed off the stage when he didn't stick to all oldies at the seventh Annual Rock 'n' Roll Revival show at Madison Square Garden, New York. He tried to slip in some of his new material and the crowd did not approve. The negative reaction to his performance inspired Nelson to write his last top-40 hit, "Garden Party", which hit the top-ten about a year after the Madison Square Garden debacle. "Garden Party", ironically, was Nelson's biggest hit in years, “...If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck; But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck.”  In reality, he thought he was being booed for not playing his old hits and came away with the inspiration to write the song, which would climb to number six in 1972. It was later revealed that the crowd was booing some trouble makers who had started a fight and were being escorted out of the building. 
    1971 - Top Hits
“Maggie Mae/Reason to Believe” - Rod Stewart
“Superstar” - Carpenters
“Yo-Yo” - The Osmonds
“How Can I Unlove You” - Lynn Anderson
        1972 - Jackie Robinson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the second game of the World Series, commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his becoming the first African-American to play in modern Major League Baseball. Blacks played with white baseball players after the Civil War, during reconstruction.  This was Robinson’s final public appearance as he died nine days later. In a brief speech, he expressed his desire to see a black manager of a Major League Baseball team, a color barrier that had not yet been broken.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct15.html
    1973 - “Sweet Dreams.” Tom Snyder would use this phrase to close his late-night show, "Tomorrow", which debuted on NBC-TV this night. Tom would yuk it up with some of TV's most interesting chatter -- right after the "Tonight" show. NBC would later add critic Rona Barrett to the show. "Tomorrow" ran until January of 1982.
    1974 - Watergate trial begins. The eyes of the world were focused on the United States as the trial of H.R. Haldeman, John Erlichman, John Mitchell, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinson began. President Nixon had resigned in August and the Watergate co-conspirators had to answer to the court for their alleged involvement in the break-in and cover-up. The trial lasted until January 1, 1975. The defendants were sentenced in February, 1975.
    1974 – The Massachusetts National Guard was deployed by Governor Frank Sargent to Boston to restore order in the Boston school busing conflict.  On June 21, 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity issued a decision in that found that the Boston School Committee had followed an intentional policy of segregating the city's public schools by race, including building new schools and school annexes in overcrowded white-majority districts, instead of making use of empty seats and classrooms in districts with large minority populations. As a remedy, Garrity ordered the city's schools desegregated, leading to a system of desegregation busing.  In an earlier lawsuit, the Boston School Committee had sued the Massachusetts Board of Education for the Board's withholding of state funds for the Committee's refusal to conform to the requirements of the Massachusetts Racial Imbalance Act.  Ultimately, among the Boston districts most affected were West Roxbury, Roslindale, Hyde Park, the North End, Charlestown, South Boston, and Dorchester.  The desegregation plan and particularly busing, was met with an onslaught of protest. The integration plan provoked fierce criticism and led to months of racially motivated violence, with attacks at City Hall and South Boston and other city high schools, with dozens injured. In some white neighborhoods, protesters threw stones at arriving school buses arriving with black children from other parts of the city. White directed that police escort buses, and also coordinated with state officials to bring in several hundred state police to keep order.  
    1975 – In one of the most exciting World Series in history, the Red Sox’ Luis Tiant threw 163 pitches in winning his second game of the Series against Cincinnati, 5-4, to even the Series after four games.  The Reds would go on to win in seven games and among the greatest World Series games ever was game 6, won by Carlton Fisk’s game-winning HR in the 12th
    1976 - Ike and Tina Turner split as a musical act.   
    1977 - Debbie Boone's first single, "You Light Up My Life" reaches #1 on the Billboard Pop chart, where it will stay for 10 weeks. It would go on to win a Grammy Award for Best Song and 21-year-old Debbie is named Best New Artist. The record only made it to #48 in the UK. In the 1980s she focused on Country music, resulting in the #1 hit, "Are You on the Road to Lovin' Me Again". She later recorded Christian music, which garnered her four Top 10 Contemporary Christian albums as well as two more Grammys.
    1979 - Top Hits
“Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough” - Michael Jackson
“Rise” - Herb Alpert
“Sail On” - Commodores
“Last Cheater's Waltz” - T.G. Sheppard
    1982 - Lionel Richie of the Commodores fuels rumors that he'll be leaving the group as his solo song, "Truly" is on the R&B chart at #28. The song does rise to the Top Ten on both the R&B singles and pop singles charts.
    1982 - Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" enters the Billboard R&B singles chart on its way to number one. The song would also make the Top 10 in the UK and the Hot 100 and later win a Grammy as Best R&B Male Vocal Performance of the Year.
    1983 - Genesis' self-titled LP became their third consecutive number one album in the UK. It included the single "Mama", the band's biggest commercial UK success, which reached #4, but was less popular in the US where it climbed to #73.
    1986 - Trailing 3-0, Ray Knight of the New York Mets keyed a three-run rally in the ninth inning to tie the score in the sixth game of the National League Championship Series against the Houston Astros. The Mets won the game, 7-6, in 16 innings, to win what was then the longest postseason game ever, and the series as well, (4 hours and 42 minutes) in the sixteen innings at the Astrodome.
    1986 - After being down three games to one in the ALCS, the Red Sox pull off one the greatest comebacks in playoff history by defeating the California Angels 8-1 to win the American League pennant.
    1986 - Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia opens a sold-out two-week run of solo shows on Broadway.
    1987 - Top Hits
“Here I Go Again” - Whitesnake
“Lost in Emotion” - Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
“Carrie” - Europe
“The Way We Make a Broken Heart” - Rosanne Cash
    1987 - The National Football League Players Association ordered its members to return to work without a contract, effectively ending a 24-day strike against the NFL. The players reported after the owners' deadline and were told they would not play or be paid for the upcoming Sunday's game.
    1987 - Unseasonably cold weather continued in the eastern U.S., with thirteen cities reporting record low temperatures for the date. The low of 34 degrees at Montgomery, AL was their coldest reading of record for so early in the season. Lows of 32 degrees at Harrisburg, PA and 34 degrees at Parkersburg, WV marked their third straight morning of record cold.
    1988 - "Red Red Wine", by UB40, was the first reggae hit to make it to number one in the U.S. From the album "Labour of Love", "Red Red Wine" was #1 for only one week, but turned out to be UB40's signature song.
    1988 - Kirk Gibson hit a two-run, pinch-hit home run off A’s closer Dennis Eckersley with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 win over the Oakland A's in the first game of the World Series. Gibson, hampered by a strained left knee, hobbled around the bases pumping his arm in jubilation. The Dodgers won the Series, four games to one.
    1989 - Wayne Gretsky passes Gordie Howes as NHL's all-time top scorer.
    1989 - Hurricane Jerry made landfall on the upper Texas coast, the latest ever for a storm in this region. The center of this very small storm passed closest to Galveston, TX which reported sustained winds of 75 mph with gusts to 100 mph. Tides along the island were six to eight feet, and rainfall totals ranged up to slightly more than six inches north of Beaumont. Three persons were killed when their vehicle was blown off the Galveston seawall into the pounding surf. Total damage along the Upper Texas Coast was estimated at fifteen million dollars.
    1991 - After three days of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on charges of sexual harassment made against Judge Clarence Thomas by a former aide, Anita F. Hill, the Senate confirmed Thomas as the 106th US Supreme Court Justice with a 52-48 vote. The vote was the closest for a 20th-century justice and made Thomas, who would replace retired Justice Thurgood Marshall, the second African American to sit on the Supreme Court.
    1993 - Top Hits
“Dreamlover” - Mariah Carey
“Right Here (Human Nature)/Downtown” - SWV
“The River Of Dreams” - Billy Joel
“Whoomp! (There It Is)” - Tag Team
    1998 - Top Hits
“One Week” - Barenaked Ladies
“The First Night” - Monica
“I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” - Aerosmith
“How Deep Is Your Love” - Dru Hill Featuring Redman
    2001 – NASA’s Galileo spacecraft  passed within 112 miles of Jupiter’s moon Io.
    2003 – The Staten Island ferry boat “Andrew J. Barberi” ran into a pier at the St. George terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43. On March 8, 2005, the NTSB published a report on the incident that determined the probable cause of the collision was the assistant pilot's unexplained sudden incapacitation, with a contributory cause of the Master's failure to maintain command and control of his vessel.  “60 Minutes” uncovered that the assistant pilot was short on sleep when he crashed the boat.  The assistant pilot tried to commit suicide after the crash and admitted he had passed out on painkillers in the boat's pilothouse. He later pleaded guilty to 11 counts of seaman’s manslaughter. The ferry director also pleaded guilty after failing to enforce a rule requiring that ferries be operated by two pilots.
    2008 – The Dow-Jones Industrial average closed down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst day in Dow history based on a percentage drop.  The rout was on that would result in the Great Recession that in many ways was worse than the great depression of the 1930s.
    2014 - A study on a leukemia treatment by Novartis shows that the treatment led to remission in 90 percent of patients; the treatment is still in trial but will be submitted for U.S. FDA approval in 2016.

World Series Champions
    1917 - Chicago White Sox
    1923 - New York Yankees
    1925 - Pittsburgh Pirates
    1946 - St. Louis Cardinals
    1964 - St. Louis Cardinals
    1965 – Los Angeles Dodgers
    1970 - Baltimore Orioles