This Week in History: Oct. 9th-15th

Oct 9- 1919: The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Chicago White Sox 10-5, winning the baseball World Series. A year later, eight Chicago players were indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to defraud, having accepted money from gamblers to lose the Series. The “Black Sox Scandal” cast a dark shadow over America’s pastime and resulted in the players receiving lifetime bans from baseball for their participation. 1941: President Franklin Roosevelt approves creation of a group to study the potential of atomic weapons that would become known as the Manhattan Project. 1963: A huge landslide into a reservoir in northern Italy created a mega tsunami that sent a wall of water 800 feet over the Vajont Dam and into the valley below, killing an estimated 2,000 people. 1973: Elvis Presley and his wife Priscilla are divorced after six years of marriage.

Oct 10- 1780: The “Great Hurricane of 1780” kills between 20-30 thousand people in the Caribbean, making it the deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history. 1845: The Naval School opens in Annapolis, MD. It would be renamed the United States Naval Academy two years later. 1886: Men wear the first “dinner jacket” to the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, NY, condemning future generations of men to wear tuxedos on formal occasions! 1973: Vice President Spiro Agnew pleads no contest to a felony charge of tax evasion and resigns from office. He would later be replaced by House Republican leader Gerald Ford. 1975: Actress Elizabeth Taylor marries actor Richard Burton, for the second time!

Oct 11- 1922: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) appoints Alaska Davidson its first female special investigator. 1945: Civil war begins in China between Kuomintang government forces loyal to Chiang Kai-Shek and Communist Party rebels led by to Mao Zedong. 1962: Pope John XXIII convenes the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) to “modernize” the Catholic Church. 1975: “Saturday Night Live” premieres on NBC, with comedian George Carlin as the first host.

Oct 12- 1492: The Spanish expedition led by Christopher Columbus makes landfall on a Caribbean Island he names San Salvador (believed to be Watling Island in the Bahamas). He mistakenly believed he had reached east Asia, explaining why he later referred to the indigenous people as “Indians.” 1609: The nursery rhyme “Three Blinde (sic) Mice” is first published in England. The editor of the book (and possible author of the rhyme) was Thomas Ravenscroft. Scholars continue to debate the hidden meaning of the simple rhyme. 1900: The first modern submarine, the USS Holland named for designer John Philip Holland, is commissioned by the US Navy. 1915: The one millionth automobile, a Model T, rolls off the assembly line at the Ford plant in Detroit, MI. 1999: The United Nations announces the estimated world population had reached six billion people.

Oct 13- 1884: The International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC officially recognizes Greenwich, England as the prime meridian for longitude and time, allowing for the establishment of uniform time zones around the globe.

Greenwich meridian. EncyclopædiaBritannica.com

1903: The Boston Americans win the first World Series (as recognized by Major League Baseball), defeating the Pittsburg Pirates 3-0 for a 5 games to 3 win in the best-of-nine series. 2010: An accident at the San José mine in Copiapó, Chile ends happily as all 33 miners survive after being buried underground for 69 days! 2016: Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first musician to win the award.

Oct 14- 1066: Norman troops led by William the Conqueror defeat the English at the Battle of Hastings, ending 500 years of Anglo-Saxon rule and leading to the introduction of common law in England. 1892: “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” a collection of twelve short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle previously serialized in Strand Magazine, is published in London. 1933: Nazi Germany withdraws from membership in the League of Nations. 1982: President Ronald Reagan declares “war on drugs.” 2007: “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” premieres on the E! cable network (no comment needed).

Oct 15- 1815: Napoleon Bonaparte arrives on the island of St. Helena to begin his exile from France. 1860: 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln suggesting that he grow a beard. 1917: Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad outside Paris for spying for Germany during World War I. 1993: Nelson Mandella and South African President F. W. de Klerk share the Nobel Peace Prize. 2017: Actress Alyssa Milano’s post on Twitter (now X), asking women who had been victims of sexual harassment or assault to respond “me too,” goes viral and sparks a nationwide movement.