This Week in History: Oct. 2nd-8th

Oct 2- 1902: “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter is published in London. 1967: Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American Supreme Court justice in US history. 1971: A homing pigeon averages 133 Kph (82 mph) in a 1,100 Km race in Australia. (That’s what I call FLYING!). 2002: The first attack of the “Beltway Sniper” occurs in Montgomery County, MD just outside of Washington, DC. Ten people would be killed and three others critically injured until John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo were apprehended three weeks later. After both were convicted of multiple murders, Muhammed was executed on November 10, 2009; Lee Boyd Malvo is currently serving multiple life sentences in a Virginia prison.

John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo used this hole in the trunk of their Chevy Caprice to shoot victims in October 2002. FBI.gov

Oct 3- 1922: The first facsimile photo is sent over city telephone lines in Washington, DC. 1945: 10-year-old singer Elvis Presley finishes fifth at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show held in Tupelo, MS. He received $5 in fair ride tickets for his performance! 1990: East and West Germany are reunited after more than 40 years as two separate nations when the West German flag is raised over the Brandenberg Gate at midnight local time. 1995: O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman by a jury in Los Angeles, CA.

Oct 4- 1883: The first “Orient Express” train departs Paris bound for Istanbul, Turkey. 1895: The first US Open golf tournament is won by Englishman Horace Rawlins by two strokes over Scottish golfer Willie Dunn at the Newport Country Club in Newport, RI. 1927: Sculptor Gutzon Borglum begins work on Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, SD. He would die in March 1941 before the monument was completed in October that same year. 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I into low-Earth orbit, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth in space. 2023: Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) becomes the first Speaker of the House to be voted out of office by his own party.

Oct 5- 1813: American forces under the command of future president William Henry Harrison defeat Indian chief Tecumseh’s Confederation and British troops in modern-day Ontario, Canada during the War of 1812. 1947: President Harry S. Truman delivers the first nationally televised address from the White House. 1969: “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” makes its debut in England on BBC 1. 2000: Massive demonstrations in Belgrade, dubbed the “Bulldozer Revolution,” force President Slobodan Miloŝević from office. 2017: The New York Times publishes stories based on investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Oct 6- 1882: Baseball’s first “World’s Championship Series” begins as the upstart American Association Cincinnati Red Stockings defeat the National League champion Chicago White Stockings 4-0. 1927: “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson and the first film with a soundtrack is released in American movie theaters. The first “talkie” would foreshadow the demise of silent movies. 1948: President Harry S. Truman signs the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, paving the way for US membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 1951: USSR General Secretary Josef Stalin announces that the Soviet Union had developed an atomic bomb. 1995: Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announce discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star. They would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019.

Oct 7- 1816: The first double-decker steamboat, propelled by a paddle wheel in the stern, arrived in New Orleans. 1916: The Georgia Tech Yellowjackets, coached by John Heisman (who gave his name to college football’s highest honor), defeated Cumberland College 222-0, considered the most lopsided game in college football history! 1959: The USSR’s Luna 3 transmits the first pictures of the far side of the moon. 2023: Hamas launches an air and ground attack against Israel, killing more than 1,000 people and taking hundreds of hostages.

Oct 8- 1871: The Peshtigo Wildfire kills more than 1,200 people in Michigan and Wisconsin, the deadliest in US history, while the unrelated Great Chicago Fire begins, according to legend and speculation, when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow tips over a lantern in the barn. The conflagration in Chicago would kill fewer than 300 people but destroyed over 17,000 buildings covering 3.5 sq. mi. and left more than 100,000 people homeless. 1945: US inventor Percy Spencer patents the microwave oven. 2001: President George W. Bush announces the creation of the Office of Homeland Security in the aftermath of terrorist attacks one month earlier.