Milestones

[admihoek]

October 10 has seen one of the deadliest hurricanes on record, the first sabotage of a commercial airliner, and a battle that changed the course of world history.
680. In the Battle of Karbala, Hussain bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. Ali and his followers were killed by the forces of Yazid during the one day battle. The captured women were tortured, mocked and made an example of. This is commemorated by Muslims as Aashurah, a day of mourning.
732. The Battle of Tours is fought near Poitiers, France. The leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.
As later chroniclers praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, pre-20th century historians began to characterize this battle as being the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam. "Most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe." Leopold Von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world."
Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin, the powerful mayor of the palace of Austrasia and effective ruler of the Frankish kingdom. After Pepin died in 714 (with no surviving legitimate sons), Charles beat out Pepin's three grandsons in a power struggle and became mayor of the Franks. He expanded the Frankish territory under his control and in 732 repulsed an onslaught by the Muslims.
Victory at Tours ensured the ruling dynasty of Martel's family, the Carolingians. His son Pepin became the first Carolingian king of the Franks, and his grandson Charlemagne carved out a vast empire that stretched across Europe.
1471. At the Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm, Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
1575. In the Battle of Dormans, Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeat the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.
1580. After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.
The Siege of Smerwick, during the Desmond rebellions, led to one of the most infamous massacres in 16th century Ireland. Italian and Spanish Papal troops, and Irish men and women, were beheaded and their bodies thrown into the sea.
According to folklore, the English spent two days decapitating their victims, lining them up one by one in a nearby field. Today the field is known locally as Gort a Ghearradh (the Field of the Cutting) while the field where the heads were buried bears the name Gort nag Ceann (the Field of the Heads).
1845. In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
1886. The tuxedo dinner jacket makes its American debut at Tuxedo Park, New Jersey.
1919. Richard Strauss' opera Die Frau ohne Schatten ("Woman without Shadows") makes its debut performance in Vienna.
1920. The Carinthian Plebiscite determines that the larger part of Carinthia should remain part of Austria.
The Duchy of Carinthia was located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire from 976 until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806, and a crownland of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918.
By the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain the main area of the duchy formed the Austrian state of Carinthia. A small southeastern part was included into the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while the Canale Valley with the municipality of Tarvisio was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy.
1933. In the United Airlines Chesterton Crash, a United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
Eyewitnesses on the ground reported hearing an explosion at about 9:15 p.m., and told of seeing the plane in flames at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. A second explosion followed after the plane crashed.
Although there was a report that a man was seen carrying a brown package onto the plane in Newark, no suspect was ever identified or charged in this incident. This is thought to be the first proven act of air sabotage in the history of commercial aviation.
1938. Under the terms of the Munich Agreement, Nazi Germany takes control of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The deal was reached on 29 September, and at about 1:30 AM on 30 September 1938, Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and French premier Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement.
Though the British and French were pleased, as were the Nazi military and German diplomatic leadership, Hitler was furious. He felt as though he had been forced into acting like a bourgeois politician by his diplomats and generals. He exclaimed furiously soon after the meeting with Chamberlain: "Gentlemen, this has been my first international conference and I can assure you that it will be my last." Hitler now regarded Chamberlain with utter contempt. A British diplomat in Berlin was informed by reliable sources that Hitler viewed Chamberlain as "an impertinent busybody who spoke the ridiculous jargon of an outmoded democracy." The umbrella, which to the ordinary German was the symbol of peace, was in Hitler's view only a subject of derision. Also, Hitler had been heard saying: "If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers."
1942. The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
1943. Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as president of China.
1957. The Milwaukee Braves defeat the New York Yankees to win their first World Series since 1914. (They played in Boston then; the team moved to Wisconsin in 1953.)
1957. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
1964. The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.
1967. The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than 60 nations, takes effect. The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications ( Art.IV). However, the Treaty does not expressly prohibit the placement or use of dual-use technologies in orbit so long as they are for peaceful purposes.
The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are common heritage of humanity. The Treaty states, in fact, that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."
1970. In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
1971. Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
1973. Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
1985. United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
1986. An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

1991. Former U.S. postal worker Joseph Harris shoots two former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The night before, Harris had killed his former supervisor, Carol Ott, with a three-foot samurai sword, and shot her fiance, Cornelius Kasten, in their home. After a four-hour standoff with police at the post office, Harris was arrested. His violent outburst was one of several high-profile attacks by postal workers that resulted in the addition of the phrase "going postal" to the American lexicon.

Harris was convicted of murder and sent to death row but died in prison of natural causes before the sentence was carried out.
1997. An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.

2002. The House votes 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraq. (The Senate follows suit the next day.)

2008. The Orakzai bombing occurs when a suicide bomber drives and detonates a pick-up truck packed with 300 kg of explosives into a meeting of 600 people, killing 40 instantly and injuring 81, although the toll later rose to 110 as many died in hospitals. The attack occurred in a remote region of Afghanistan where the injured could not get medical attention for several hours.
The attack was preceded by a row between Taliban militants and local Shia tribesmen. Angry tribesmen clashed with the Taliban the day before and destroyed the homes of militants in the area. At the time of the attack, the tribesmen had gathered to discuss ways to evict the Taliban from the region.

2011. Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr is sentenced to 90 lashes of the cane and a year's jail in Tehran for appearing in the film My Tehran For Sale which criticizes the government of Iran's harsh policies on the arts. (On 27 October 2011, Amnesty International reported that an Iranian appeals court had reduced Vafamehr's prison sentence to three months and overturned the flogging sentence.)

In the United States, Governor Rick Scott of Florida signs the death warrant for Oba Chandler, convicted of the murder of three women in 1989, with the execution set for November 15. Chandler was put to death by lethal injection for the June 1989 triple murders of a woman and her two daughters whose bodies were found in Tampa Bay, Florida. All three were discovered floating with their hands and feet bound, concrete blocks tied to their necks and duct tape over their mouths. Autopsies indicated the women had been thrown into the water one by one while still alive. The partially dressed bodies of all three victims indicated that the underlying motive was sexual assault.

 

[admihoek]

1978. American actress Jodi Lyn O'Keefe is born in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey. She made her big screen debut in 1998 in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and later starred in such films as The Crow: Salvation, Whatever It Takes and Devil In The Flesh 2. Later films have been Out for Blood where she played a vampire and Venice Underground. (See pictures.)

 

[Eulalia]

Hitler had been heard saying: "If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers."

​

​

 

[LittleSiss]

Or is it just a Cah, Cah, Cah, theory!!! Ahem! Ahem!

 

[admihoek]

In Ancient Rome, October 11 was the Meditrinalia held in honor of Meditrina. The Meditrinalia was an obscure festival celebrated in honor of the new vintage, which was offered in libations to the gods for the first time each year. The festival may have been so called from medendo, because the Romans then began to drink new wine, which they mixed with old and which served them instead of physic.
Little information about the Meditrinalia survived from early Roman religion, although the tradition itself did. It was known to be somehow connected to Jupiter and to have been an important ceremony in early agricultural Rome, but beyond that, only speculation exists.
Meditrina was a Roman goddess who seems to have been a late Roman invention to account for the origin of the festival. The earliest account of associating the Meditrinalia with such a goddess was by 2nd century grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus, on the basis of which she is asserted by modern sources to be the Roman goddess of health, longevity and wine, with an etymological meaning of "healer" suggested by some.
1138. A massive earthquake strikes Aleppo, Syria. The United States Geological Survey lists it as the fourth deadliest earthquake in history. A contemporary chronicler in Damascus, Ibn al-Qalanisi, recorded the main quake on Wednesday, 11 October 1138. He wrote that it was preceded by an initial quake on 10 October and there were aftershocks on the evening of 20 October, on 25 October, on the night of 30 October-1 November, and finishing with another in the early morning of 3 November.
The worst hit area was Harem, where Crusaders had built a large citadel. Sources indicate that the castle was destroyed and the church fell in on itself. The fort of Atharib, then occupied by Muslims, was destroyed. The citadel also collapsed, killing 600 of the castle guard, though the governor and some servants survived, and fled to Mosul. The town of Zaradna, already sacked by the warring forces, was utterly obliterated, as was the small fort at Shih.
The residents of Aleppo, a large city of several tens of thousands during this period, had been warned by the foreshocks and fled to the countryside before the main quake. The walls of the citadel collapsed, as did the walls east and west of the citadel. Numerous houses were destroyed, with the stones used in their construction falling in streets. Contemporary accounts of the damage simply state that Aleppo was destroyed, though comparison of reports indicate that it did not bear the worst of the quake.
1531. Huldrych Zwingli is killed in battle with the Roman Catholic cantons of Switzerland. Zwingli was the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches. Independently of Martin Luther, who was doctor biblicus, Zwingli arrived at similar conclusions by studying the Scriptures from the point of view of a humanist scholar.
Zwingli's Reformation was supported by the magistrate and population of Zürich, and led to significant changes in civil life, and state matters in Zürich. The reformation was spread from Zürich to five other cantons of Switzerland, while the remaining five sternly held on to the Roman Catholic view of the faith.
In October of 1531, the five Roman Catholic cantons joined together for a surprise attack on Zürich. The Protestants were nearly unable to defend themselves because of no advance warning, but when their army gathered together, Zwingli marched out with the first soldiers and was killed in battle.
1634. The Burchardi Flood kills around 15,000 people in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.
The Burchardi Flood, (also known as the second Grote Mandrenke) was a storm tide that struck the North Sea coast of Nordfriesland (Germany and Denmark) on the night of 11 and 12 October 1634. Overrunning dikes, it shattered the coastline and many thousands of lives (8,000 to 15,000 people drowned) while causing catastrophic material damage. Much of the island of Strand washed away, forming the islands Nordstrand, Pellworm and several Halligen.
1649. After a ten-day siege, English New Model Army troops under Oliver Cromwell storm the town of Wexford, killing over 2,000 Irish Confederate troops and 1,500 civilians.
While terms of surrender were being negotiated, troops of the New Model Army, on their own initiative, assaulted the walls of the town, causing the Confederate troops to flee in panic from their positions. The Parliamentarians pursued them into the streets of Wexford, killing many of the town's defenders. Several hundred, including David Sinnot, the town governor, were shot or drowned as they tried to cross the river Slaney.
Estimates of the death toll vary. Cromwell himself thought that over 2000 of the town's defenders had been killed compared with only 20 of his troops. Several Catholic priests, including 7 Franciscans were killed by the Roundheads. Much of the town, including its harbor, was burned and looted. As many as 1,500 civilians were also killed in the sacking. This figure is difficult to corroborate but most historians accept that many civilians were killed in the chaos surrounding the fall of Wexford.
1776. During the American Revolution, the Battle of Valcour Island is fought on Lake Champlain -- 15 American gunboats are defeated but give Patriot forces enough time to prepare for the defense of New York.
It is generally regarded as the first naval battle fought by the United States Navy. Although the American ships under the command of Benedict Arnold were mostly destroyed, the campaign delayed by one year the British attempt to cut the colonies in half and eventually led to the British military disaster at Saratoga in 1777.
Although the British had cleared the lake of American ships, establishing naval control, snow was already falling as Arnold and his men reached Ticonderoga on October 20. The British commander Carleton had no choice but to defer the attacks on Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga; he withdrew to a winter camp in Canada by early November. The next year in 1777, a better-prepared American army would eventually stop the British advance at Saratoga and bring France into the war on the American side.
1793. The death toll from a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia hits 100 on this day. By the time it ended, 5,000 people were dead.
Yellow fever, or American plague as it was known at the time, is a viral disease that begins with fever and muscle pain. Next, victims often become jaundiced (hence, the term "yellow" fever), as their liver and kidneys cease to function normally. Some of the afflicted then suffer even worse symptoms. Famous early American Cotton Mather described it as "turning yellow then vomiting and bleeding every way." Internal bleeding in the digestive tract causes bloody vomit. Many victims become delirious before dying.
The first yellow fever outbreaks in the United States occurred in late 1690s. Nearly 100 years later, in the late summer of 1793, refugees from a yellow fever epidemic in the Caribbean fled to Philadelphia. Within weeks, people throughout the city were experiencing symptoms. By the middle of October, 100 people were dying from the virus every day. Caring for the victims so strained public services that the local city government collapsed. Philadelphia was also the seat of the United States government at the time, but federal authorities simply evacuated the city in face of the raging epidemic.
The virus, like malaria, is carried and transferred by mosquitoes. Eventually, a cold front eliminated Philadelphia’s mosquito population and the death toll fell to 20 per day by October 26. Today, a vaccine prevents yellow fever in much of the world, though 20,000 people still die every year from the disease.
1809. Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand. Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Corps of Discovery, whose mission was to explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.
Lewis died of two gunshot wounds, about 70 miles (110 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, on the Natchez Trace, while in route to Washington to answer complaints about his actions as governor of Louisiana Territory. Whether Lewis committed suicide or was murdered remains a mystery to this day. Thomas Jefferson believed the former, while his family continually maintained the latter.
1811. Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation between New York City and Hoboken, New Jersey, as the first steam-powered ferry.
1862. In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
1899. In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts, becoming the Second Boer War.
1910. Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field in St. Louis, Missouri.
1929. JC Penney opens store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 U.S. states.
1942. In World War II, the Battle of Cape Esperance takes place. On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
1954. During the First Indochina War, the Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
1962. At the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
1968. NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard.
1975. The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuts with George Carlin as the host and Janis Ian and Billy Preston as musical guests.
1975. William Jefferson Clinton marries Hillary Rodham in Little Rock, Arkansas.
1976. George Washington's appointment, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 is approved by President Gerald R. Ford.
1984. Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.
1986. U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
1998. A Congo Airlines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40.
2002. A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
2007. The record high of the Dow Jones Industrial Average occurs at 14,198.10 points.
2011. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Drug Enforcement Administration claim to have disrupted an alleged terrorist plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador and bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington DC with possible links to Iran.

Elsewhere, the bodies of 12 Chinese sailors have been found and one remains missing in the Mekong river, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet, after the incident last week in which two Chinese cargo vessels were hijacked by suspected drug smugglers in the Golden Triangle, and later captured by Thai river police.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Israel approves a prisoner swap deal with Hamas for the release of the Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in captivity for five years. In exchange, Israel agrees to release a thousand Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, among them hundreds of prisoners serving multiple life sentences for planning and perpetrating murderous attacks against Israeli civilians.

 

[admihoek]

and some specials for Tree judith and Mia

 

[thehangingtree]

and some specials for Tree judith and Mia

Merci

tree

 

[Naraku]

October 7 is the 280th day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar.
1492. Christopher Columbus misses Florida when he changes course.

He is the last tourist to do so.

 

[LittleSiss]

He is the last tourist to do so.

No disrespect but 6.2880 Yuan and 2 Days short!

 

[thehangingtree]

No disrespect but 6.2880 Yuan and 2 Days short!

...what is the matter with my wang and I don't think it's that short...

Tree

 

[LittleSiss]

...what is the matter with my wang and I don't think it's that short...

Tree

It must be chilly in China ???

 

[Naraku]

No disrespect but 6.2880 Yuan and 2 Days short!

Give me a break, Siss. I can't check in every day, so, some times, I'm a little late. Like I tell my boss, at least I show up.

And, Tree, your wang isn't short, it's...um...economical. You know, like a Smart car.

 

[LittleSiss]

Give me a break, Siss. I can't check in every day, so, some times, I'm a little late. Like I tell my boss, at least I show up.

And, Tree, your wang isn't short, it's...um...economical. You know, like a Smart car.

Ooouh! Burn!

 

[thehangingtree]

And, Tree, your wang isn't short, it's...um...economical. You know, like a Smart car.

Tree might have to take up crucifying males...

T

 

[admihoek]

October 12 is the birthday of British occultist, poet, author, and artist Aleister Crowley (see picture) who was born in 1875 and died in 1947. He is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. Crowley was also an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the Argenteum Astrum, and Ordo Templi Orientis ( O.T.O.). Crowley gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was infamously dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World."
One of his most notorious poetry collections, entitled White Stains, was published in Amsterdam in 1898 and dealt specifically with sexually explicit subject matter. However, most of the hundred copies printed for the initial release were later seized and destroyed by British customs.
He was an advocate of "sex magick," the use of the sex act -- or the energies, passions or arousal states it evokes -- as a point upon which to focus the will or magical desire for effects in the non-sexual world. In this, Crowley was inspired by Paschal Beverly Randolph, an American Abolitionist, Spiritualist medium, and author of the mid-19th century, who wrote (in Eulis!, 1874) of using the "nuptive moment" (orgasm) as the time to make a "prayer" for events to occur.

 

[admihoek]

539 BC. The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia conquers Babylon. Cyrus also freed the Israelites by allowing them to return to their native land, effectively ending the Babylonian captivity. The return of the exiles reinforced the Jewish population in their homeland, which had been waning since the start of the Babylonian rule.
1216. King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge. The Wash is the square-mouthed estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire.
According to contemporary reports, King John travelled from Spalding in Lincolnshire to Bishop's Lynn, in Norfolk, was taken ill and decided to return. While he took the longer route by way of Wisbech, he sent his baggage train, including his crown jewels, along the causeway and ford across the mouth of the Wellstream. This route was usable only on the lower part of the tide. The horse-drawn wagons moved too slowly for the incoming tide, and many were lost.
A report published in 2008 by British geologist Professor Simon Haslett and Australian geologist Ted Brayant, suggested the flood may have been a British tsunami, as it appears to be described as a fast, high, incoming tide, a description which fits a tsunami. The most likely cause of a tsunami in the Wash is an undersea landslide, as Britain experiences only limited earthquake activity.
1492. After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.
1654. The Delft Explosion kills more than 100. The Delft Explosion occurred when a gunpowder store exploded destroying much of the city of Delft in the Netherlands. Over a hundred people were killed and thousands wounded.
1773. America's first insane asylum opens for "Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds" in Virginia.
1776. During the American Revolution, British Generals Henry Clinton and William Howe lead a force of 4,000 troops aboard some 90 flat-boats up New York’s East River toward Throg's Neck, a peninsula in Westchester County, in an effort to encircle General George Washington and the Patriot force stationed at Harlem Heights.
After hearing of the British landing at Throg’s Neck, Washington ordered a contingent of troops from the Pennsylvania regiment to destroy the bridge leading from the peninsula to the Westchester mainland. The destruction of the bridge stranded Clinton and his men at Throg’s Neck for six days before they were loaded back onto their vessels and continued up the East River toward Pell Point.
With the British stranded at Throg’s Neck, General Washington decided to withdraw all but 2,000 of his troops north to White Plains, before the British could use Redcoats stationed on Long Island and in Westchester County to surround them on Manhattan Island. After stopping at Pell Point, the British continued north up the East River, engaging in daily skirmishes with Washington’s Continental Army, until the two armies --- both 13,000 strong -- confronted each other at the inconclusive Battle of White Plains, beginning on October 28, 1776. On October 31, after a bad storm, Washington chose to withdraw to New Jersey before Howe could orchestrate another attack with newly arrived reinforcements.
1792. The first celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York
1810. The First Oktoberfest takes place as the Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1823. Charles Macintosh, of Scotland, sells the first raincoat.
1850. The first women's medical college opens in Pennsylvania.
1892. The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited in unison by students in U.S. public schools.
1901. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
1915. In World War I, British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
1918. A massive forest fire kills hundreds in Minnesota. It was the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history in terms of the number of lives lost in a single day. In total, 453 lives were lost and 52,000 people were injured or displaced, 38 communities were destroyed, 250,000 acres were burned, and $73 million in property damage was suffered.
1928. An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.
1933. The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice for use as a federal prison.
1940. Cowboy-movie star Tom Mix is killed when he loses control of his speeding Cord Phaeton convertible and rolls into a dry wash (now called the Tom Mix Wash) near Florence, Arizona. Mix was smacked in the back of the head by one of the heavy aluminum suitcases he was carrying in the convertible's backseat. The impact broke the actor's neck and he died almost instantly. He was 60 years old. Today, the dented "Suitcase of Death" is the featured attraction at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma.
1942. During World War II, Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Goto dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1945. Desmond Doss becomes the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor. Doss refused to kill, or carry a weapon into combat, because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. He thus became a combat medic, and by serving in the Pacific theatre of World War II helped his country by saving the lives of his comrades, while also adhering to his religious convictions.
1953. The Caine Mutiny Court Martial opens at the Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, California.
1960. Inejiro Asanuma, Chair of the Japanese Socialist Party, is assassinated in Japan by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17-year-old rightist. The cameras were rolling at the time, so the moment was caught on film. (See picture.)
1962. The infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities, leaving 46 dead and at least $230 million in damages.
The storm (otherwise known as the Big Blow) was an extratropical wave cyclone that ranked among the most intense to strike the United States Pacific Northwest since at least 1948, likely since the January 9, 1880, "Great Gale" and snowstorm.
On a larger scale, the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 is a contender for the title of most powerful extratropical cyclone recorded in the U.S. in the 20th century; with respect to wind velocity. It is unmatched by the March 1993 "Storm of the Century" and the "1991 Halloween Nor'easter" (aka "The Perfect Storm"). In the eastern United States. Only hurricanes of Category 3 or higher have brought winds of the magnitude witnessed in Oregon and Washington on Columbus Day, October 12, 1962.
1964. The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits.
1972. En route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.
1976. The People's Republic of China announces that Hua Guofeng is the successor to the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of Communist Party of China.
1984. The Brighton hotel bombing takes place. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher survives an IRA bomb, which shredded her bathroom barely two minutes after she had left it.
While the bombs failed to kill Thatcher or any of her government ministers; they did, however, kill five people, including Conservative MP Sir Anthony Berry, and John Wakeham's first wife Roberta. Sir Donald Maclean and his wife, Muriel, were in the room in which the bomb exploded. She was killed in the explosion and Sir Donald seriously injured. The other victims killed by the blast were Eric Taylor and Jeanne Shattock. Several others, including Margaret Tebbit -- the wife of Norman Tebbit, who was then President of the Board of Trade -- were left permanently disabled. Thirty-four people were hospitalized but recovered from their injuries.
1986. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China.
1994. NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere).
1999. The Day of Six Billion dawns. The proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born. The child that has been proclaimed by the United Nations Population Fund and welcomed by the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the six billionth baby, was born on the designated day two minutes after midnight to Fatima Nevic and her husband Jasminko in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
2000. The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
2006. An enormous lake effect snow storm drops four feet of snow on Western New York shutting power out for 1 1/2 weeks, destroying more than 5 million trees and causing more than 1 million dollars worth of damage.
2011. The death toll from the United States listeriosis outbreak reaches a total of 23 dead with 116 affected, making it the deadliest outbreak of food-borne illness in the U.S. in 25 years. Meanwhile, at least eight people are killed and one is seriously wounded in a shooting at a hair salon in Seal Beach, California.

 

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1692. The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips whose wife had been accused of witchcraft.
On reaching Boston on May 14, 1692, as the first royal governor under a new charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Phips found the colony gripped by witchcraft hysteria. Beginning in February 1692, more than 125 people were arrested on charges of witchcraft, and were held in prison pending the inauguration of the new government. Phips established a special Court of Oyer and Terminer to hear the accumulated cases on May 27, appointing Lieutenant Governor William Stoughton as the chief judge. The court notoriously admitted spectral evidence (alleged demonic visions) and denied the accused access to legal counsel, and a number of people were convicted and executed based on such evidence. Although the court was terminated in September 1692, accusations and arrests continued, including charges against some fairly high profile individuals, including Mrs. Phips. Phips finally put an end to the proceedings by first suspending the trials, and then in May 1693 releasing prisoners (numbering about 150) charged with witchcraft.

 

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1969. Spanish model Judit Mascó is born. Mascó appeared in the 1990 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue as the cover model. She also appeared in the 1991, 1992, 1994, and 1995 editions. This cover launched her worldwide and was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns. (See pictures.)

 

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1692. The Salem Witch Trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips whose wife had been accused of witchcraft.

some illustrations

 

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October 13 is the anniversary of a miracle witnessed by thousands, in which the Sun appeared as a spinning disk.
AD 54. Nero ascends to the Roman throne. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (see picture) was the fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne. As Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, he succeeded to the throne on October 13, 54, following Claudius' death.
Nero's rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance. He is known for a number of executions, including those of his mother and adoptive brother, as the emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned",and as an early persecutor of Christians. This view is based upon the main surviving sources for Nero's reign. Few surviving sources paint Nero in a favorable light. Some sources, though, portray him as an emperor who was popular with the Roman people
Nero ruled from 54 to 68. In 68 a military coup drove Nero from the throne. Facing execution, he committed suicide.
409. Vandals and Alans cross the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania. Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Gibraltar and a very small southern part of France).
Rome's loss of jurisdiction in Hispania began in 409 when the Germanic Buri, Suevi and Vandals, together with the Sarmatian Alans crossed the Rhine and ravaged Gaul until the Visigoths drove them into Iberia that same year.
1244. Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is born, as most Templar knights were, into a family of minor or middle nobility in Molay, Haute-Saône, in the county of Burgundy, at the time a territory ruled by Otto III as part of the Holy Roman Empire, and in modern times in the area of Franche-Comté, northeastern France. Though little is known of his actual life and deeds except for his last years as Grand Master, he is the best known Templar, along with the Order's founder and first Grand Master, Hugues de Payens (1070–1136).
King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Templars, had de Molay and many other French Templars arrested in 1307 and tortured into making false confessions. When de Molay later retracted his confession, Philip had him burned at the stake on an island in the River Seine in Paris, in March 1314. The sudden end of both the centuries-old order of Templars, and the dramatic execution of its last leader, turned de Molay into a legendary figure.
1307. Hundreds of Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy. The Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple were among the most famous of the Christian military orders. The organization existed for approximately two centuries in the Middle Ages. It was created in the aftermath of the First Crusade of 1096, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed toward Jerusalem after its conquest.
The Templars' success was tied closely to that of the Crusades. When the Holy Land was lost and the Crusaders suffered crushing defeats, support for the Order's existence faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust, and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, began pressuring Pope Clement V to take action. On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip had many of the Order's members in France arrested, tortured into "confessions," and burned at the stake. In 1312, Pope Clement, under continuing pressure from King Philip, forcibly disbanded the entire Order.
1453. Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, is born. Also known as Edward of Lancaster, he was the only son of King Henry VI of England and Margaret of Anjou. He was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, making him the only heir apparent to the English throne ever to die in battle.
1582. Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1710. Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia, falls in a siege by British forces. Acadia (in the French language Acadie) was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed (but never successfully occupied) territory stretching as far south as Philadelphia. The first capital of Acadia, established in 1605, was Port-Royal. A British force from Virginia attacked and burned the town in 1613 but it was later rebuilt nearby, where it remained the capital of French Acadia until the British conquest of Acadia in 1710.
1773. The Whirlpool Galaxy is discovered by Charles Messier
1775. The United States Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).
1777. After his defeat on October 7, 1777, General John Burgoyne's Army at The Battles of Saratoga become surrounded by superior numbers, setting the stage for its surrender. The American victory inspires the Kingdom of France to enter the American Revolutionary War against the British.
1792. In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid.
1812. As part of the Niagara campaign in Ontario, Canada, in the War of 1812, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaer are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.
1843. B'nai B'rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is founded in New York City by Henry Jones and 11 others. B'nai B'rith, meaning "Sons of the Covenant," organized its first lodge in November, and Isaac Dittenhoefer was elected the first president. The fraternal organization went on to become a national leader in charity work and disaster relief, and in 1913 it formed the Anti-Defamation League to combat anti-Semitism. Today, some 500,000 men and women are members of B'nai B'rith.
1845. A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approve a proposed constitution, that if accepted by the U.S. Congress, will make Texas a U.S. state.
1863. The voters of Ohio send Clement Vallandigham to a resounding defeat in the fall gubernatorial election. As leader of the Copperheads, or antiwar Democrats, Vallandigham was an important and highly visible critic of the Republican's war policy, particularly the emancipation of slaves.
Vallandigham was elected to the House of Representatives in 1858. He was a Democrat and disapproved of slavery, but he admired Southern society and disagreed with starting a war over the issue of slave emancipation. He advocated states rights and generally agreed with most Southern political views. When the war began, he became a vociferous critic of both the method and war aims of the Republicans. As the war turned bloodier and it became clear that a Union victory would take years, Vallandigham began to gather supporters, and he became recognized as the leader of the Peace Democrats, or Copperheads. When the Lincoln administration began to curtail civil liberties, Vallandigham's criticism placed him in increasing jeopardy. In spring 1863, General Ambrose Burnside issued Order No. 38, which stated that public criticism of the war would not be tolerated. Vallandigham defied the order, and he was arrested on May 8. He was tried on charges of "expressing treasonable sympathy" with the enemy, and he was found guilty by a military tribunal in Cincinnati. He was banished to the Confederacy on May 25, 1862.
After a short stay there, Vallandigham relocated to Windsor, Ontario, and, despite his exile, mounted a campaign to become the Ohio governor. Elections were a barometer of the Northern war effort. In 1862, voters expressed dissatisfaction with President Lincoln by sending many Democrats to Congress. However, in 1863, after key Union successes at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the voters increased Republican control of both houses. In Ohio, Vallandigham lost by more than 100,000 votes out of a half million ballots cast. He returned to the United States in 1864 and continued his criticism of "King Lincoln," as he called the president. Lincoln ignored him, but Vallandigham helped write the 1864 Democratic platform. By insisting that a statement be included declaring the war a failure and calling for an immediate end to fighting, Vallandigham helped ensure a Democratic defeat.
1884. Greenwich, in London, England, is established as Universal Time meridian of longitude.
1885. The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
1923. Ankara replaces Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.
1943. During World War II, the new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
1943. 26-year-old poet Robert Lowell is sentenced to jail for a year for evading the draft. Lowell refused to be drafted because he objected to saturation bombing in Europe and other Allied tactics. He served the term in New York's West Street jail.
1957. Movie audiences in America are treated to the science-fiction thriller, The Amazing Colossal Man. The film revolves around a character named Colonel Manning, who strays too close to the test of an atomic device in the Nevada desert and is bombarded with "plutonium rays." This was but one of many such movies released in the 1950s, which cannot be dismissed as merely amusing artifacts from that decade. While these weapons were the backbone of the nation's defense system, many in the United States were uncertain about the atomic and hydrogen bombs: Were they too inhumane; what were the repercussions of radioactivity; could they ever really be used without sealing the fate of all humankind? Hollywood registered these concerns and played upon them. In Them! (1954), ants exposed to radiation grow to enormous size and threaten humanity; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), tells the tale of a dinosaur, thawed out by an atomic test in the Arctic, that ravages New York City; and, in one of the best of this class of film, a man survives being caught in a nuclear test, only to find himself shrinking away to nothing in The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). The Cold War, and the issues it raised among the American people, had become part of the nation's popular culture.
1958. It's All In the Game by Tommy Edwards is the number one hit in the United States.
1962. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee opens on Broadway.
1972. An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow, killing 176.
1976. A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground).
1977. Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Flight 181 to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.
1981. Egyptians vote in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
1983. Ameritech Mobile Communications (now AT&T) launched the first U.S. cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
1990. At the end of the Lebanese war, Syrian forces launch an attack on the free areas of Lebanon removing General Michel Aoun from the presidential palace.
2010. The Copiapó mining accident in Copiapó, Chile, comes to an end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground awaiting rescue.
2011. Vietnam's Mekong River delta suffers its worst flooding in a decade, with 43 people killed and 70,000 homes destroyed. Meanwhile, at least 29 people are killed in Central America and Mexico by a series of storms; five of the deaths are caused by Hurricane Jova.