Category Archives: Presidential History

October 20 is:

World Osteoporosis Day

World Statistics Day

National Brandied Fruit Day
Foodimentary.com says:

Brandy is distilled from fruits such as grape, apple, blackberry, apricot and so on.
Based on the region and the fruit, brandy can be divided into several categories: Cognac, Armagnac, American Brandies, and fruit brandies.
The word brandy originally comes from the Dutch word brandewijn, which means burnt wine.
Long before the 16th century, wine was a popular product for trading in European region. In the early 16th century, a Dutchman trader invented the way to ship more wine in the limited cargo space by removing water from the wine. Then he could add the water back to the concentrated wine at the destination port in Holland.
Most brandy is 80 proof (40% alcohol/volume) and has been enjoyed for centuries as a cocktail and cooking ingredient.

Birthday of Sir Christopher Wren (October 20, 1632), English architect.

His greatest public building was Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Its construction, completed in Wren’s lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding program in the City after the Great Fire of London. It serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London for the Anglican Church. Services held at St Paul’s have included the funerals of Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer; the launch of the Festival of Britain; and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II.

1803 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase with a vote of twenty-four to seven The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States, at a sum of less than 3 cents per acre.

The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

Birthday of John Dewey (October 20, 1859), American educator and philosopher whose watchword was “learn by doing”. He self-identified as a “democratic socialist”.

1882-Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in 1931.

1944 – American general Douglas MacArthur fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines when he commanded an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

Death of Herbert Clark Hoover in 1964, thirty-first President of the United States. He died at New York City at age 90. He died of massive gastrointestinal bleeding believed to be from a malignant tumor.

Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1968.

Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, was officially opened in 1973.

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October 18 is:

National Chocolate Cupcake Day
Per Foodimentary.com

Cupcake liners do more than make it easy to remove them from the pan. Traditionally, sides of tins are greased for easy removal, but also floured because the batter needs to have something to cling to. A cupcake liner takes care of both.
On August 15, 2009 GourmetGiftBaskets.com broke the world record for largest cupcake ever made. The cupcake was 1,224 pounds, 4 foot tall by 10 foot wide, and had 2 million calories.
The first mention of a cupcake recipe goes as far back as 1796. Amelia Simms wrote a recipe in “American Cookery” which referenced, “a cake to be baked in small cups”.
However, it wasn’t until 1828 that the actual word cupcake was used by Eliza Leslie in her cookbook “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats”.

“Persons Day” in Canada.
From Status of Women in Canada

In Canada, the British North America Act (BNA Act) of 1867 set out the powers and responsibilities of the provinces and of the federal government. The Act used the word “persons” when referring to more than one person and “he” when referring to one person. Many argued the Act implicitly stated that only a man could be a person, which prevented women from participating fully in politics or affairs of state.

Governments also used the “persons” argument to keep women out of important positions. If the word “person” applied only to men, then the stipulation that only “qualified persons” could be appointed to the Senate of Canada meant that only men could be appointed.

In 1927, five women – who have since become known as the Famous Five – launched a legal challenge that would mark a turning point for equality rights in Canada. Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Henrietta Muir Edwards were journalists, politicians, reformers and activists from Alberta who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the following question: Does the word “person” in Section 24 of the BNA Act include female persons? After five weeks of debate, the Supreme Court decided that the word “person” did not include women.

Although shocked by the Court’s decision, the Famous Five did not give up the fight and took their case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain in London, which was then Canada’s highest court of appeal.

On October 18, 1929, Lord Sankey, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, announced the decision:

“The exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours. And to those who would ask why the word ‘person’ should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not?”

With this milestone victory, the Famous Five not only won the right for women to serve in the Senate, but also helped pave the way for women to participate equally in all aspects of life in Canada.

International Newspaper Carrier Day

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, lies in the northwest quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, reputed to have been built on the site of the crucifixion of Jesus. Constantine the Great first built a church on the site. It was dedicated about 336 CE, burned by the Persians in 614, restored by Modestus (the abbot of the monastery of Theodosius, 616–626), destroyed by the caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh about October 18, 1009, and restored by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachus. In the 12th century the Crusaders carried out a general rebuilding of the church. Since that time, frequent repair, restoration, and remodeling have been necessary. The present church dates mainly from 1810.

United States took possession of Alaska in 1867 after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

The US took control of Puerto Rico on this date in 1898.
Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, while the capital city was named Ciudad de Puerto Rico (“Rich Port City”). The island’s name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898. The anglicized name was used by the U.S. government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress in 1931.
During the Spanish–American War, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico with a landing at Guánica. After the U.S. victory in the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines and Guam, then under Spanish sovereignty, to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris.

1919 Birthday of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Liberal Prime Minister of Canada 1968-1979, 1980-1984 and father of current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

1939 Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F Kennedy in 1963.

1961: The acclaimed musical film West Side Story, an adaptation of a Broadway play, was released in American theaters; it won 10 Academy Awards, including that for best picture. It starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

In 1982, former First Lady Bess Truman died in October 1982 of congestive heart failure at the age of 97 and is the longest-lived First Lady in U.S. history. Elizabeth Virginia Wallace was born on February 13, 1885 in Independence, MO. She first met Harry S. Truman in Sunday School when she was 5 and he was 6.

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October 15 is:

White Cane Safety Day, a national observance in the United States, celebrated on October 15 of each year since 1964. The date is set aside to celebrate the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and the important symbol of blindness and tool of independence, the white cane.

Red Wine Day One bottle of wine contains the juice of about 3 pounds of grapes
Per Foodimentary.com
The top three imported wines sold in the U.S. are Yellowtail (Australia), Cavit (Italy), and Concha y Toro (Chile).
The term bouquet refers to the total scent of the wine. Aroma is the scent of the grapes. When wine tasters want to describe the bouquet and the aroma together, they use the term nose.
In 2008, the top five wine-producing states in the U.S. were California (3.4 million tons of grapes crushed for wine), Washington (145,000 tons), New York (45,000 tons), Oregon (40,000 tons), and Pennsylvania (13,200 tons).
According to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, there are 100 calories in a 5-ounce glass of wine (compared to 150 calories in a 12-ounce beer).
The ancient Greeks had a wine glass to ensure the drinker’s moderation. If wine was poured above a certain level, the cup spilled its entire contents out of the bottom.

Birthday of Virgil; (October 15, 70 BC), Roman poet, author of “The Aeneid”, the national epic of Rome.

From Today in Science.com:
In 1783, Frenchman Jean Pilâtre de Rozier (1754-1785) made a tethered balloon ascent, in the gardens of La Muette. The Montgolfier-made balloon, Aerostat Reveillon, carrying Pilâtre, first man to leave the earth, rose to the end of its 250- ft tether. It stayed aloft for 15 minutes, then landed safely nearby.

1793 – Queen Marie-Antoinette of France was tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.

Napoleon I of France began his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean in 1815.

Birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche (October 15, 1844), German philosopher, quoted as having said “God is dead.”
Other quotes include:

“The doctrine of equality! There exists no more poisonous poison: for it seems to be preached by justice itself, while it is the end of justice.”; and

“Everything in woman hath a solution. It is called pregnancy.”

Birthday of John Lawrence Sullivan (October 15, 1858 – February 2, 1918), known simply as John L. among his admirers, and dubbed the “Boston Strong Boy” by the press, was an American boxer recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, de facto reigning from February 7, 1882, to September 7, 1892. He is also generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring Rules, being a cultural icon of the late 19th century America, arguably the first boxing superstar and one of the world’s highest-paid athletes of his era. Newspapers’ coverage of his career, with the latest accounts of his championship fights often appearing in the headlines, and as cover stories, gave birth to sports journalism in the United States and set the pattern internationally for covering boxing events in media, and photodocumenting the prizefights.

Birthday of Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (October 15, 1872), second wife of Woodrow Wilson; first lady 1915-1921. Following Wilson’s stroke in 1919, Edith Wilson took over many routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government.

October 15, 1917 – Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed for espionage in France.

In 1951, the first episode of I Love Lucy, an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). The series ran until 1957.

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October 14 is:

Be Bald and Free Day
national lowercase day

Columbus Day: Celebrated on October 14 in 2024.

On October 12, 1492 – Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean. It has been reported that from the monarch’s investment of $6000 in Columbus’ first voyage, Spain had a return of $1,750,000 in gold after only one century.

…from Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing, 1981

Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Thanksgiving has its roots in the European Harvest Festivals where people celebrated an abundant harvest and shared their food within their community.

National Dessert Day
The five most popular desserts in the U.S. are:

• Fudge
• Chocolate cake
• Chocolate chip cookies
• Brownies
• Ice cream

October 14, 1066 – The Battle of Hastings resulted in William the Conqueror taking over England.

Birthday of William Penn (October 14, 1644), Founder of Pennsylvania and famed leader of the Society of Friends (Quakers). William Penn and his wife, Hannah, are two of only eight people who have been made honorary citizens of the U.S.

Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1656. The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive. In all, from 1656 to 1661, at least forty Quakers came to New England to protest Puritan religious domination and persecution. During those five years, the Puritan persecution of Quakers continued, with beatings, fines, whippings, imprisonment, and mutilation.

American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom’s East India Company tea ships’ cargo were burned at Annapolis, Maryland on this date in 1773.

Birthday of David Dwight Eisenhower (October 14, 1890), thirty-fourth president of the United States. Since his father was named David, the future president had always been called “Dwight”. He changed his name officially – some sources say in high school, some say at West Point.

The loblolly pine tree on the left side of the fairway at the 17th hole at Augusta National Golf Club is known as the Eisenhower Tree. He put his ball in the tree so many times he campaigned to have it removed. It stands to this day. The membership built a cabin for Eisenhower, one of 12 on the course. The cabin, built to Secret Service specifications, still stands on the course and is adorned with an eagle on the front porch.

1912 – While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carried out his scheduled public speech.

The children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, was first published in 1926.

1947: American test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier.

The Cuban Missile Crisis began in 1962: A U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot flew over the island of Cuba and took photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba.

1964: Baptist minister and social activist Martin Luther King, Jr., was named the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, cited for his work involving civil rights and social justice.

October 13 is:

International Skeptics Day
National M&M Day
National Peanut Festival

• Nuts are healthier in their raw form. The reason is that over 15% of the healthy oils are lost in the roasting process.
• Studies show that people who eat nuts regularly live 2-3 years longer than those who don’t.
• The nut allergy is among the most common food allergies.
• Roasted nutshells were used as a coffee substitute during the civil war.
• Half of the world’s nuts are inedible or poisonous to humans.

The many peanut classes grown around the United States are Spanish, Runner, Virginia, and Valencia. Peanut production is divided into three major areas: the southeastern United States region which includes Alabama, Georgia, and Florida; the southwestern United States region which includes New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; and the third region in the general eastern United States which includes Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th U. S. President (from 1977 to 1981), had a family peanut-growing business in his home state of Georgia.

54 – Roman Emperor Claudius was poisoned to death under mysterious circumstances. His 17-year-old stepson Nero succeeded him to the Roman throne.

1775 – The United States Continental Congress ordered the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).

1792 – In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) was laid.

From Today in Science
Greenwich prime meridian
In 1884, Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian. At the behest of the U.S. President Chester Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, DC, for the International Meridian Conference. At the Conference several important principles were established: a single world meridian passing through the principal Transit Instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich; that all longitude would be calculated both east and west from this meridian up to 180°; a universal day; and studies of the decimal system to the division of time and space. Resolution 2, fixing the Meridian at Greenwich was passed 22-1 (San Domingo voted against, France & Brazil abstained). Greenwich lies on the River Thames, a few miles from central London.

1925 Birthday of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1979-1990.

Paddington Bear, a classic character from English children’s literature, made his debut October 13, 1958.

October 11 is:

It’s My Party Day

National Sausage Pizza Day
About 93% of Americans eat at least one pizza every month.
About 350 slices of pizza are consumed every second in the United States.
The most pizzas are delivered (and eaten) on New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving Eve, and Super Bowl Sunday.
The three dots in the Domino’s Pizza logo represent the first three Domino’s Pizza stores.
Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the United States.

Don’t eat blackberries after October 11:
According to The Telegraph
The heat, the rain and a luminous Indian summer have brought forth a rich harvest of blackberry enthusiasm, only slightly tempered by this week’s news that we should not pick them after next Sunday. (Legend has it that Lucifer fell from heaven and landed in a blackberry bush on October 11. Infuriated, he contaminated the bush by either spitting or urinating on it. Thus, blackberries are not safe to eat after that date.)

In 1809 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis died under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder’s Stand, about 70 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Referred to as “undoubtedly the greatest pathfinder this country has ever known”, Thomas Jefferson appointed Lewis as Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis assumed the post in 1808. During his brief time in this office, however, Lewis proved himself a poor administrator. He quarreled with the territorial secretary and local leaders, and failed to keep his superiors in Washington informed of his policies and plans. In September 1809 Lewis set out for the nation’s capital to answer complaints about his actions as governor. While on this trip he died a violent but mysterious death. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Whether he committed suicide, as Jefferson believed, or was murdered, as his family maintained, remains uncertain even today.

Birthday of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884), wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Lady from 1933 to 1945. She served as official United States delegate to the United Nations

In 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt became 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 (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

1975 Bill Clinton wed Hillary Rodham in Arkansas. Per brides.com, According to the Clinton House Museum, Bill wanted an extravagant wedding bash, whereas Hillary didn’t even want an engagement ring (well, she did get a house out of the deal, so not a bad trade)! The compromise? An engagement party where Hillary met all of Bill’s friends—and then a small, intimate wedding and a big reception party to follow. As far as a wedding dress, it is noted by the historical society that Hillary didn’t even have a gown ready to go the night before, so her (horrified!) mother ran her over to Dillard’s in the Fayetteville Mall—Hillary purchased a $53 Jessica McClintock Victorian lace gown, one of the first that she saw. In contrast, their daughter Chelsea’s wedding is estimated to have cost between $2 million and $5 million.

2002: The U.S. Congress passed a bill (the War Powers Resolution), by a wide margin, granting U.S. President George W. Bush broad authority to use force against Iraq.

October 8 is:

National Fluffernutter Day

A Fluffernutter is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme, usually served on white bread.
Variations of the sandwich include the substitution of wheat bread and the addition of various sweet, salty and savory ingredients.
The term fluffernutter can also be used to describe other food items, primarily desserts, that incorporate peanut butter and marshmallow creme.
The sandwich was first created in the early 20th century after Marshmallow Creme, a sweet marshmallow-like spread, was invented in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Archibald Query of Somerville, Massachusetts, invented a product he called Marshmallow Creme in 1917, and Emma and Amory Curtis of Melrose, Massachusetts, invented Snowflake Marshmallow Creme in 1913.
During World War I, Emma Curtis published a recipe for a peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich, which is the earliest known example of a Fluffernutter.

The Erie Canal
In 1823, the Erie Canal was inaugurated at Albany, NY, upon the occasion of the first passage of a boat into the canal, although the entire canal was not yet completed. Cannon were placed on the hill near the mansion of General Ten Broeck and fifty-four rounds were fired in honor of each county in the state. The steamboats and other crafts in the river were trimmed with bunting and decorated gaily. The first boat entered the lock with state and local officials, followed by other boats, one of which was filled with ladies. The masonic fraternity ceremoniously laid the cap stone of the lock. A bottle of sea water, brought by the New York committee, was emptied, and mingled with the waters of the lakes and the river. About 40,000 people were present.

The Erie Canal is a 363-mile waterway that connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River in upstate New York. The channel, which traverses New York state from Albany to Buffalo on Lake Erie, was considered an engineering marvel when it first opened.

Death of Franklin Pierce (October 8, 1869), fourteenth President of the United States. He died at Concord, New Hampshire at age 64 from cirrhosis of the liver.

Fire Prevention Day According to legend, on October 8, 1871 Mrs. O’Leary was in her barn, milking her cow. The cow kicked over a lamp, which started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire burned for over 27 hours. When it was over, more than 300 people were killed, 100,000 people were left homeless, and over 17,000 structures were destroyed.
In 1997 the Chicago City Council looked into the evidence, both new and old, and passed a resolution exonerating Mrs. O’Leary and her cow. Many still believe the cow was guilty.

The Great Chicago fire sparked major efforts in fire prevention. Forty years later, the Fire Marshall’s Association of North America(FMANA) held the first Fire Prevention Day. In 1920 , President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Fire Prevention Week.

Capt. E.V. “Eddie” Rickenbacker wearing the Congressional Medal of Honor. (U.S. Air Force photo)

From Today in Science
Permanent wave
In 1906, a German, Karl Ludwig Nessler, demonstrated the first “permanent wave” for hair, in his beauty salon in Oxford Street, London, to an invited audience of hair stylists. The hair was soaked with an alkaline solution and rolled on metal rods which were then heated strongly. However, this method had the disadvantages of being very lengthy (about 5 hours) and expensive for each application. Also the machine was large and cumbersome, and the client was obliged to wear a dozen brass curlers, each weighing 1-3/4 lb. With the outbreak of WW I, he moved to the United States and opened salons in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Palm Beach and Philadelphia with a peak of 500 employees. Nessler also invented artificial eyebrows.

1982: The Polish legislature dissolved the trade union Solidarity, which subsequently became an underground organization and played a key role in ending communist rule in Poland, with its various leaders, notably Lech Wałęsa, later holding important government posts.

2004: American domestic lifestyle innovator Martha Stewart reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin her five-month sentence for insider trading.

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October 6 is:

National Noodle Day

Australians consume more than 18 million kilograms of noodles every year – that’s almost one kilogram (2.2 pounds) per person!
In Japan, it is considered good form to loudly slurp your noodles as a way of telling your host that you are enjoying the meal.
Noodles symbolize longevity in China.
Noodles have been created from flour and water since 1000BC and today they are more popular than ever.
Noodles are low in fat and have a very low sodium content.

October 6, 1781 – Americans and French began the siege of Cornwallis at Yorktown; the last battle of American Revolutionary War.

From Today in Science
Birthday of George Westinghouse (October 6, 1846), American engineer, inventor and industrialist who founded his own company to manufacturer his invention, the air brake. The son of a New York agricultural machinery maker, he began at age 21 to work on a new tool he invented to guide derailed train cars back onto the track. Before he died 46 years later, he produced safer rail transportation, steam turbines, gas lighting and heating, and electricity. He founded not only namesakes Westinghouse Air Brake and Westinghouse Electric, but also Union Switch & Signal and the forerunners to Duquesne Light, Equitable Gas and Rockwell International. He was also chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current for electric power transmission in the United States, and held 400 patents.

First train robbery in US. The Reno Brothers (also known as the Reno Brothers Gang and The Jackson Thieves) took $13,000) in 1866. The group carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history. The gang was broken up by the lynchings of ten of its members including Frank, Simeon, and William Reno by vigilante mobs in 1868.

American inventor Thomas Edison showed his first motion picture in 1889.

Mormon Church outlawed polygamy in 1890. The 1890 Manifesto (also known as the Woodruff Manifesto or the Anti-polygamy Manifesto) is a statement which officially advised against any future plural marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Issued by church president Wilford Woodruff in September 1890, the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress, which by 1890 had disincorporated the church, escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government, and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons. Upon its issuance, the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruff’s Manifesto as “authoritative and binding.”

From Today in Science
Birthday of Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914), Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer who organized and led the famous Kon-Tiki (28 Apr 1947) and Ra (1969-70) transoceanic scientific expeditions. Both expeditions were intended to prove the possibility of ancient transoceanic contacts between distant civilizations and cultures. The Kon Tiki voyage from Peru to Polynesia was a 101-day, 4,300-mile drifting voyage on the 40-sq.ft. raft, a replica of pre-Inca vessels. He wished to show that Polynesia’s first settlers could have come from South America. Few scholars at the time, and almost none today, endorsed the idea. They discount the Heyerdahl hypothesis largely on linguistic, genetic and cultural grounds, all of which point to the settlers having come from the west, not the east.

1927 The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, premiered in New York City, introducing the sound era of motion pictures.

The Curse of the Billy Goat: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series because the pet goat’s odor was bothering other fans. Billy Sianis was outraged and declared, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more,” which has been interpreted to mean that there would never be another World Series game won at Wrigley Field. The Cubs have not won a National League pennant since this incident.

President John F. Kennedy advised Americans to build fallout shelters in 1961.

The Yom Kippur War began as Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel in 1973.

President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated at a military parade on October 6, 1981.

October 5 is:

Rocky Mountain Oyster Day* (a delicacy in Colorado)
Rocky Mountain oysters, or mountain oysters, or meat balls, also known as prairie oysters in Canada, is a dish made of bull testicles. The organs are often deep-fried after being skinned, coated in flour, pepper and salt, and sometimes pounded flat.

National Apple Betty Day (a crustless apple pie seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar.)
Foodimentary.com says:
The apple is the fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family (Rosaceae).
It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans.
Apples grow on small, deciduous trees.
The tree originated in Western Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today.
Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe, and were brought to North America by European colonists.

1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, October 5th did not exist in 1582 in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

Birthday of Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703), American theologian, philosopher, and college president who has been called “the greatest American mind of the Colonial Period”. He played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening.

1713 Birthday of Denis Diderot , French philosopher. He was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment.

French Revolution: Women of Paris marched to Versailles in 1789 to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to abolish feudalism, to demand bread, and to have the King and his court moved to Paris.

French Revolution: Christianity was disestablished in France in 1793.

War of 1812: Battle of Thames in Canada; Americans defeated British and kill Shawnee leader, Tecumseh in 1813.

Birthday of Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829), twenty-first President of the United States. He became president upon the death of Garfield. Suffering from poor health, Arthur made only a limited effort to secure the Republican Party’s nomination in 1884, and he retired at the end of his term. Journalist Alexander McClure wrote, “No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired… more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe.”

1857 – The City of Anaheim, California was founded by fifty German families. Named for “Ana”, after the Santa Ana River, and “Heim”, the German word for “home”.

1905 – Wilbur Wright pilots Wright Flyer III in a flight of 24 miles in 39 minutes, a world record that stood until 1908.

1902 Ray Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Ray Kroc sold blenders for milkshakes, and one of his customers was a restaurant in San Bernardino, California owned by Maurice and Richard McDonald. Kroc set up a chain of drive-in restaurants based on their efficient assembly line production kitchen. He opened his first restaurant on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois. By 1961 he had 228 restaurants and he bought out the McDonald brothers. When he died in 1984 there were over 7,500 McDonald’s restaurants. Today there are over 36,000 restaurants in over 100 countries.

2001: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke Mark McGwire’s single-season home-run record when he hit his 71st and 72nd home runs of the season and finished the season with 73.

In 2022 – Aaron Judge of the NYY hit his 62nd home run of the season, besting the American League record set by Roger Maris in 1961.

2011: American businessman Steve Jobs, a pioneer of the personal computer era who co-founded Apple and transformed it into one of the world’s most successful companies, died at age 56.

October 4 is:

Crunchy Taco Day

Per foodimentary.com:

Founder, Glenn Bell, first opened a hot dog and taco franchise, ‘Bell’s Drive-In’, in San Bernardino, California in 1948. He then started Taco-Tia’s and El Tacos. He opened the first Taco Bell in 1962.
He was the first to fry his taco shells in advance. Before then, they were fried on demand.
In 1962, a taco only cost 19 cents.

Fun Fact: Taquito is a Spanish word that translates to small taco. It is believed that the word “taco” originally referred to pieces of paper that silver miners in Mexico would wrap around gunpowder and use in holes that were carved into the face of the rock.

From Today in Science
Birthday of James Lind
Born 4 Oct 1716; died 13 Jul 1794 at age 77.
Scottish physician, “founder of naval hygiene in England,” who investigated sickness of sailors. On 20 May 1747, while a ship’s surgeon on the HMS Salisbury, he began an experiment to remedy scurvy. He regulated the diets of the sailors, and especially included lemons and oranges. With a clearly positive outcome, he recommended fresh citrus fruit and lemon juice be incorporated in the diet of seamen on long voyages. When made a requirement by Sir Gilbert Blane, this resulted in the prompt eradication of scurvy from the British Navy. (The Dutch had implemented this practice almost two centuries earlier.) Lind also recommended shipboard delousing procedures and suggested the use of hospital ships for sick sailors in tropical ports. In 1761, he arranged for the shipboard distillation of seawater for drinking water.

The German festival Oktoberfest was first held in Munich in 1810 to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. It’s been cancelled this year due to the Coronavirus.

Birthday of Eliza McCardle Johnson (October 4, 1810), wife of Andrew Johnson, first lady 1865-1869. Andrew Johnson, 18, married Eliza McCardle, 16, on May 17, 1827; at 16, Eliza Johnson married at a younger age than any other First Lady. Johnson credited his wife for teaching him to do arithmetic and to write, as he had never attended school.
Aside from two public appearances – one at a reception for Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands and the other at a birthday party for her husband – Eliza Johnson remained totally out of the public eye due to her poor health from tuberculosis.

Birthday of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822), ninteenth president of the United States. Hayes won the election of 1876 by only one electoral vote. He declined to run for a second term.

1853: The Crimean War began as Ottoman Turks (later joined by England and France) declared war on Russia; the fighting lasted more than two years and ended with Russia’s defeat.

Birthday of Frederic Remington (October 4, 1861), American artist and author famous for his drawings and paintings of frontier life, Indians, and horses.

1923-Birthday of Charlton Heston, actor, former president of the NRA, who won Academy Award for title role of Ben Hur in 1959, starred in The Ten Commandments 1956 and Planet of the Apes 1968.

“Leave It to Beaver,” debuts on CBS in 1957. It ran until 1963.

From Today in Science
Sputnik
In 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union, to the dismay of the United States, launched Sputnik, the first manmade satellite, into orbit around the earth. The craft circled the earth every 95 minutes at almost 20,000 miles per hour 500 miles above the Earth. The Sputnik (meaning “companion” or “fellow traveler”) was launched from Kazakhstan. It stayed in orbit for about three months. Sputnik fell from the sky on 4 Jan 1958. The 184-lb satellite had transmitted a radio signal picked up around the world, and instrumentation for temperature measurement.

1970: American singer Janis Joplin , who was known for her fierce and uninhibited musical style, died of an accidental overdose of heroin. Remembered for her rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee”