Today in History

14th October

1066 The Battle of Hastings was fought, on Senlac Hill, near Pevensey. An English army, commanded by King Harold, was defeated by the invasion force of William of Normandy. Harold was killed and Edgar the Ætheling was proclaimed king, but never crowned. William I 'The Conqueror' and the first Norman King of England, was subsequently crowned at Westminster Abbey on 25th December 1066.

1644 The Birth of William Penn, the English Quaker leader who founded a Quaker colony named Pennsylvania in his honour.

1929 The world's largest airship, the R101, made its maiden voyage.

1986 An historic moment for Queen Elizabeth II as she became the first British monarch to walk along the Great Wall of China.
 

Australian History

Thursday, October 15, 1953. : Britain conducts the first atomic test on the Australian mainland.

Australia's remoteness made it a choice for Britain to conduct testing of its atomic weapons in the 1950s. In October of 1952, the Montebello islands, off north-west Western Australia, became the site for testing of the first British atomic bomb. "Operation Hurricane" was conducted 350 metres off the coast of Trimouille Island for the purpose of testing the effects of a bomb smuggled inside a ship.

One year later, on 15 October 1953, Britain conducted its first atomic test on the Australian mainland. Named Operation Totem, the test of a 10 kiloton atomic bomb was held at Emu Field, in the Great Victoria Desert of South Australia. The first test was followed by Totem 2, testing of an 8 kiloton bomb, at the same site, less than two weeks later, on 27 October. Further tests of nuclear weapons at the site were not undertaken, as it was considered too remote an area. Further atomic tests were conducted elsewhere, at Maralinga in 1956.

Later, it was discovered that the radioactive cloud from the first detonation did not disperse as it was expected to do, but instead travelled north-east over the Australian continent. An obelisk still stands at the site, warning that "Radiation levels for a few hundred metres around this point may be above those considered safe for permanent occupation".

Thursday, October 15, 1970. : 35 construction workers are killed when a span of the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

The West Gate Bridge, completed in 1978, spans the Yarra River in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its design is cable-stayed, consisting of several pillars, with cables supporting the roadbed. Situated just north of the river mouth, the bridge links the inner city and Melbourne's eastern suburbs with the western industrial suburbs and the main highway to the city of Geelong.

Two years after construction on the bridge commenced, it was necessary to fix a height discrepancy. It was proposed that the higher side of the bridge be weighted down with 8 x 10 tonne concrete blocks. However, due to structural weakness, the bridge would not support the weight of the blocks. On 15 October 1970 one of the spans collapsed, falling 50m below. 35 construction workers were killed. A Royal Commission attributed the collapse of the bridge to two causes; the structural design by designers Freeman Fox and Partners, and an unusual method of erection by World Services and Construction, the original contractors of the project.

The incident had considerable implications for Australia's workplace safety laws. After the accident, workers were given greater input into workplace safety committees, gaining the right to question the wisdom and action of their supervisors regarding potentially dangerous practices in the workplace.
 
New Zealand History

Sunday, October 15, 1769. : Lieutenant James Cook names 'Kidnapper's Bay' in New Zealand after Māori attempt to kidnap a servant.

James Cook, born on 27 October 1728, in Yorkshire, England, was a British explorer and navigator. He entered the navy as an able seaman in 1755 and earned several promotions, finally being given command of the Endeavour. In 1768, Cook set out to travel to the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun. In Tahiti, Cook established friendly relations with the natives, and was joined on his voyage by a Tahitian chief named Tupaia, who wanted to travel, together with his boy-servant Tayeto.

On his way to search the south Pacific for the great southern continent that many believed must extend around the southern pole, Cook came across New Zealand, which Abel Tasman had discovered in 1642. On 15 October 1769, as the Endeavour was off the coast of the North Island, a group of Māori in a canoe came alongside the Endeavour, and negotiated a trade of fresh fish. As Tayeto made his way to the canoe to accept the fish, he was grabbed by the Māori, who paddled off at top speed with the servant boy. Cook's crew fired on the canoe, killing one Māori. Tayeto leapt overboard and was picked up by the Endeavour. Because of this event, Cook named the area Kidnapper's Bay.
 

World History

Wednesday, October 15, 1997. : The Cassini space orbiter, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, is launched.
The Cassini space orbiter was part of the Cassini-Huygens mission, a collaborative NASA/ESA/ASI unmanned space mission for the purpose of studying Saturn and its moons. It was launched on 15 October 1997, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. It was comprised of two parts, the Cassini orbiter, which was intended to remain in orbit around Saturn and its moons, and the Huygens probe, supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004, and six months later, on 25 December 2004, the probe separated from the orbiter. From there, it travelled to Titan, one of Saturn's moons, descending to the surface on 14 January 2005. Once on the surface, it began collecting and relaying scientific data.

Since the launch of the mission, three new moons have been discovered by Cassini whilst in orbit: Methone, Pallene and the third with the designation of S/2005 S 1.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003. : China becomes the third nation to launch a manned space mission.

Shenzou 5 was the first manned space mission to be launched by the People's Republic of China. It was preceded by four unmanned Shenzou missions in the previous four years. Shenzou 5 was launched from a base in the Gobi Desert on a Long March CZ-2F rocket booster on 15 October 2003, and carried Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei. Previously, the Soviet Union and the United States had been the only nations to launch manned missions into space. The mission completed 14 Earth orbits during a flight which lasted 21 hours. It ended with a parachute-assisted landing in Inner Mongolia in northern China.
 
Oct 15th
1924
President Calvin Coolidge declares the Statue of Liberty a national monument
1939
In NYC,Municipal Airport was dedicated,name later changed to LaGuardia
1966
Pres.Lyndon Johnson signs bill creating U.S. Dept of Transportation
1989
U.S. radio/TV evangelist,Billy Graham receives Hollywood Walk of Fame Star,the only clergyman to have one
 
15th October

1666 Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that Charles II had started wearing the first known waistcoat. "“The King hath yesterday in council declared his resolution of setting a fashion for clothes which he will never alter. It will be a vest…” The forerunner of the waistcoat first appeared at the court of Charles II in the 1660s. It originally evolved from a vest – as the garment is still known in the US to this day.

At a time when men’s fashion in Britain called for coats cut long, this vest which stopped at the waist was an innovation, and so the waistcoat was born.

1927 Britain's Public Morals Committee attacked the use of contraceptives, on the basis that they caused 'poor hereditary stock'.
 
StarSong said:
@Tish and @Pam, it's interesting to read bits of important history from your countries. Like the terrible Bali bombing, some events were international news for quite some time and the world mourned with you. "The Magic Pudding" and George Gawler were new to me so I did a little reading on both.
Click to expand...
Aww Thanks hun, I think acts of terror really are felt by everyone.
 
Australian History

Monday, October 16, 1837. : The first group of German migrants arrives in the new colony of South Australia.

In the 1800s, under King Friedrich Wilhelm III, German/Prussian Lutherans suffered religious persecution. Friedrich Wilhelm was an autocratic king who believed he had the right to create his own state church from the two main Protestant churches - the Lutheran church and the smaller Reformed church - in a united Prussian state church. This would effectively remove the right of Lutherans to worship in a way of their choosing. Penalties for non-adherance to the state religion were severe. Many Lutherans immigrated to Australia to escape the persecution.

Later groups of German immigrants were fortunate to be sponsored by wealthy Scottish businessman and chairman of the South Australian Company, George Fife Angas. However, the very first group of German immigrants sailed under difficult conditions aboard a ship that was infested with cockroaches. The 'Solway' was a wooden ship built at Monkwearmouth Shore, Sunderland in 1829. It departed from Hamburg, Germany in June 1837 under the command of Captain R Pearson. The journey was particularly rough and at one point, after a bad storm, the passengers retreated below decks for a prayer meeting. It is said that, as the boat rocked violently to and fro, and with the passengers and crew expecting the ship to break apart and sink at any moment, the prayer leader told them to have faith and all would be well. At that point, the storm abated.

The Solway arrived at Kangaroo Island on 16 October 1837. Just two days earlier, one of the passengers, Mrs Kleemann, had died from pneumonia. Her distraught husband begged Captain Pearson to delay burial at sea, and to wait two days to see if land could be sighted, with the proviso that if no land was sighted, the burial would proceed. When the ship berthed at Kingscote on October 16, Mr Kleemann brought ashore his deceased wife for burial on land.

Wednesday, October 16, 1867. : James Nash sparks off the gold rush in Gympie, Queensland.

James Nash was born in Wiltshire, England in 1834. He migrated to Australia in 1858, and initially worked as a labourer, who spent his spare time prospecting. He moved to Queensland in 1863, and initially tried prospecting in the Nanango and Calliope districts, without success. He sparked off the Gympie gold rush when he found gold in a gully off the Mary River on 16 October 1867. The goldfield was originally called Nashville, but less than a year later, it was renamed Gympie after nearby Gympie Creek.

Wednesday, October 16, 1996. : It is reported that thieves stole a set of fossilised dinosaur footprints from a sacred Aboriginal site.

On 16 October 1996, it was reported that a set of fossilised dinosaur footprints had been stolen from a sacred Aboriginal site in outback Australia. The footprints came from the best preserved trackway of a stegosaur in the world, and were the world's only known set of fossilised stegosaurus prints. They were also the only evidence that stegosaurs had once populated the Australian continent. The footprints were regarded by Aborigines near Broome, northwestern Australia, to belong to a mythical creature from their "Dream Time". The theft shocked and outraged Aborigines, as it violated an Aboriginal sacred site on the isolated coastline near Broome.

On 30 December 1998, one of the missing footprints was recovered. Police investigations found that the thieves had attempted to sell the prints on the Asian market, but had been unsuccessful, possibly because of their size and weight. Each of the three toes of the large print measured 15 cm. The 30kg block of rock in which the print was embedded measured 60cm by 40 cm and was 13cm deep. Police did not elaborate on how they had come across the missing fossil.
 
World History

Wednesday, October 16, 1793. : Marie Antoinette, queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, is beheaded.

Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Maria Theresa. When a new peace treaty was signed between Austria and France, it was hoped that a royal marriage would seal the peace. At age foureen, Marie Antoinette was chosen to marry the dauphin in France. He became King Louis XVI four years later.

Marie Antoinette embraced the lavish lifestyle with enthusiasm. She had little regard for the poor and struggling peasants, and spent money frivolously. For her attitude, she became the symbol of the people's hatred for the old regime during the French Revolution. When the French Revolution began, Marie Antionette supported the old regime. When the National Convention established the French Republic in 1792, Marie Antoinette and the king were imprisoned. Antoinette was beheaded on 16 October 1793.

Monday, October 16, 1978. : The first non-Italian Pope for more than 400 years, Pope John Paul II, is elected.

Pope John Paul was elected to the papacy on the third ballot of the 1978 Papal Conclave, but the popular man who came to be known as the "Smiling Pope" died after just 33 days in office. Pope John Paul was succeeded on 16 October 1978, by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland, who took the name of Pope John Paul II in deference to his predecessor. He became the first non-Italian Pope to be elected for over 400 years. At just 58 years old, the new Pope also became the youngest pope to be elected in the twentieth century.

In his later years, Pope John Paul II's health began to suffer, particularly after he developed Parkinson's Disease during the 1990s. He died on 2 April 2005. His reign was marked by his untiring ecumenical approach to accommodate other Christian sects as well as to forge a better understanding with the Islamic world, without compromising his own Catholic stance. A major theme of his papacy was also his fight for freedom of religion in the Communist bloc and during his term as Pope, was significant for his contribution to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Friday, October 16, 1987. : 18 die as England is hit by destructive hurricane winds, dubbed The Great Storm.

On 16 October 1987, England was hit by a night of destructive storms with hurricane-strength winds. Wind speed reached 151 km per hour in London and 177 km per hour in the Channel Islands. 18 people were killed and hundreds more injured, while damage was estimated at £1 billion. The southern coast was the area worst-hit, with 5 killed in Kent and Dover Harbour, and two firemen killed in Dorset as they responded to an emergency. A Sea Link cross channel ferry was blown ashore at Folkestone, and its crew had to be rescued. Around 15 million trees were felled, and entire forests levelled.

Storms had been predicted earlier in the week when a depression was identified as strengthening over the Atlantic Ocean. It was expected that the weather system would track along the English Channel. However, the Meteorological Office could not predict the nature and ferocity of the Great Storm as it cut inland unexpectedly.
 
Oct 16th
1780
Royalton,Tunbridge,Vermont the last major raids during American Revoluntary War
1847
Charlotte Bronte's book'Jane Eyre' is published
1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins as Pres.John F.Kennedy is shown pictures confirming the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba
1992
'Gilligan's Island' TV pilot which was filmed in 1964 makes its debut on TBS cable channel
 
16th October

1834 The original Houses of Parliament were almost completely destroyed by fire. The blaze, which started from overheated chimney flues, spread rapidly throughout the medieval complex and developed into the biggest conflagration to occur in London since the Great Fire of 1666. Westminster Hall and a few other parts of the old Houses of Parliament survived the blaze and were incorporated into the New Palace of Westminster, which was built over the following decades.


1869 Girton College, Cambridge was founded and became England's first residential college for women.
 
Australian History

Tuesday, October 17, 1854. : Amidst the unrest which eventually led to the Eureka rebellion, the Eureka Hotel is burnt to the ground during a riot.

The Eureka Hotel at Ballarat was opened by its owner, James Bentley, in July 1854. Also known as Bentley's Hotel, it stood on the north east corner of Eureka Street and Otway Streets, and was a popular place for the diggers on the goldfields to gather after a hard day's work prospecting.

James Scobie was an unassuming gold miner who came to Australia from Scotland to make his fortune on the Ballarat goldfields. After becoming involved in a fight at the Eureka Hotel, Scobie died on 7 October 1854. An inquest into his death absolved the hotel owner, Bentley, and his staff of any wrongdoing. The miners, however, felt that justice had been thwarted, and held a meeting outside the hotel on 17 October 1854. Tempers flared, a riot ensued and the hotel was burnt to the ground by the diggers. As a result of this, more troopers were sent from Melbourne, and miners were subjected to more frequent licence checks, and more frequent clashes between miners and troopers.

Ten men were arrested over the destruction of the hotel ten days later, but the charges against seven of those arrested were dismissed. Another inquest into Scobie's death was held a month later, on 18 November, during which Bentley and two of his staff were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three years' hard labour in the road-gangs. The general dissatisfaction generated by these events was a catalyst in the events leading up to the Eureka stockade of December 3.

Monday, October 17, 1949. : Work commences on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, considered one of the wonders of the modern engineering world.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation scheme in Australia, covering about 5,124 square kilometres in southern New South Wales. Considered to be one of the wonders of the modern engineering world, it involves sixteen dams, seven power stations, a pumping station, 145 km of underground tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts. The scheme generates enough electricity to meet roughly 10% of the needs of New South Wales.

The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was first proposed in 1918, driven by the needs of farmers who wanted to be able to divert the waters of the Snowy River inland for irrigation, rather than having it all simply flow out to sea at the river's mouth. In 1946, the Federal government, together with the state governments of Victoria and New South Wales, co-operated to investigate the possibilities of such a Scheme. The Government accepted a proposal in 1949 and the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Power Act was passed in Federal Parliament in July 1949. Led by prominent New Zealand engineer Sir William Hudson, the Snowy Mountains Authority came into being on 1 August 1949.

Construction on the massive undertaking began on 17 October 1949. On this day, Governor General Sir William McKell, Prime Minister Ben Chifley and the first Commissioner of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Sir William Hudson, fired the first blast at Adaminaby. The scheme took 25 years to complete and was built at a cost of $1 billion - well under budget. During construction, over 100,000 men and women from over 30 countries worked on the Scheme, whilst Australians made up most of the workforce. These immigrants contributed significantly to the post-war boom.

Apart from the obvious benefits provided by the electricity and the numerous dams, the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Scheme was significant for raising Australia's profile as a technologically advanced country. In 1967 and 1997, the American Society of Civil Engineers ranked the Scheme as one of the great engineering achievements of the twentieth century.
 
World History
1961 - Over 200 Algerians in Paris are massacred by police as they march in support of Algeria's independence from France.

1979 -Mother Teresa, famous for ministering to lepers, the homeless and the poor in the slums of Calcutta, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1989 -San Francisco, California, is hit by a powerful earthquake which kills 63.
 
Oct 17th
1919
Radio Corp of America{RCA} was created as a subsidary of General Electric
1943
The Burma Railway was completed,built by Allied POWS and Asian laborers for the use of Japanese Army
1992
The 1st Baseball World Series which featured a non-American team,Toronto Blue Jays,vs Atlanta Braves.Toronto won their 1st World Series in 6 games
 
17th October

1091 A tornado struck London. It was Britain's earliest reported tornado. The wooden London Bridge was demolished, and the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in the city of London was badly damaged. Other churches in the area were demolished, as were over 600, mostly wooden, houses.

1860 The world's first professional golf tournament was held, at Prestwick in Scotland.

1980 The Queen made history by becoming the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican, when she met Pope John Paul II.
 
18th October

1871 The death of Charles Babbage, English mathematician, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. He is considered a 'father of the computer' as he is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.

1957 The Queen and Prince Philip visited the US and the White House to mark the 350th anniversary of the British settling in Virginia.

2014 A flock of sheep was left feeling rather woolly-headed after accidentally munching on £4,000 worth of cannabis plants that had been dumped in their field, at the edge of Fanny’s Farm in Merstham, Surrey. By the time that the police arrived, much of the evidence had been eaten. 🐑🐑🐑
 
18th October

1016 The Battle of Assandun (Essex). The battle was the conclusion to the Danish reconquest of England. The
Vikings, led by Canute the Great were victorious over the Anglo-Saxons led by King Edmund Ironside.

1910 The trial began at the Old Bailey of the American Dr. Crippen, accused of murdering his wife Cora Henrietta Crippen. Born in Michigan in 1862 Hawley Harvey Crippen moved to Camden in 1897 and became the first suspect to be captured using the aid of wireless telegraphy. When he and his lover Ethel Neave were spotted escaping on board the liner Montrose the authorities were alerted and Crippen was arrested as the liner entered the St. Lawrence River.

1966 The Queen granted a royal pardon to Timothy Evans, wrongly convicted and hanged in 1950 for the murder of his wife and child. The real murderer was John Reginald Christie who had been hanged for mass murder in 1953.
 
Oct 18th
1867
United States takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia after paying $7.2 million
1954
Texas Instruments Inc announces 1st transistor radio
1968
Circus Circus Hotel in Las Vegas opens with the largest permanent big top in the world
2019
The 1st all female spacewalk by NASA's astronauts Christine Koch,Jessica Meir outside the international space station
 
Australian History

Saturday, October 19, 1872. : The largest single piece of reef gold ever discovered in the world is found at Hill End, in New South Wales.

Hill End, originally known as Bald Hill, is a gold-mining ghost town about 66km from Mudgee in the New South Wales central-west. Alluvial gold was discovered at Hill End in 1851 and within a month, there were were 150 miners working the area. The Hill End goldfield was one of the richest gold mining areas in NSW, and the first reef mining area in Australia. The Beyers and Holtermann nugget, the largest single piece of reef gold ever discovered in the world, was found by workers at the Star of Hope Gold Mining Co on Hawkins Hill, on 19 October 1872. It weighed about 286kg, measured 150cm by 66cm, and was worth at least £12,000 at the time.

Sunday, October 19, 1845. : Leichhardt discovers the Roper River in northern Australia, but loses three of his best horses whilst attempting to cross.

Ludwig Leichhardt was born in Prussia and studied in Germany. He was a passionate botanist who had an interest in exploration, although he lacked necessary bush survival skills. In October 1844, he left from Jimbour, on the Darling Downs, on an expedition to find a new route to Port Essington, near Darwin.

Whilst making his way up the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria a year later, on 19 October 1845, his party came to a freshwater river, estimated to be 460km wide. Leichhardt named it after one of his own men, John Roper, who had seen the river two days earlier on an advance scouting mission to find the best route. As the party began to cross the Roper River, three of the best horses stumbled down steep banks and drowned. With fewer horses remaining to carry the load, Leichhardt regretfully had to destroy most of his botanical specimens which he had been collecting for the past year.

Thursday, October 19, 1933. : Aviator Charles Ulm sets a new flight record between England and Australia.

Charles Thomas Philippe Ulm was born on 18 October 1898 in Melbourne, Australia. When just 16 years old, he enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) under the name Charles Jackson, claiming he was 20. He was among the first troops to land at Gallipoli in April 1915 but was wounded later that same month. He returned to Australia where he was discharged as a minor. However, he re-enlisted the AIF under his own name two years later. He was wounded on the Western Front in July 1918 and evacuated to Britain before being demobilised in 1919. After returning to Australia, he began to develop his interest in commercial aviation, investing in a number of short-lived aircraft companies.

In June 1927, Ulm partnered with Charles Kingsford Smith to circumnavigate Australia by air in order to raise public awareness and gain support for their intended goal of being first to cross the Pacific Ocean from the United States to Australia. Their journey was completed in 10 days, five hours and 30 minutes, more than halving the previous record of 22 days, set by Captain E J Jones and Colonel H C Brinsmead in 1924. Ulm and Kingsford Smith then departed the US on their Pacific crossing in May 1928, arriving in Brisbane, Australia nine days later. The entire 11585 km crossing had been made in 83 hours and 38 minutes of actual flying time, and the men were feted as heroes.

Ulm and Kingsford Smith founded Australian National Airways (ANA) in December 1928. The company operated until the Depression caused the company to go into liquidation in 1933: when it folded, the two men parted company. Ulm purchased one of the ANA’s Avro X aircraft, renaming it ‘Faith in Australia’. Hoping to secure an overseas airmail contract by circumnavigating the world, thereby proving the viability of regular commercial air services, Ulm flew the aeroplane to England, with Gordon Taylor as navigator. The aircraft was damaged in Ireland after it sank in the sand at Portmarnock beach. This, together with continuing bad weather, necessitated Ulm’s return to Australia. Having heard that Kingsford Smith had just completed a new record crossing of England to Australia in 7 days, 4 hours and 50 minutes, Ulm set out to break the record. It was on this return journey that he set a new flight record of 6 days, 17 hours and 56 minutes, arriving in Derby, Western Australia on 19 October 1933, an improvement of some eleven hours on Kingsford Smith’s flight.

In 1933, Ulm formed Great Pacific Airways Ltd and bought an Airspeed Envoy, the 'Stella Australis'. After taking receipt of the craft in 1934, Ulm and his crew of two disappeared while on a test flight from California to Honolulu. Bad weather caused the men to miss the Hawaiian islands in the darkness. Despite a massive search, no trace of the men or the craft was ever found.
 
World History

Sunday, October 19, 1856. : A stampede kills 7 during a Sunday evening service led by the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, more commonly known as C H Spurgeon, was England's best-known and most-loved preacher for most of the latter half of the nineteenth century. He was born in Kelvedon, Essex, on 19 June 1834 and converted to Christianity when he was fifteen years old. He preached his first sermon a year later: even then, his style, depth of thought and delivery were seen as being far above average. At age 18, Spurgeon was placed in charge of a small congregation at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, and at age 20, went to London as pastor of the New Park Street Chapel in Southwark. Under Spurgeon's leadership, the congregation quickly outgrew its building, moving to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall, where there would sometimes be an audience of 10,000.

It was here that Spurgeon experienced his first major setback. During the Sunday evening service on 19 October 1856, someone shouted, "Fire!" The ensuing panic caused a stampede in which seven people were killed, and scores more injured. There was no fire. Spurgeon was just 22 years old and was overcome by this tragedy. For weeks afterward, his distress prevented him from preaching and his whole ministry appeared to be finished. However, his faith sustained him and he grew through the experience to return to preaching, extending his ministry through his published sermons which are still highly regarded today.

Monday, October 19, 1987. : The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 22.6%, the largest one-day decline in recorded stock market history.

19 October 1987, became known as "Black Monday" when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, or 22.6%, in the largest single-day decline in recorded stock market history. The crash rebounded around the world, as within a fortnight, stock markets in Australia had fallen 41.8%, Hong Kong 45.8%, and the United Kingdom 26.4%. The crash was unexpected, and did not seem to have been precipitated by any major news or events. In retrospect, some theories have pointed to the announcement of a particularly steep trade deficit and news of an American attack against Iran as the cause of the plunge. However, economists have not been able to agree on any reason for the crash.
 
Oct 19th
1914
The U.S. Post Office 1st used automobiles to collect&deliver mail
1926
John C.Garand patents the semi automatic rifle
1983
U.S. Senate established Martin Luther King,Jr as a Federal holiday
1991
the longest NCAA college football game Rhode Island vs Maine{3hr,52 sec} RI won 52-30 in 6 OT's
 
20th October

1720 The English pirate of the Caribbean, John Rackham was captured by the Royal Navy. He is most remembered for two things: the design of his Jolly Roger flag, a skull with crossed swords, which contributed to the popularization of the design, and for having two female crew members, Mary Read and his lover Anne Bonny.

1842 The death (from consumption) aged just 26, of Grace Darling, an English lighthouse keeper’s daughter from the Longstone Lighthouse. She rowed out on 7th September 1838, to rescue survivors of the Forfarshire off the Farne Islands and became a national heroine. The Forfarshire had foundered on the rocks and broken in half; one of the halves had sunk during the night. Amidst tempestuous waves and gale force winds there followed an amazing rescue of the survivors.
 
1803
U.S. Senate ratifies the Louisana Purchase
1910
A baseball with a cork center was used for the 1st time in the World Series
1965
The Beatles were awarded a Gold Record for their hit single'Yesterday'
1967
an all white federal jury convicted 7 men in the murders of 3 civil rights workers in Meridan,Mississippi
 


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