This Day In History: October 21, 1854 Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom, And flit from room to room. –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow On October 21, 1854, Florence Nightingale departed for the Crimea accompanied by 38 other women at the request of Sidney Herbert, Britain’s secretary of state at […]

This Day In History: October 20, 1934 One year after Communist troops retreated to the hills to avoid the wrath of Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party, only 4,000 out of the 86,000 had lived to tell the tale. Even though only five percent of Mao Tse-tung’s forces made it to the end of the Long March to northwest […]

Today in History: October 17, 1961 In the late evening hours of October 17, 1961, 30,000 Algerians were demonstrating throughout the city of Paris to protest a curfew imposed upon them earlier in the month by the city’s police chief. Before the night was over, at least 200 Algerians died at the hands of the Paris police. Violent exchanges had […]

This Day In History: October 16, 1854 The world became a more colorful and interesting place on October 16, 1854 when Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland. (Later in life he dropped “Fingal O’Flahertie Wills”, explaining his name was far too long for a person who would be as famous as he.) During his childhood, Oscar […]

This Day In History: October 15, 1888 During the autumn of 1888, a murderer was creeping through the streets and alleyways of London’s East End. His victims were invariably alcoholic prostitutes. He slit their throats prior to mutilating their bodies, and in at least three cases removed several of their internal organs. As the murders stacked up, the similarities between […]

This Day In History: October 14, 1975 Nearly a year after the murder of his parents and four siblings, Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr.’s trial began on October 14, 1975. The family home reportedly became haunted after the tragedy and was the inspiration for the book The Amityville Horror and the movie of the same name. It all began on the […]

This Day In History: October 13, 1792 Way back on October 13, 1792, when George Washington was serving his first term as president, the first issue of what is today known as The Old Farmer’s Almanac went on sale for the asking price of six pence (nine cents). It was a big hit, tripling its circulation from 3,000 to 9,000 […]

This Day In History: October 10, 732 C.E. The Battles of Tours was not a war of nations, but rather a battle of civilizations between Islam and Christian Europe. The Muslims had been conquering the remains of the Roman and Persian empires and were heading toward modern day France to continue their expansion. The Frankish King Charles (“The Hammer”) Martel […]

This Day In History: October 9, 1635 On October 9, 1635, a Puritan minister named Roger Williams, who had fled England in 1630 with the hope of escaping religious persecution, was banished from Massachusetts because of the same sort of intolerance he had faced back home. His crime? Advocating complete religious tolerance and speaking out against the confiscation of Native […]

This Day In History: October 8, 1971 John Lennon’s second solo album Imagine, the follow-up to John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, was released on October 8, 1971 in the U.K. (It had been released the previous month in the U.S.) Imagine was an artistic and commercial triumph, and proved to be the high water mark of Lennon’s career until his final […]

This Day In History: October 7, 1943 On Wake Atoll in the South Pacific, there is a gravel path edged by white coral leading away from the road and toward the water. On the shore of the turquoise lagoon, the highest coral boulder bears a chiseled inscription. It reads: “98 US PW, 5-10-43.” This is a self-written epitaph of a […]

This Day In History: October 6, 1866 An innovation in the world of Wild West crime was made on October 6, 1866 when the Reno gang committed the first robbery ever made on a moving train. (There was an earlier one committed by guerrilla soldiers in 1865, but it’s thought to have taken place while the train was stopped). Robbing […]

This Day In History: October 3, 1967 On October 3, 1967, Woody Guthrie, legendary icon of the 50’s folk music revival, died of Huntington’s Disease in Queens, New York at the Creedmoor State Hospital. A prolific artist, Woody composed almost 3,000 song lyrics, authored two novels, and wrote poems, plays and prose during his lifetime. He served as an inspiration […]

This Day In History: October 2, 1869 “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” -Mahatma Gandhi One of the most influential people of 20th century, Mahatma (“the great-souled one”) Gandhi was born as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India. He led […]

This Day In History: October 1, 1942 On October 1, 1942 the first Little Golden Books were published, making children’s books affordable for the average family during an era when they were considered a luxury item for most. Priced at 25 cents each (about $3.50 today), Little Golden Books were an instant hit with young readers and parents alike. Before […]

This Day In History: September 30, 1868 “The great literary hit of the season is undoubtedly Miss Alcott’s Little Women, the orders for which continue to flow in upon us to such an extent as to make it impossible to answer them with promptness.” – Roberts Brothers Publishing Little Women did not just flow forth from the imagination of author […]

This Day In History: September 29, 1982 On the morning of September 29, 1982, a 12-year-old girl in suburban Chicago named Mary Kellerman complained to her parents that she wasn’t feeling well. They gave her two Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules, and she continued preparing for her day. A short time later, her parents found her collapsed in the bathroom. They rushed […]

This Day In History: September 26, 1969 The show was mercilessly panned by critics and mocked by most TV viewers. It never once reached the top ten in the Neilson ratings. Yet it ran for five seasons and has been in continuous syndication ever since its final show in 1974. As goofy and clean-cut as The Brady Brunch appears to […]