History of 8 October
1904 – “Little Johnny Jones” opened in Hartford, CT.
1915 – During World War I, the Battle of Loos concluded.
1918 – U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France. York had originally tried to avoid being drafted as a conscientious objector. After this event, he was promoted to sergeant and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1919 – The first transcontinental air race in the U.S. began.
1935 – “The O誰eills” debuted on CBS radio.
1938 – The cover of “The Saturday Evening Post” portrayed Norman Rockwell.
1944 – “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” debuted on CBS radio.
1945 – U.S. President Truman announced that only Britain and Canada would be given the secret to the atomic bomb.
1950 – U.N. forces crossed into North Korea from South Korea.
1952 – “The Complete Book of Etiquette” was published for the first time.
1956 – Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first perfect game in the history of the World Series.
1957 – The Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that it had accepted a deal to move the Dodgers to Los Angeles.
1966 – The U.S. Government declared that LSD was dangerous and an illegal substance.
1970 – Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature.
1979 – “Sugar Babies” opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway.
1981 – U.S. President Reagan greeted former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon to the White House. The group was preparing to leave for Egypt to attend the funeral of Anwar Sadat.
1982 – In Poland, all labor organizations, including Solidarity, were banned.
1991 – A slave burial site was found by construction workers in lower Manhattan. The “Negro Burial Ground” had been closed in 1790. Over a dozen skeletons were found.
1993 – The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, TX, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed as many as 85 people.
1996 – Pope John Paul II underwent a successful operation to remove his inflamed appendix.
1998 – Taliban forces attacked Iranian border posts. Iran said that three border posts were destroyed before the Taliban forces were forced to retreat. The Taliban of Afghanistan denied the event occurred.
1998 – Canada and Netherlands were voted into the U.N. Security Council.
2001 – Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania, was sworn in as director of the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
2001 – Rush Limbaugh announced to his listeners that he was totally deaf in his left ear and had an only partial hearing in his right ear. The condition had happened in a three month period.
2001 – Two Russian cosmonauts made the first spacewalk to be conducted outside of the international space station without a shuttle present.
2002 – A federal judge approved U.S. President George W. Bush’s request to reopen West Coast ports, to end a caustic 10-day labor lockout. The lockout was costing the U.S. economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day.
2003 – China announced that it would have a human crew orbit the Earth briefly on October 15.
2003 – Vietnam and the United States reached a tentative agreement that would allow the first commercial flights between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War.
2003 – It was announced that Vivendi Universal and General Electric Co. had reached an agreement to merge. The name for the combined company was NBC Universal.
2003 – Siegfried Fischbacher and his manager announced that the “Siegfried and Roy” show at the Mirage was canceled permanently. It was also said that if Roy Horn survived, after a tiger attack on October 3, the duo would continue to work together.
2004 – The first-ever direct presidential elections were held in Afghanistan.
2005 – The 7.6 Mw Kashmir earthquake leaves 86,000–87,351 people dead, 69,000–75,266 injured, and 2.8 million homeless.
2014 – Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola, dies.
2016 – In the wake of Hurricane Matthew, the death toll rises to nearly 900.
2019 – About 200 Extinction Rebellion activists block the gates of Leinster House (parliament) in the Republic of Ireland
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Vladimir Kisenkov, Russian footballer
- 1981 – Raffi Torres, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Phil Mustard, English cricketer
- 1982 – Milos Pavlovic, Serbian race car driver
- 1982 – Annemiek van Vleuten, Dutch cyclist
- 1983 – Mario Cassano, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Michael Fraser, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – Mihkel Kukk, Estonian javelin thrower
- 1983 – Abhishek Nayar, Indian cricketer
- 1983 – Travis Pastrana, American motorcycle racer
- 1984 – Domenik Hixon, American football player
- 1985 – Bruno Mars, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
- 1985 – Eiji Wentz, Japanese singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Elliphant, Swedish singer-songwriter, and rapper
- 1986 – Louis Dodds, English footballer
- 1986 – Michele Sepe, Italian rugby player
- 1987 – Aya Hirano, Japanese voice actress, and singer
- 1987 – Hassan Maatouk, Lebanese footballer
- 1987 – Taylor Price, American football player
- 1989 – Sione Louis, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1989 – Mahmut Temür, Turkish footballer
- 1989 – Armand Traoré, French footballer
- 1990 – Rachel Klamer, Zimbabwean-Dutch triathlete
- 1991 – Jordan McLean, Australian rugby league player
- 1992 – Maria João Koehler, a Portuguese tennis player
- 1992 – Lidziya Marozava, a Belarusian tennis player
- 1993 – Yoshikazu Fujita, Japanese rugby union player
- 1993 – Garbiñe Muguruza, a Spanish tennis player
- 1993 – Barbara Palvin, Hungarian model and actress
- 1993 – Molly Quinn, American actress, and producer
- 1993 – Darrell Wallace, Jr., American race car driver
- 1994 – Luca Hänni, Swiss singer-songwriter
- 1995 – G Herbo, American rapper
- 1996 – Sara Sorribes Tormo, a Spanish tennis player
- 1996 – Sara Takanashi, Japanese ski jumper
- 1997 – Bella Thorne, American actress