Historical Events
- Oct 1 South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; later to separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.
- Oct 16 Tremont Hotel, 1st US modern hotel opens (Boston)
- Oct 17 1st supposed attack on abandoned German teenager Kaspar Hauser
- Oct 17 Delaware River & Chesapeake Bay Canal formally opens
- Oct 25 Eastern State Penitentiary opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the world's 1st prison to entirely use solitary confinement system intended for rehabilitation; designed by Robert Strickland, it closed in 1971, and is now a museum [1]
Famous Birthdays
Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886)
Oct 5 21st President of the United States (1881-85), born in Fairfield Vermont
- Oct 10 Dandridge McRae, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Baldwin County, Alabama (d. 1899)
- Oct 15 Asaph Hall, American astronomer who discovered satellites of Mars (Phobos & Deimos), born in Goshen, Connecticut (d. 1907)
- Oct 18 Charles S. Winder, American military officer and Confederate Brigadier General (US Army, 1850-61; Confederate Army, 1861-62), born in Easton, Maryland (d. 1862)
- Oct 18 Lucius Marshall Walker, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1863)
- Oct 27 Christopher Columbus Andres, American diplomat, newspaperman, author, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire (d. 1922)
- Oct 30 Roscoe Conkling, American politician (U.S. Senator from New York 1867-81), born in Albany, New York (d. 1888)
