Historical Events
Abraham Lincoln, the Presidential Icon
Oct 15 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Abraham Lincoln telling him to grow a beard
British Golf Open
Oct 17 1st British Open Men's Golf, Prestwick GC: Willie Park Sr. wins inaugural event by 2 strokes from fellow Scot Tom Morris Sr
- Oct 18 The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.
Famous Birthdays
- Oct 3 Annie Horniman, English theater owner (Abbey Theatre, Dublin), born in Surrey Mount, Forest Hill, London (d. 1937)
- Oct 4 Sidney Paget, British illustrator (Sherlock Holmes), born in London (d. 1908)
- Oct 8 Felix Woyrsch, German composer, born in Opava, Czech Republic (d. 1944)
- Oct 12 Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American entrepreneur and inventor (gyrocompass), born in Cincinnatus, New York (d. 1930)
- Oct 17 Dionyssios Lavrangas, Greek conductor, composer, and pedagogue, born in Argostólion, Greece (d. 1915)
- Oct 19 Affie Jarvis, Australian cricket wicket-keeper (11 Tests, 18 dismissals; South Australia), born in Adelaide, Australia (d. 1933)
- Oct 28 Kanō Jigorō, Japanese educator and the founder of Judo, born in Mikage, Japan (d. 1938)
Juliette Gordon Low (1860-1927)
Oct 31 American activist and founder of the Girl Scouts of America, born in Savannah, Georgia
Famous Deaths
- Oct 2 Louis Hersent, painter, dies
- Oct 3 Rembrandt Peale, American portrait and historical painter (Margaret Irvine Miller ,1805; Court of Death, 1820), and museum keeper (Baltimore), dies at 82
- Oct 6 Stephen Elvey, British organist and choir master (New College, Oxford 1830 -60), and hymn composer, dies at 55
- Oct 12 Harry Smith, English military commander and leader of British-Indian forces (Battle of Aliwal), dies at 73
- Oct 24 Élie, Duke Decazes, French Bourbon Restoration politician (Sainte-Martin-de-Laye, France), dies at 80
- Oct 31 Johannes Nathan, Dutch murderer, the last ordinary execution in the Netherlands, hanged for killing his mother-in-law
- Oct 31 Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British admiral, dies at 84
