Historical Events
- Oct 1 12 Nazi war criminals sentenced to death in Nuremberg
Baseball Record
Oct 1 Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller claims his MLB record 348th strikeout of season in a 4-1 win over Detroit; record stands for 19 years
- Oct 1 St. Louis Cardinals beats Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2 in first MLB play-off game for a league championship (NL); St Louis wins series, 2-0
- Oct 2 1st network soap opera "Faraway Hill" begins broadcasting on DuMont Television Network
- Oct 5 "Yours Is My Heart" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 36 performances
- Oct 5 1st Cannes Film Festival ends
- Oct 5 Newcastle United equals English Football League record for biggest winning margin in a 13-0 thrashing of Newport in a Division 2 match at St. James' Park; Len Shackleton scores 6, Charlie Wayman 4 for the Toon
- Oct 6 90°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in Oct
- Oct 6 US President Harry Truman questions Great Britain Jews about Palestine
String Quartet No. 2
Oct 7 Charles Ives' 2nd string quartet premieres
- Oct 8 Military plane crashes at Christian HBS, 24 die
The Iceman Cometh
Oct 9 Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh" premieres in NYC
- Oct 9 First electric blanket manufactured; sold for $39.50
- Oct 10 Max Frisch's play "Die Chinesische Mauer" (The Chinese Wall) premieres in Zürich
- Oct 11 New York Yankees trade infielder Joe Gordon to Cleveland Indians for pitcher Allie Reynolds
- Oct 14 Netherland & Indonesia sign cease fire
- Oct 15 Baseball World Series: St Louis Cardinals beat Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park to clinch series, 4 games to 3; Cards 6th championship
Nuremberg Trials
Oct 16 10 Nazi leaders are hanged as war criminals after Nuremberg war trials, including Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Alfred Jodl
Music Premiere
Oct 18 Aaron Copland's 3rd Symphony first performance, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra led by Serge Koussevitzky
- Oct 20 Frank Seno returns kickoff 105 yd, Chicago Cards vs NY Giants
- Oct 22 2 British ships sink near Albania
- Oct 23 UN General Assembly 2nd session convenes (1st NYC-Flushing Meadows)
- Oct 24 A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket, launched from Whites Sands US, takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.
- Oct 24 Netherlands & Indonesia sign cease fire
- Oct 27 Georgi Domitrovs National Front wins Bulgaria elections (78%)
- Oct 28 German rocket engineers begin work in USSR
Famous Birthdays
Birthdays 1 - 100 of 120
- Oct 1 Ewa Klobukowska, Polish athlete (Olympic gold 4x100m relay 1964), born in Warsaw, Poland
- Oct 2 Eric Peterson, Canadian actor (Street Legal), born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Oct 2 Jo-El Sonnier, American country singer (Louisiana), born in Rayne, Louisiana
- Oct 2 Roger Jett, American actor (Smithereens), born in Cumberland, Maryland
- Oct 3 (Richard) "Biff" Henderson, American television personality (Late Night/Late Show with David Letterman), born in Durham, North Carolina
- Oct 3 Bob Dotson, newscaster (Primetime Sunday), born in St Louis, Missouri
- Oct 3 P.P. Arnold [Patricia Ann Cole], American soul singer (Ike and Tina Turner revue; "The First Cut Is The Deepest"), born in Los Angeles, California
- Oct 3 Tristan Keuris, Dutch composer (Sinfonia), born in Amersfoort, Utrecht, Netherlands (d. 1996)
- Oct 4 André Bolhuis, Dutch field hockey player, coach and administrator (World Cup gold 1973; president Dutch Field Hockey Federation; chairman Dutch Olympic Committee), born in Zeist, Netherlands
- Oct 4 Chuck Hagel, American politician
Susan Sarandon (77 years old)
Oct 4 American actress (Dead Man Walking, The Client) also known for her social and political activism, born in Queens, New York
- Oct 5 Jean Perron, Canadian ice hockey coach, born in Saint-Isidore-d'Auckland, Quebec, Canada
- Oct 5 Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, American Appalachian moonshiner, bootlegger, and how-to book author (Me and My Likker), born in Maggie Valley, North Carolina (d. 2009)
- Oct 5 Richard Kermode, American rocker (Kozmic Blues Band), born in Wyoming (d. 1996)
- Oct 5 Zahida Hina, Pakistani columnist, born in Sahasram, Bihar, British India
- Oct 6 Aleksandr Dronov, Russian Chess Grandmaster (3 x World Correspondence Champion), born in Moscow, Russia (d. 2023)
- Oct 6 Eddie Villanueva, JIL Spiritual Director, Owner of ZOE Broadcasting Network
- Oct 6 Gary Gentry, baseball player (NY Mets)
- Oct 6 György Kottán, Hungarian soccer manager (Bangladesh 2000-03; Pakistan 2009-10), born in Budapest, Hungary (d. 2023)
- Oct 6 Lloyd Doggett, American attorney and politician (US Representative, Democrat, Texas), born in Austin, Texas
- Oct 6 Millie Small, Jamaican ska singer, and songwriter ("My Boy Lollipop"), born in Clarendon, Jamaica (d. 2020)
Tony Greig (1946-2012)
Oct 6 English cricket captain, all-rounder (1972-77) and commentator, born in Queenstown, South Africa
- Oct 6 Vinod Khanna, Indian Bollywood actor (Mera Gaon Mera Desh), born in Peshawar (d. 2017)
- Oct 7 Anita Shreve, American writer (Weight of Water, Past the Island; Drifting), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 2018)
- Oct 7 Bernard Lavilliers [Oulion], French jazz singer and songwriter, born in Saint-Étienne, France
- Oct 7 Pengiran Anak Saleha, Queen of Brunei, born in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei
- Oct 8 Aleksandr Gorshkov, Russian ice dancer (World C'ship gold x 6; Olympic gold USSR 1976; with Lyudmila Pakhomova), born in Moscow, Russia (d. 2022)
- Oct 8 Brian Lockwood, English rugby league utility forward (16 Tests GB, 3 England; Castleford, Canterbury-Bankstown, Balmain, Wakefield Trinity, Hull KR), born in Oldham, England
- Oct 8 Dennis Kucinich, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio), born in Cleveland, Ohio
- Oct 8 Jean-Jacques Beineix, French film director (Betty Blue, Diva), born in Paris, France
- Oct 8 Paul Splittorff, American MLB pitcher and broadcaster (KC Royals), born in Evansville, Indiana (d. 2011)
- Oct 10 Ben Vereen, American Tony Award-winning actor, singer, and dancer (Jesus Christ Superstar; Pippin; Roots; Tenspeed and Brown Shoe; Webster), born in Miami, Florida
- Oct 10 Charles Dance, British actor (Alien 3; Game Of Thrones; Jewel in the Crown), born in Redditch, Worcestershire
- Oct 10 Chris Tarrant, British TV presenter (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), born in Reading, Berkshire, England
- Oct 10 Franco Malerba, Italian astronaut (STS 46), born in Genoa, Italy
- Oct 10 John Prine, American country folk singer-songwriter ("Hello in There"; "Angel From Montgomery"; "Summer's End"), born in Maywood, Illinois (d. 2020)
- Oct 10 Mildred Grieveson, Britlish writer (Leopard in the Snow), born in England
- Oct 10 Naoto Kan, Japanese politician (61st Prime Minister of Japan), born in Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan
- Oct 10 Pete Mahvolich, Canadian ice hockey center (Stanley Cup 1971, 73, 76, 77 Montreal Canadiens; Canada Cup 1976), born in Timmins, Ontario
- Oct 10 Willard White, Jamaican-British operatic bass baritone, born in Kingston, Jamaica
- Oct 11 Daryl Hall [Hohl], American rocker, soul singer and songwriter (Hall & Oates - "Sara Smile"; "She's Gone"), born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania
- Oct 11 Felton Perry, American actor (Magnum Force, Sudden Death), born in Chicago, Illinois
- Oct 11 Gary Mallaber, American drummer (The Steve Miller Band - "Abracadbra"; "The Joker"), born in Buffalo, New York
- Oct 11 James Robison, American novelist (The Illustrator), and poet (I see men like trees, walking), born in Worthington, Ohio
- Oct 11 Oba Chandler, American convicted murderer, born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 2011)
- Oct 11 Sawao Kato, Japanese gymnast (8 Olympic gold 1968, 72, 76), born in Gosen, Japan
- Oct 12 Ashok Mankad, Indian cricket batsman (22 Tests, 6 x 50; Bombay), born in Mumbai, India (d. 2008)
- Oct 12 Chris Nicholl, Irish soccer centre-back (51 caps Northern Ireland; Aston Villa 210 games, Southampton 228 games) and manager (Southampton 1985–91, Walsall 1994–97), born in Wilmslow, England (d. 2024)
- Oct 12 Daryl Runswick, British composer, arranger, musician, producer and educator, born in Leicester, England
- Oct 13 Bram Vermeulen, Dutch singer (Neerlands Hoop), born in The Hague, Netherlands
- Oct 13 Demond Wilson, American actor (Sanford & Son, Baby I'm Back), born in Valdosta, Georgia
- Oct 13 Dorothy Moore, American blues, gospel, and R&B singer ("Misty Blue"), born in Jackson, Mississippi
- Oct 13 Edwina Currie, British politician (C), born in Liverpool, England
- Oct 13 Lacy J. Dalton, American country singer ("Crazy Blue Eyes"), born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania [1]
- Oct 14 Al Oliver, American baseball outfielder (7-time MLB All Star; Pittsburgh Pirates), born in Portsmouth, Ohio
- Oct 14 Craig Venter, American biotechnologist and geneticist (involved with the first draft sequence of the human genome), born in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Oct 14 Dan McCafferty, Scottish rock vocalist (Nazareth - "Love Hurts"), born in Dunfermline, Scotland (d. 2022)
- Oct 14 James Robert "Radio" Kennedy, American football coach, born in Anderson, South Carolina
- Oct 14 Justin Hayward, British rock singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Moody Blues - "Nights in White Satin"; "Your Wildest Dreams"), born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England
- Oct 15 Richard Carpenter, American pop pianist, songwriter, arranger, and producer (The Carpenters - "Close to You"), born in New Haven, Connecticut
- Oct 15 Stewart Stevenson, Scottish National Party politician, born in Edinburgh, Scotland
- Oct 15 Victor Banerjee, Indian actor (A Passage to India), born in Calcutta, India
- Oct 16 Suzanne Somers (née Mahoney), American actress (Three's Company, 1977-81 - "Chrissy"; Step by Step), born in San Bruno, California (d. 2023)
- Oct 16 Tariq Yunus, Indian actor (Bollywood; Ashanti; Deceivers), born in Karachi, India (d. 1994)
- Oct 17 Adam Michnik, Polish activist
- Oct 17 Bob Seagren, American pole vaulter/actor (Olympic gold 1968, "Soap"), born in Pomona California
- Oct 17 Drusilla Modjeska, Australian writer and editor
- Oct 17 Herb Orvis, American College Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle (University of Colorado; NFL: Detroit Lions, Baltimore Colts), born in Petoskey, Michigan (d. 2020)
- Oct 17 James Ray "Jim" Tucker, American rock guitarist (Turtles - "Happy Together"), born in Los Angeles, California
- Oct 17 Michael Hossack, American rock drummer (The Doobie Brothers, 1971-73 & 1987-2012), born in Paterson, New Jersey (d. 2012)
- Oct 17 Sir Cameron Mackintosh, British stage producer
- Oct 17 Vicki Hodge, actress (Confessions of a Sex Maniac), born in London, England
- Oct 18 Howard Shore, Canadian television and film composer (Lord of the Rings trilogy; 1st music director of Saturday Night Live), born in Toronto, Canada
- Oct 18 James Robert Baker, American novelist, screenwriter
- Oct 19 Bob Holland, cricketer (Australian leg-spinner at age 38)
- Oct 19 Kenneth Washington, African-American actor (Sgt Richard Baker-Hogan's Heroes, Westworld)
- Oct 19 Philip Pullman, English writer
- Oct 20 Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian novelist, poet, and playwright (Nobel Prize for Literature, 2004 -The Piano Teacher), born in Mürzzuschlag, Austria
- Oct 20 Lucien Van Impe, Belgian cyclist (winner Tour de France 1976), born in Mere, Belgium
- Oct 21 Goyo Rubio, Spanish soccer defender (22 caps; Real Madrid 317 games), born in Puente del Arzobispo, Spain (d. 2020)
- Oct 21 Jim Hill, American sportscaster
- Oct 21 Lee Loughnane, American horn player and songwriter (Chicago), born in Elmwood Park, Illinois
- Oct 21 Lux Interior [Erick Lee Purkhiser], American punk rock singer (The Cramps), born in Akron, Ohio (d. 2009)
- Oct 21 Phil Chen, Chinese-Jamaican rock session and touring bassist (Jeff Beck, 1974-76; Rod Stewart, 1977-80; Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger), born in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 2021)
- Oct 21 Phil Ryan, Welsh keyboardist and composer (Man, Pete Brown), born in Port Talbot, Wales (d. 2016)
- Oct 21 Tetsu Yamauchi, Japanese rock bass guitarist (Free; The Faces), born in Fukuoka, Japan
- Oct 22 Claude Charron, French Canadian politician and TV personality
- Oct 22 Kelvin MacKenzie, British media tycoon
- Oct 22 Richard Loncraine, director (Missionary, Deep Cover, Bellman & True)
- Oct 23 Gerda Havertong, Surinam-Dutch singer and actress (Sesame Street), born in Paramaribo, Suriname
- Oct 23 Mel Martinez, American politician (Senator-R-Florida 2005-9), born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba
- Oct 23 Miklós Németh, Hungarian athlete (Olympic gold javelin 1976), born in Budapest, Hungary
- Oct 24 Jerry Edmonton, Canadian rock drummer (Steppenwolf), born in Oshawa, Ontario (d. 1993)
- Oct 24 John Bettis, American lyricist ("Top Of The World"; "Crazy For You"; "Slow Hand"), born in Long Beach, California
- Oct 25 Peter Lieberson, American contemporary classical composer (Red Garuda; Neruda Songs), born in New York City (d. 2011)
- Oct 26 Holly Woodlawn, transgender Puerto Rican actress (Warhol films), born in Juana Díaz (d. 2015)
- Oct 26 Keith Hopwood, British rock guitarist (Herman's Hermits - "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter"), born in Davyhulme, Manchester, England
- Oct 26 Maureen Anderman, American actress (Once Upon a Family, Rupture Fatale), born in Detroit, Michigan
Pat Sajak (77 years old)
Oct 26 American TV host (Wheel of Fortune, Pat Sajak Show), born in Chicago, Illinois
Ivan Reitman (1946-2022)
Oct 27 Slovak-Canadian director and producer (Stripes; Ghostbusters; Dave; Private Parts), born in Komárno, Slovakia
Famous Deaths
- Oct 4 Barney Oldfield, American auto racer (International Motorsports Hall of Fame; first to drive at 60mph on circular track), dies of a heart attack at 67
- Oct 8 Rose Melville, American stage actress (Sis Hopkins), dies at 73
- Oct 11 Ico Hitrec, Croatian footballer, dies at 35
- Oct 12 Joseph W. Stilwell, American general (commanded U.S. forces in China, Burma, and India in WWII), dies at 63
Hermann Goering (1893-1946)
Oct 15 German Nazi Party leader, convicted war criminal, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (1941-45) and World War I fighter pilot ace, poisons himself in prison at 53
Alfred Jodl (1890-1946)
Oct 16 German general during World War II (head of the German High Command, signed unconditional Nazi surrender), hanged by Allied forces after the Nuremberg trials at 56
- Oct 16 Alfred Rosenberg, German war criminal, hanged
- Oct 16 Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi politician (Austrian Chancellor, 1938), and war criminal responsible for deportation of Dutch Jews, hanged at 54
- Oct 16 Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian Nazi (SS/SD), hanged at 43
- Oct 16 Fritz Sauckel, German Nazi politician (General Plenipotentiary for Labour Deployment, 1942-45), and convicted war criminal, hanged at 51
- Oct 16 Granville Bantock, English composer and conductor (Hebridean Symphony), dies at 78
Hans Frank (1900-1946)
Oct 16 German Nazi Governor General of Occupied Poland, hanged by Allied forces after the Nuremberg war trials at 46
Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893-1946)
Oct 16 Nazi foreign minister and war criminal, hanged at 53
- Oct 16 Wilhelm Frick, German leading Nazi official and war criminal (Minister of the Interior, responsible for concentration camps), hanged for crimes against humanity at 69
Wilhelm Keitel (1882-1946)
Oct 16 Nazi military leader (head of the German High Command), is hanged at Nuremberg at 64