1289 Louis X - King of Navarre from 1305 to 1314 and king of France from 1314 to 1316
1626 Lord Richard Cromwell - English Lord Protector from 1658 to 1659. He took over the position of Lord Protector after his father Oliver’s death in 1658
1822 Rutherford B. Hayes – 19th US President
1835 Mary Elizabeth Braddon – British author (Lady Audley's Secret, The Trail of the Serpent, The Black Band)
1860 Sidney Paget – British artist who produced 357 illustrations for the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine
1861 Frederic Remington – US artist, born in Canton, New York. He was one of the pre-eminent artists of the US West. The son of a comfortable, if not wealthy, family, Remington was one of the first students to attend Yale University's new School of Fine Arts, becoming a skilled painter. When he was 19, Remington's father died, leaving him a small inheritance that gave him the freedom to indulge his interest in travelling in the West where he quickly developed a deep love for the disappearing world of cowboys, Indians, and wide-open spaces
1884 Damon Runyon – US author (Guys and Dolls, Blue Plate Special, A Slight Case of Murder, Rural Rides)
1895 Buster Keaton – Actor (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The General, Man in the Silk Hat, When Comedy was King, Sunset Boulevard, Doughboys, Beach Blanket Bingo, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Around the World in 80 Days)
1924 Charleton Heston - Actor (Ben-Hur, The Greatest Show on Earth, Soylent Green, Dynasty, Tombstone, El Cid, Earthquake, The Ten Commandments, Planet of the Apes, Midway, True Lies) He played Sherlock Holmes in The Crucifer of Blood, both on screen and on stage. On stage, his Watson was played by Jeremy Brett
1939 Jackie Collins – British author (Hollywood Wives, Lucky, Chances) She is the sister of actress Joan Collins
1941 Lori Saunders - Actress (Petticoat Junction, Dusty's Trail)
1941 Anne Rice – US author (Vampire Chronicles, Interview With the Vampire, The Feast of All Saints, The Vampire Lestat) She was born in New Orleans, one of four sisters, and was christened Howard Allen O'Brien by her parents, but insisted on being called Anne when she started first grade
1942 Christopher Stone – Actor (Cujo, The Howling, The Interns, The Blue and the Gray)
1945 Clifton Davis - Actor (That's My Mama, Amen, The Melba Moore-Clifton Davis Show, Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige)
1946 Susan Sarandon - Actress (Dead Man Walking, Little Women, Atlantic City, Thelma and Louise, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, King of the Gypsies, Bull Durham, The Client, Search for Tomorrow, The Player)
1949 Armand Assante - Actor (Mambo Kings, Hoffa, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Fatal Instinct, Private Benjamin, Jack the Ripper, The Lords of Flatbush, Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story, Judge Dredd, The Odyssey)
1964 Sarah Lancashire – British actress (Coronation Street, Lark Rise to Candleford, Sons & Lovers, Where the Heart is, Oliver Twist, Chambers, Clocking Off, Happy Valley, MotherFatherSon, Last Tango in Halifax) She played Carol Parker in the mini-series The Glass, starring John Thaw
1976 Alicia Silverstone (Batman & Robin, Clueless, The Crush, Scooby Doo 2, Blast from the Past)
Died this Day
1582 St. Teresa of Avila – Spanish nun who was canonised in 1622
1669 Rembrandt, age 63 – Dutch painter
1911 Dr Joseph Bell, age 73 – Scottish physician who was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes
1970 Janis Joplin, age 27 – US rock singer (Piece of My Heart, Me and Bobby McGee, Move Over, Ball and Chain) She was found dead in her Hollywood hotel room, from an overdose of heroin
1982 Glenn Gould, age 50 - Canadian pianist (Bach's Goldberg Variations) Gould was already one of Canada's leading musical performers by his early 20s, and he toured widely in North America and Europe, and was one of the first Canadian performers to visit the Soviet Union. In 1964, at the height of his career, Gould announced his retirement from the concert stage because of what he called its sports-arena atmosphere. He died in Toronto, eight days after suffering a severe stroke possibly complicated by addiction to medication
On this Day
1535 The printing of the first English-language Bible was completed. It was translated by Miles Coverdale
1582 A Papal Edict enforced the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in all Catholic countries. This day, October 4th by the former Julian Calendar, now became October 15th, as eleven days disappeared from the year. The calendar was devised by Pope Gregory the 13th to correct the extra leap year day problem. Nearly 200 years later, in September of 1752, the British Empire and its colonies in North America finally made the adjustment from the Julian model to the Gregorian
1666 Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy, the military governor of New France, arrived at Ticonderoga, New York on the south end of Lake Champlain. With him were an army of 1,000 French regulars, 600 New France militia and 100 Hurons and Algonkians, travelling in 300 boats and canoes. After a rain-soaked march of several days, they burned Iroquois corn crops and the deserted Mohawk village of Andarague, as well as three other settlements. The expedition was ordered by Jean Talon after peace talks failed. The Iroquois would turn to the English for help
1773 In London, England a monument to General James Wolfe was unveiled at Westminster. Wolfe was the British general who captured Quebec, but died in on the battlefield at the Plains of Abraham, in September 1759
1777 The Battle of Germantown took place at Germantown, Pennsylvania, near the British-occupied city of Philadelphia. Patriot forces under General George Washington attempted an early morning attack on Sir William Howe's British troops, but heavy morning fog threw Washington's divisions into disarray and by ten o'clock the battle was over. Although the patriots were forced into a retreat, both sides suffered heavy losses, and the ambiguous British victory actually served to boost US morale
1813 At Moraviantown, Ontario, Indian leader Tecumseh told his fellow warriors, “We are about to enter an engagement from which I shall not return.” He died the next day at the Battle of the Thames
1851 A freak gale off the coast of Prince Edward Island sunk 100 US fishing vessels and killed at least 130 fishermen
1860 The first indoor lacrosse match was held in Montreal's Lacrosse Ground
1878 The first Chinese Embassy was opened in Washington
1895 The first US Open golf tournament was held, at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. It was won by Horace Rawlins of the US
1909 A disastrous fire around Red Deer, Alberta finally burned out. Five million acres were burned, several people killed, and homes and livestock destroyed
1909 The cornerstone of the Saskatchewan Legislature was laid in Regina
1909 The first airship race in the US began in St. Louis, Missouri, with four hydrogen-filled dirigibles, all the existing airships in the US, participating in the competition. Tens of thousands of spectators turned out to witness the race from Forest Park and Clayton Road to Kings Highway and Lindell Avenue and back. Lincoln Beachey, the first pilot to complete the course, was awarded a first prize of $1,000
1911 Britain’s first escalator was switched on at Earls Court Underground Station
1920 The Canadian Air Force began its first cross-country flight. Wing Commander Robert Leckie flew from Halifax to Winnipeg, arriving October 11th. From there, Air Commodore A.K. Tylee flew to Vancouver with a series of three pilots, arriving October 17th. The flight time for the 3,400 mile trip was 45 hours, as opposed to 132 hours by rail
1931 The comic strip, Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould, made its debut
1957 The Soviet Union fired the first shot of the space race with the launching of Sputnik, the world's first artificial earth satellite. Soviet radio reported that the "artificial moon," which weighed 184 pounds, was circling the earth once every hour and thirty-five minutes. From its altitude of 560 miles, Sputnik transmitted signals back to earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. Those in the US with access to such equipment tuned in, and listened in awe as the beeping Sputnik passed over the US seven times a day. Some feared sinister uses of the Soviet's new space technology, which was ahead of the US space effort. The first planned US satellite was not scheduled to be launched until the next year
1958 BOAC (later British Airways) became the world’s first trans-Atlantic jet service with two Comet IV jets
1965 Pope Paul VI arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York City on the first visit by a pope to the US. During his packed one-day visit, limited entirely to New York City, Pope Paul VI visited St. Patrick's Cathedral and Cardinal Spellman's residence, met with President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations, attended a public mass at Yankee Stadium, visited the Vatican Exhibit at the New York World's Fair, and flew home to Rome from Kennedy Airport. During the thirteen-and-a-half hour visit, the Pope was seen in person by approximately one million people, and on television by an additional one hundred million
1975 In Quebec, as part of the US Bicentennial celebrations, 750 Americans in colonial costumes re-enacted the 1775 patriot attack on Quebec City
1978 Funeral services were held at the Vatican for Pope John Paul the First, who was found dead five days earlier
1988 Nine Canadians who were unknowing guinea pigs during CIA-financed brainwashing experiments in the 1950's reached an out-of-court settlement, sharing $750,000
1994 The bodies of 48 members of a cult called the Order of the Solar Temple were found in a burned-out farmhouse and three chalets in Switzerland. The bodies of two cult members had also been found a day earlier at a burned-out condominium north of Montréal. Three more bodies were found at the condo two days later
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