In 1582, Catholic countries switch to Gregorian calendar, cutting 10 prior days (October 5 became October 15). Some rioting by renters complaining of having to pay for a short month. (Worse was in store when Britain and her colonies switched in the 1700s by which time the Julian calendar was about 20 days behind the Gregorian.)
In 1783, Jean Pilatre de Rozier makes a captive-balloon ascent, becoming the first man to leave the earth by artificial means.
In 1860, 11-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, New York, wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard.
In 1878, Thomas Edison establishes the Edison Electric Light Company in N.Y. City.
In 1917, Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer who had spied for the Germans, was executed by a French firing squad outside Paris.
In 1924, Pres Coolidge declares Statue of Liberty a national monument.
In 1928, the German dirigible Graf Zeppelin landed in Lakehurst, N.J., on its first commercial flight across the Atlantic.
In 1939, New York Municipal Airport, later renamed La Guardia Airport, was dedicated.
In 1964, it was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary by Leonid I. Brezhnev.
In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation. (Transportation would later operate an Office of Commercial Space Transportation after 1984's Commercial Space Transportation Act was passed.)
In 1984, astronomers in Pasadena, Calif., displayed the first photographic evidence of another solar system light years from Earth.
In 1985, Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit.
In 1990, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1993, South Africans F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela are voted the Nobel Peace Prize for 1993.
In 1993, the Pentagon censured three U.S. Navy admirals who'd organized the Tailhook Association convention in 1991 at which scores of women had been subjected to abuse and indignities by junior officers.
In 1997, British Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green twice drove a jet-powered car in the Nevada desert faster than the speed of sound, officially shattering the world's land-speed record.
Evangelista Torricelli: 1608
Mathematician, Scientist, Inventor, invented the barometer
Asaph Hall: 1829
Astronomer, discovered Mars' moons, Phobos and Deimos and calculated their orbits
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: 1844
Philosopher, Poet, German, brilliant political theorist. Analyzed origins of good and evil as human inventions with practical rather than religious implications.
John Lawrence Sullivan: 1858
Boxer, last bareknuckle heavyweight champ 1882-1892
P. G. Wodehouse: 1881
Poet, Dramatist/Playwright, Novelist, Humorist, British, real name was Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. Created character Jeeves.
John Kenneth Galbraith: 1908
Economist, Author, Educator, Diplomat, Editor, Canadian
Klaus Barbie: 1913
Nazi war criminal; butcher of Lyons.
Arthur Meier Jr. Schlesinger: 1917
Author, Historian, Educator
Mario Puzo: 1920
Novelist, The Godfather; screen playwright: The Godfather series, Earthquake,
Superman: The Movie, Superman 2, The Cotton Club, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery
Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca: 1924
Author, Executive, ex-Chrysler CEO/president/chairman
Mark Lenard: 1928
Actor, Star Trek's Ambassador Sarek (Spock's father), a variety of villians including Romulan Commander, Planet of the Apes
Chris DeBurgh: 1948
Rock & Roll Singer/Guitarist, Songwriter, Composer, Irish, real name is Christopher Davidson. No relation that I know of.
Born 15 October
Virgil: 70 BC
Poet, Italian, Roman; or Vergil; real name was Publius Vergilius Maro. Author of Aeniad "We are not all capable of everything."
Thought for Today: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
William Shakespeare, 1598
