October 14
Prior to a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wis., Theodore Roosevelt, the presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, is shot at close range. The bullet failed to mortally wound him and Roosevelt went on to deliver his scheduled speech with the bullet still in his body. – 1912.
U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. – 1947.
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins and brings the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, were stationed 90 miles off the American coastline. – 1962.
October 15
President Woodrow Wilson signs the Clayton Antitrust Act, often referred to as “Labor’s Magna Carta,” which established that unions are not conspiracies under the law. It, for the first time freed unions to strike, picket, and boycott employers. In the years that followed, however, numerous state measures and court interpretations weakened the law. – 1914.
October 16
Marie-Antoinette, who lived extravagantly during a time of economic turmoil in France, is beheaded by guillotine nine months after the execution of her husband, the former King Louis XVI of France. They were convicted of treason. – 1793.
Civil war in China between the nationalists and the communists breaks out in 1927. The embattled Chinese communists break through nationalist enemy lines and begin an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Known as Ch’ang Cheng, the Long March, the communist forces’ retreat lasts for 368 days and covers 6,000 miles, approximately twice the distance from New York to San Francisco. – 1934.
October 17
Gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000 to signal the downfall of one of the most notorious criminals of the 1920s and 1930s. – 1931.
Olympic Gold Medal winner Tommie Smith and Bronze Medal winner John Carlos are forced to return their awards because they raised their fists in a black-power salute during the medal ceremony at the Summer Olympics. – 1968.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) prohibits any nation that had supported Israel in its Yom Kippur War from buying any of the oil it sells. The ensuing energy crisis marked the end of the era of cheap gasoline, which went from 38¢ per gallon to 84¢ per gallon in the U.S. by March 1974, and caused the share value of the New York Stock Exchange to drop by $97 billion. In turn, it ushered in a bad recession in the United States. – 1973.
October 18
The U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than 2¢ an acre. The Alaska purchase comprised 586,412 square miles, about twice the size of Texas. – 1867.
New York City agrees to pay women school teachers a rate equal to that of men. – 1911.
October 19
Hopelessly trapped in Yorktown, Va., British General Lord Cornwallis surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a larger Franco-American force, to effectively bring an end to the American Revolution. – 1781.
One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s massive invading force enters a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army is forced to begin a hasty retreat out of Russia. Napoleon’s army of 500,000 suffers a loss of more than 400,000 men during the disastrous invasion. – 1812.
October 20
The notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in Washington, D.C., when a congressional committee begins investigating communist influence in one of the world’s richest and most glamorous communities: Hollywood. – 1947.
After 15 years of construction, the Sydney Opera House is dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II. The $80 million structure, designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon was built on Bennelong Point, in Sydney, Australia. Famous for its geometric roof shells, the structure contains several large auditoriums and presents an average of 3,000 events a year to an estimated two million individuals. -1973.
Moammar Gadhafi, the longest-serving leader in Africa and the Arab world, is captured and killed by rebel forces near his hometown of Sirte. The eccentric 69-year-old dictator, who came to power in a 1969 coup, led a government that was accused of numerous human rights violations against its own people and was linked to terrorist attacks, including the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. – 2011.