October 24
A 63-year-old schoolteacher, Annie Edson Taylor, becomes the first known person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. – 1901.
The first U.S. federal minimum wage, 25¢ an hour, takes effect, thanks to enactment of the Depression-era Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA). The law required an increase to 30¢ an hour one year from this date, and to 40¢ an hour on this date in 1945. The FLSA established the 40-hour work week and forbade child labor in factories. – 1938.
Less than two months after the end of World War II, the United Nations is formally established with the ratification of the United Nations Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of other signatories. – 1945.
October 25
During the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, during World War II, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (divine wind) suicide bombers against American warships for the first time. During the war more than 1,321 Japanese aircraft crash-dived their planes into Allied warships. Approximately 3,000 Americans and Brits died because of these attacks. – 1944.
October 26
After eight years and at least 1,000 worker deaths, mostly Irish immigrants, the Erie Canal opens, which links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. It cost $7 Million and was 363 miles long, 40 feet wide, and four feet deep. – 1825.
The Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Ariz.. The famous gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and approximately 30 shots were fired. – 1881.
U.S. president George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act, (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism), an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Patriot Act expanded the definition of terrorism to allow the federal law enforcement increased powers for access to personal information. – 2001
October 27
The New York City subway opens to the general public, and more than 100,000 individuals pay a nickel each to take their first ride under Manhattan that day. More than 100 workers died during the construction of the first 13 miles of tunnels and track. – 1904.
October 28
The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from France to the United States, is dedicated in New York Harbor, N.Y. by U.S. president Grover Cleveland. – 1886.
The Cuban Missile crisis comes to a close when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agrees to remove Russian missiles from Cuba in exchange for a promise from the United States to respect Cuba’s territorial sovereignty. It ended nearly two weeks of anxiety and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that came close to provoking a nuclear conflict. – 1962.
The Gateway Arch, a 630-foot high parabola of stainless steel to mark the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront of St. Louis, Mo. is completed after two and one-half years. Although it was predicted 13 lives would be lost in construction, not a single ironworker died. – 1965.
October 29
Black Tuesday hits Wall Street when investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, to wipe out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression. By 1933, nearly half of America’s banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 Million persons, or 30% the workforce. It would take World War II, and the massive level of armaments production by the United States, to finally bring the country out of the Depression following more than a decade of suffering. – 1929.
October 30
Orson Welles causes a panic with his broadcast of “War of the Worlds”, a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth. Perhaps as many as a million radio listeners believed that a real Martian invasion was under way and panic broke out across the country. – 1938.