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.
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. – 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.
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. – 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. – 1938.
October 31
The priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation. In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment, called indulgences, for the forgiveness of sins. – 1517.
After 14 years of labor by 400 stone masons, the Mt. Rushmore sculpture is completed in Keystone, S. D.. Between October 4, 1927, and October 31, 1941, Gutzon Borglum and 400 workers sculpt the colossal 60-foot carvings. – 1941.
Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.