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.
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.
Anxious to have support of the Republican-dominated Nevada Territory for president Abraham Lincoln’s reelection, the U.S. Congress quickly admits Nevada as the 36th state in the Union. – 1864.
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 of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history. – 1941.
November 1
Nation’s first general strike for a 10-hour day; Philadelphia. – 1835.
New York City, N.Y., subway operators go on strike and an inexperienced replacement motorman crashes a five-car train and kills approximately 93 and injures 255. – 1918.
Two persons attempt to assassinate U.S. president Harry S Truman at his residence, the Blair House, in Washington, D.C.. Truman escaped unscathed. – 1950.
The United States detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. This new weapon was approximately 1,000 times more powerful than conventional nuclear devices. – 1952.