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
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.
November 2
The Hughes Flying Boat, known as the Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built, is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with laminated birch and spruce, the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men to battle. – 1947.
In the greatest upset in presidential election history, Democratic incumbent Harry S Truman defeats his Republican challenger, governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, by two million popular votes. Long before all the votes were counted, The Chicago Tribune published an early edition with the banner headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” – 1948.
U.S. president Ronald Reagan signs a bill designating a federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., to be observed on the third Monday of January. – 1983.
November 3
The Soviet Union launches the first animal into space, a dog name Laika, aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. – 1957.
The Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. The revelation, confirmed by U.S. intelligence sources November 6, came as a shock to officials outside president Ronald Reagan’s inner circle and violated the U.S. arms embargo against Iran and president Reagan’s vow never to negotiate with terrorists. -1986.
November 4
A spontaneous national uprising that began 12 days earlier in Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on this day. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country. – 1956.
U.S. senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeats U.S. senator John McCain of Arizona to become the 44th U.S. president, and the first half-African American elected to the White House. – 2008.