Thursday, October 27, 2005

Thursday, October 27

This Day In History

  • 1787   The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published in a New York newspaper.
  • 1858   Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was born in New York City.
  • 1880   Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Lee.
  • 1904   The first subway cars were placed in operation, forming the New York City subway system. The cars operated between the Brooklyn Bridge and Broadway; from City Hall to W. 145th Street. This was the first underwater, underground rail system in the world.
  • 1914   Author-poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales.
  • 1917   Jascha Heifetz made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Heifetz was a 16-year-old sensation who had played the violin since age 5.
  • 1920   Marconi, Fessenden, and De Forest were the catalysts. However, it was an engineer for Westinghouse Electric who, in 1916, was broadcasting music from his garage (in Wilkinsburg, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh) over a wireless -- amateur radio station 8XK -- that really got the whole thing started. A newspaper article about the broadcasts caused such interest that the head honchos at Westinghouse decided to build a real radio station. It took until this day in 1920 for the Westinghouse radio station to receive a license to broadcast. The license for KDKA, Pittsburgh came from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Although the license was officially issued on this day, KDKA did not start their broadcast operations for a week (they had to wait until the license was posted in the station). On November 2, 1920, the station aired the returns of the Harding/Cox election ... the first radio programming to reach an audience of any size ... approximately 1,000 people. And so we salute this day as the official birthday of mass appeal radio.
  • 1938   Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: nylon.
  • 1947   ''You Bet Your Life,'' starring Groucho Marx, premiered on ABC Radio.
  • 1967   Expo '67 closed in Montreal.
  • 1978   Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • 1997   The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 554.26 points, forcing the stock market to shut down for the first time since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
  • 2002   Emmitt Smith broke the NFL career rushing yardage record held by Walter Payton.
  • 2002   Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in a runoff, becoming the country's first elected leftist leader.
Happy Birthday To
  • 1728   James Cook (British sea captain, explorer: Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands; killed by angry natives at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, Feb 14, 1779)
  • 1782   Nicolo Paganini (violin virtuoso; died May 27, 1840)
  • 1858   Theodore Roosevelt (26th U.S. President [1901-1909]; married to A. Lee, E. Carow [four sons, two daughters]; nickname: TR, Trust Buster; first president to ride in a car, submerge in a submarine and fly in a plane; initiated the National Monument System; died Jan 6, 1919)
  • 1872   Emily Post (Price) (etiquette authority: author: Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage; syndicated newspaper columnist; died Sep 25, 1960)
  • 1910   Fred De Cordova (Emmy Award-winning producer: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson [1975-1976, 1976-1977, 1977-1978, 1978-1979, 1991-1992]; director: Bedtime for Bonzo, Frankie and Johnny, I’ll Take Sweden; died Sep 15, 2001)
  • 1920   Nanette Fabray (Fabares) (Emmy Award-winning actress; aunt of actress Shelley Fabares)
  • 1939   John Cleese (Emmy Award-winning actor: A Fish Called Wanda, Monty Python’s Flying Circus)
  • 1947   Terry Anderson (news correspondent: kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists in Beirut [1985], released [1991])

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