.png)
Gunfights, Ezra Pound, and Mussolini: This Week in History
- Brennan Wills
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
As October comes to a close, we take this time to look back at the tremendous events that occurred in this very week many years ago.
October 26
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday engage in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1881)
The United States passes the USA PATRIOT ACT into law (2001)
The Terminator released (1984)
The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia (1774)
The Erie Canal opens (1825)
Thomas Moore is appointed Lord Chancellor of England (1529)
Famous Birthdays:
Hillary Clinton, politician (1947)
Pat Sajak, television personality (1946)
Don Siegel, director (1912)
Famous Deaths:
Hattie McDaniel, actress (1952)
Alfred the Great, English king (849)
October 27
Nuclear War is averted during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
Constantine the Great receives his Vision of the Cross (312)
Amsterdam is founded (1275)
Philadelphia is founded (1682)
Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union (1991)
The United States annexes the Spanish colony of West Florida (1810)
Rebel Without a Cause is released (1955)
Taylor Swift released 1989 (2014)
Famous Births
Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America (1858)
Sylvia Plath, author (1932)
John Cleese, actor and comedian (1939)
Fran Lebowitz, author and orator (1950)
Dylan Thomas, poet (1914)
Famous Deaths
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, founder of ISIS (2019)
James M. Cain, journalist and screenwriter (1977)
Athelstan, first King of England (939)
October 28
Beijing is designated the capital of the Ming Dynasty (1420)
The Italian Fascists, led by Mussolini, march on Rome (1922)
The Volstead Act passes, paving the way for Prohibition in the United States (1919)
Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Nobel Prize (1954)
Ivan IV, also known as "Ivan the Terrible," becomes Tsar of Russia (1740)
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner elected first woman president of Argentina (2007)
Gulliver's Travels is published (1726)
Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty (1886)
Flag of Israel is adopted (1948)
Jair Bolsonaro is elected President of Brazil (2018)
Best Picture-winner How Green Was My Valley premieres (1941)
Famous Births
Bill Gates, businessman and founder of Microsoft (1955)
Julia Roberts, actress (1967)
Joaquin Phoenix, actor (1974)
Francis Borgia, Superior General of the Society of Jesus (1510)
John Laurens, revolutionary and statesman (1754)
Brad Paisley, country singer (1972)
Edith Head, costume designer (1897)
Frank Ocean, singer (1987)
Jane Alexander, actress (1939)
Famous Deaths
Matthew Perry (2023)
John Locke (1704)
Jerry Lee Lewis (2022)
October 29
Black Tuesday (1929)
China ends its One-Child Policy after 35 years (2015)
Mussolini is appointed Prime Minister of Italy (1922)
Turkey becomes a republic (1923)
Cyrus II marches into Babylon, allowing the Jews to return home
Don Giovani by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premieres (1787)
Famous Births:
Bob Ross, painter (1942)
Winona Ryder, actress (1971)
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Party official (1897)
Randy Jackson, singer (1961)
Tracee Ellis Ross, actress (1972)
Richard Dreyfuss, actor (1947)
Peter Green, musician (1946)
Fanny Brice, comedian (1891)
Rufus Sewell (1967)
Don Simpson (1943)
Famous Deaths:
Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader (1877)
Joseph Pulitzer, publisher and politician (1911)
Louis B. Mayer, film producer (1957)
Leon Czolgosz, assassin (1901)
October 30
Jackie Robinson signs with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1945)
The Soviet Union detonates Tsar Bomba as the largest explosion in world history
Orson Welles broadcasts the War of the Worlds as a radio adaptation
LeBron James is drafter to the NBA right out of high school (2003)
Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in U.S. history (1831)
James Cook lands in Cape Town, South Africa (1772)
Famous Births:
John Adams, President of the United States of America (1735)
Ezra Pound, poet and critic (1885)
Ivanka Trump, model and businesswoman (1981)
Dmitry Ustinov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (1908)
Jane Randolph, actress (1915)
Louis Malle, director (1932)
Famous Deaths:
Joseph Campbell, writer (1987)
October 31
Martin Luther posts the 95 Theses (1517)
Romulus Augustulus is crowned the last Western Roman Emperor (475)
Mount Rushmore is completed (1941)
Andrew Fastow is convicted on 78 felonies related to Enron (2002)
Famous Births:
John Keats, poet (1795)
Vanilla Ice, singer (1967)
John Candy, comedian and actor (1950)
Dan Rather, journalist and commentator (1931)
Rob Schneider, actor (1963)
Famous Deaths:
Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (1984)
Harry Houdini, magician (1874)
Sean Connery, actor (2020)
River Phoenix, actor (1993)
November 1
The Stamp Act is imposed on the 13 British Colonies (1765)
First medical college for women opens in Boston, MA (1848)
The U.S. tests the first hydrogen bomb, known as "Ivy Mike" (1952)
Julius II is elected pope (1503)
The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates (1922)
Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral (1938)
Famous Births:
Tim Cook, businessman and CEO of Apple (1960)
John Taylor, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints (1808)
Toni Collette, actress (1972)
11th Dalai Lama, Buddhist religious leader (1838)
Sophie B. Hawkins, singer (1964)
Famous Deaths:
Alexander III, Russian monarch (1894)
Ezra Pound, poet and critic (1972)
Fred Dalton Thompson, politician and actor (2015)
William Styron, author (1986)
Comments