This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to secure our independence and our liberties
that remain the foundation of our nation today.” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Oct. 5-11, 2026
October 5
1892 – The Dalton Gang’s daylight 2-bank holdup in Coffeyville, Kansas, ended in a shoot-out when townspeople recognize the gang and organize the town to confront them. All the gang members except Emmett Dalton were killed. Emmett was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison but was paroled after 14 years. He used his notoriety to become a Hollywood screenwriter. He died in 1937 at age 66.
1923 – Astronomer Edwin Hubble identified Cepheid as a variable star. His measurements placed “M31” one million light-years away, far outside the Milky Way, making it a galaxy containing millions of stars. The Hubble Space Telescope was named for Rhodes Scholar Edwin Hubble. He died in 1953 at age 63.
1945 – “Meet the Press” premiered on the radio. It began airing on TV in November of 1947, making it the longest running TV show in U.S. history. Early hosts included Martha Roundtree, Lawrence Spivek, Garrick Utley, and Tim Russert, Sr.
1953 – The New York Yankees won their record 5th consecutive World Series. The record still stands. They also have the most World Series appearances with 41, winning 27 of them. Watch footage with commentary from the series against the Dodgers.
1998 – The U.S. paid $60 million for Russia’s research time on the International Space Station to keep the cash-strapped Russian space agency afloat.
2015 – The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was announced by trade ministers of 12 countries in Atlanta, Georgia. The agreement was never ratified and never took effect.
October 6
1781 – American and French troops began the siege of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, the last battle of Revolutionary War.
1866 – John and Simeon Reno staged the first train robbery in the U. S. when they stop a moving train. The brothers stole $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi train in Indiana. The Reno Brothers gang went on to rob several other trains. Vigilantes at the New Albany jail hanged the brothers on December 12, 1868.
1927 – “The Jazz Singer,” the first movie with a sound track, premiered in New York City. The movie was based on the life of singer Al Jolson. Watch Jolson at his best.
1949 – President Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act which was passed by Congress. It was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era.
1961 – President Kennedy advised American families to build or buy bomb shelters to protect them in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.
1991 – Elizabeth Taylor got married for the 8th (and last) time to Larry Fortensky at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. They got divorced in 1996. Liz Taylor died in 2011 at age 79. Fortensky died in 2016 at age 64.
2010 – Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram as a free mobile app. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion.
October 7
1765 – Nine American colonies sent a total of 28 delegates to New York City for the Stamp Act Congress. The delegates adopted the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”
1913 – Ford Motor Company instituted the world’s first moving assembly line for production of the Model T Ford. By 1914, it reduced the time it took to build a car from 12 hours to 93 minutes. By 1925, the Model T was manufactured at a rate of nearly 10,000 a day.
1940 – The McCollum memo proposed bringing the U.S. into the war in Europe by preparing for a possible attack by the Japanese. Lt. Commander Arthur McCollum sent an “Eight Action Memo” to President FDR outlining an eight-part plan to counter Japanese power.
1944 – Australian-born opera singer Marjorie Lawrence sang at the White House at the request of President FDR. Lawrence was stricken by polio and paralyzed from the waist down at the height of her career. She recovered but encountered obstacles when she returned to singing. FDR encouraged her to “carry on.” Watch a 1947 performance.
1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America adopted the film-rating letter system to rate a film’s thematic and content suitability for certain audiences.
1991 – Law Professor Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments to her. Then-Senator Joe Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that conducted the hearings. Thomas was confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice, where he is the longest current serving jurist. Justice Thomas is now 78 years old.
2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan started with an air assault and covert operations on the ground. It became America’s longest war.
2003 – Gray Davis was recalled as governor of California, three years before the official end of his office term. Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor. The only other governor successfully recalled was Lynn Frazier of North Dakota in 1921.
2015 – President Obama apologized to the head of Doctors Without Borders for the bombing of their hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, four days earlier that killed 42 people and injured over 30.
2023 – More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and 250 hostages, including Americans, were seized when Hamas attacked Israel.
October 8
1871 – The Great Chicago Fire kills 200 people, destroyed over 4 square miles of buildings, and burns the original Emancipation Proclamation.
1918 – During World War I, Sgt. Alvin York single-handedly killed 25 Germans and captured 132 others. Sergeant York is awarded his nation’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions. The film “Sergeant York” starring Gary Cooper becomes one of the top grossing Warner Brothers films of the entire war era and earns Cooper the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1942. Watch a short interview with the grandson of Sgt. York.
1969 – The opening 3-day riots of the “Days of Rage” occurred in Chicago, Illinois. The largely unsuccessful events are organized by the Weather Underground faction of Students for a Democratic Society. There were 34 injuries and over 250 arrests. One of the main organizers was Tom Hayden, who was once married to Jane Fonda.
1993 – The U.S. government issued a report absolving the FBI of any wrongdoing in its final assault in Waco, Texas, on the Branch Davidian compound. The fire that ended the siege killed 85 men, women, and children.
2001 – President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security. Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was sworn in as its director.
October 9
1872 – Aaron Montgomery Ward started his mail-order business. His first catalog contained 163 products. Ward died in 1913 at age 69.
1888 – The Washington Monument opened for public admittance. Construction began in 1848 but the completion was delayed by the Civil War. It is still the tallest stone structure in the world at 555 feet.
1930 – Aviator Laura Ingalls landed in Glendale, California, to complete the first solo transcontinental flight across the U.S. by a woman. Amelia Earhart completed the flight non-stop in 1932.
1973 – Elvis and Priscilla Presley divorced after six years of marriage. They had one daughter, Lisa Marie, who died in 2023 at age 54. Priscilla is now 81 years old.
1986 – The Senate impeached U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne after he is convicted in a Nevada court of tax evasion in 1984. The Senate started impeachment hearings because Claiborne would not resign and continued to receive his salary when he began serving two years in prison in March of 1986.
2009 – President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize nine months after taking office. Nomination for the prize closed just 11 days after he took office and included 204 other nominees. Obama was nominated by the Nobel Committee, in part, for calling for “a new start to relations between the Muslim world and the West based on common interests and mutual understanding and respect.” Watch Obama’s short acceptance speech.
2017 – Harvey Weinstein was fired from his own company amid allegations of sexual abuse. Although the “Me Too” movement was started in 2006 by Tarana Burke, the movement started using #MeToo following the Weinstein allegations.
October 10
1845 – The Naval School (now the U.S. Naval Academy) opened in Annapolis, Maryland. It is the second oldest military academy in the U.S. The Military Academy at West Point was founded in 1802.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson triggered the explosion of the Gamboa Dike that ends the construction of the Panama Canal. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the Panama Canal Treaty, giving control of the canal to Panama in 2000.
1963 – The U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. signed a treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests.
1973 – Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest to tax evasion and resigns. President Nixon nominated Gerald Ford as Vice President on October 12th to replace Spiro Agnew. Gerald Ford became president when Nixon resigned in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal, making Ford the only person to serve as president and vice president without being elected to either office.
1983 – NBC premiered the true-life drama “Adam,” based on the 1981 murder of John Walsh’s son. Walsh launched “America’s Most Wanted” in 1988. Watch an A&E story about Adam (Note: parts of this video are disturbing).
2023 – President Joe Biden pledged support for Israel following the terrorist attack by Hamas. More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and 250 hostages were seized.
October 11
1809 – Explorer Meriwether Lewis died at age 35 under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder’s Stand along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. He was shot multiple times and his death remains an unsolved mystery.
1890 – The Daughters of American Revolution (DAR) was founded. It is a lineage-based service organization for women who are directly descended from someone who fought in the Revolutionary War.
1929 – JC Penney opened store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all lower 48 states. James Cash Penney died in 1971 at age 95.
1950 – The Federal Communications Commission issued the first license to broadcast television in color to CBS.
1958 – The U.S. launched the lunar probe Pioneer 1. The probe did not reach its destination and fell back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere.
1968 – Apollo 7 was launched as the first manned Apollo mission in which live television broadcasts are received from orbit.
1975 – “Saturday Night Live” premiered with George Carlin as its guest host. Carlin died in 2008 at age 71. Watch the first show with Carlin’s classic monologue comparing football and baseball.
1984 – Vice Presidential candidates Geraldine Ferraro (D) & George H. W. Bush (R) participated in a debate. Ferraro was the first woman from a major political party to be nominated as Vice President. Ferraro died in 2011 at age 75.
2018 – A Russian Soyuz spacecraft made an emergency landing when the rocket failed just two minutes after liftoff. Both the Russian cosmonaut and American astronaut survived after parachuting from the spacecraft.
Image from: www.britannica.com/biography