Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

October 12, 2007

Caught in the OCT

OCTOBER hath 31 days.

October’s face, benign and mellow,

Turns nuts to brown and leaves to yellow;

But (like the Scorpion, sting in tail)

October ends with frost and scourging hail.

      Just how mistreated a month can be is clearly seen in the month of October.  Bad enough that for three millennia it has had to endure the indignity of tenth place in the calendar when it was originally eighth.  (Octo = 8 in Latin).  Even worse that in most of that time very little has ever happened, beyond an annual drinking orgy in Germany called the Octoberfest, to cause its name to be widely acclaimed.  Worst of all, just when something truly sensational did happen---the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia---the Soviets decided to change their calendar,---so that, although they still celebrate the anniversary of that great October Revolution, the celebration takes place in November.

      St. Francis of Assisi, Miguel de Cervantes, Mahatma Gandhi, and Pablo Picasso were all born in October, although this was of interest, when it happened, only to their immediate family.  It was also in October (1492) that Christopher Columbus stumbled upon something later called America, and that Martin Luther in (1917) started something later called the Reformation.

      In the antique lore of the zodiac, October is presided over by the constellation Libra, the balance, a sign associated with commerce, trade, and gain, by allusion to the scales on which the old merchant weighed his coin.  Nowhere today is that ancient image more apt than in upcountry New England and in eastern Canada in October, a season that in these parts becomes a kind of Gold Rush in reverse:  Hereabouts, the eager prospectors don’t come looking for gold.  They bring it with them.

      Each weekend in October, they come to enjoy the fairest month of the year and its brilliant, clear days, frosty nights, sweet air, yellow light, autumn leaves, and harvest fields.  Unaided, nature in October would bring half the world to the hills, but we want the other half, as well, and so we spread over the country a feast of good things, in hopes the happy visitors will pause, enjoy, and, if they feel inclined, unbelt.  Yard sales, bake sales, antiques fairs, foliage festivals, church suppers, firehouse suppers, lodge suppers --- ten thousand such events are laid on to celebrate the season and catch an honest penny.  It works, too!

       The only trouble is, it all ends too soon.  October’s perfect days and vigorous getting and spending are over long before we want them to be.  How sad.

October Events in History

1.      The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson debuts 1961

Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida 1971

2.      New Invention – Telescope in Holland 1608                                                                        1^st Battle of Texas Revolution 1853.

International YMCA founded in 1889.

“Peanuts” Comic Strip debuts (1950).

3.      Abraham Lincoln designates the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving 1863. 

4.          Allies land in Italy 1943

MLB Playoffs begin

5.     Today is National Vodka Day.

First U.S. railroad 1833

The “Orient Excpress” begins its first run, linking Turkey to ….Europe by rail, 1883                                                                                                                   

6.     Tecumseh killed 1813.

Monty Python’s First Season debuts (1969)

China breaks nuclear moratorium, exploding nuclear weapon under its western desert 1993

 6.  Reno Gang robs 1^st train in U.S. 1866.

      Polygamy banned in 1880.

      Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture, 1889

8.     New York Central R opened in 1851.

Apollo 7 launched, 1st manned flight of Command and Service ….modules, 1968

Thanksgiving Day in Canada, 2007

9.     Leif Erickson discovers “Vinland” probably New England in 1000.

Columbus Day; Yom Kippur.

10.         The Manchu Dynasty in China is overthrown 1911.

11.         Edison’s first patent 1868                                                                                                       

       Daughters of American Revolution is founded 1890.

        ”Saturday Night Live” debuts (1975) First Host – George Carlin

12.         Traditional Columbus Day.

  First commercial flight between California and Antarctica, 1957.

13.           World Egg Day

        Birthdate of Horace H. Heyden, cofounder of first dental college,  

         ….in 1769.

        Whitehouse cornerstone laid 1792

14.            First supersonic flight 1947

15.            First use of Ether, 1846

        First Vietnam Moratorium Day takes place 1969

16.            National Liqueur Day.

        National Boss Day  (U.S. and in Canada)

        Philadelphia Mint opened in 1786.

        John Brown’s Raid 1859.

17.            Burgoyne surrendered in 1777.

        First professional golf tournament is held in Scotland 1860

          First Octoberfest celebrated in 1810.

18.         Mason-Dixon Line set in 1767.

       Alaska ceded to U.S. 1867.

       First commercial long distance phone-line opens (Chicago – New

         ….York), 1892.

19.             Cornwallis surrendered 1781.                                                                                         First flour mill in Hawaii begins operations 1853.

      Rebels raid St. Albans, Vermont. 1864

20.            National Brandied Fruit Day

         First “showboat” (converted keelboat) leaves Nashville to give   

         ….shows along the Mississippi in 1817.

         Don Sickles born 1819.

21.            Thomas Edison commercially perfects the 1^st incandescent lamp

         ….(light bulb) in 1879.

22.             Princeton chartered 1746.

         Sam Houston becomes president of Texas in 1836.

         First commercial flight from mainland to Hawaii, in 1936.

         Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” released, 1966.

23.             Women’s Rights Convention held in 1850.

          Chet Huntley and David Brinkley say goodnight to each other for

         ….1^st time, on NBC, 1956.

24.             1^st Continental wire in 1861.

         Al Capone sentenced to 10 years in prison, $10,000 fine for tax

         ….evasion, 1931.

         “Kojak” debuts 1973.

         Mother-in-Law Day in U.S. and Canada.

25.             Randolph Field opened in 1931.

26.             1^st Erie Canal traffic 1825.

         Gunfight at the OK Corral 1881.

         International Atomic Energy Agency is established 1956.

         “Doonesbury” Comic Strip begins 1970.     

27.             American Beer Day

         White River Valley massacre 1855.

         New York City subway opened in 1904.

         Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio divorced in 1954.

28.             Harvard founded in 1636.

         The Volstead Act is passed by Congress, begins prohibition 1919.

          Daylight Savings Time ends. (Last Sunday of October)

29.              First intercity trucking service goes into business between Colo.

         ….city and Snyder, Texas in 1904.

         Alcan Highway is finished in 1942.

         “Bat out of Hell” from Meatloaf released 1977.

30.             U.S. Navy is created 1775.

          Ballpoint pen patented 1888.

31.             Nevada admitted in 1864.

         Brooklyn, New York ends streetcar service 1956

         Halloween.

OCTOBER came.  The air grew warm and sweet,

Laden with perfume from the dying grass about our feet.

October came.  The fields were stripped of grain.

High overhead we heard the wild geesecry, "Southward again!"

October came.  The earth turned slowly brown.

The leaves like trembling drops of molten gold, dripped softly down.

October came.  Sunsets were fair as dreams

Of rose and pearl and mauve, all gilded over by the last beams.

October came.  A gift to rare to last.

Swiftly as some dear vision in the night;  October passed.

Hartson S. Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net