October 1st is

Fire Pup Day *

International Music Day *

Homemade Cookies Day

International Coffee Day *

National Lace Day

Raccoon Appreciation Day *

U.N. International Day of Older Persons *

____________________________________________________________

MORE! Richard Stockton, Annie Besant and Vladimir Horowitz, click

____________________________________________________________

WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bhutan – Thimpu: Tshechu
(Bhutanese Buddhist festival)

Cameroon – Unification Day

China – Guiqing Jie
(National Day)

Cyprus, Nigeria, Palau and Tuvalu –
Independence Days

Hong Kong and Macau – National Day

Micronesia – Chuuk (Constitution Day)

Nigeria – National Day

San Marino – Captains Regent Investiture Day

Uzbekistan – O’qituvchi va Murabbiylar Kuni
(Teachers and Instructors Day)

____________________________________________________________

On This Day in HISTORY

331 BC – Though his forces are heavily outnumbered, Alexander the Great uses tactics and his light infantry to decisively defeat Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela, in what is now Iraqi Kurdistan

959 – Edgar I ‘the Peaceful’ is crowned King of England; his coronation ceremony is arranged by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and becomes the basis for future English coronation ceremonies down to the present day

A contemporary portrayal of King Edgar in the New Minster Charter

1553 – Coronation of Mary I (‘Bloody Mary’) of England

Queen Mary I by Hans Eworth

1569 – Elizabeth I imprisons Duke of Norfolk for trying to wed Mary Queen of Scots

1730 – Richard Stockton born, American jurist, lawyer and legislator; member of the Second Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence; first Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court; his family donated some of the land for what would become Princeton University, and he was a trustee of the school for 26 years; his wife, poet Annis Boudinot Stockton, is one of the first women authors to be published in Colonial newspapers

1791 – The first session of the short-lived French Legislative Assembly, operating under the French Constitution of 1791; it will pass numerous reforms, most notably the transfer of registration of births, deaths and marriages from the Catholic  Church to the state, as well as changes to divorce and inheritance laws; the assembly is divided into two factions: one favors a constitutional  monarchy, but the democratic faction distrusts the king, and believes revolutionary measures are necessary

1800 – Spain cedes back to France the Louisiana territory that U.S would later purchase

1811 – The first steamboat on the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans LA

1911 replica of the original steamboat

1814 – The Congress of Vienna opens, tasked with redrawing national borders in Europe after the defeat of Napoleon

1829 – South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; it will later separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools

1832 – Texian political delegates convene at San Felipe de Austin to petition for changes in the governance of Mexican Texas

1843 – The News of the World tabloid begins publication in London

1847 – Maria Mitchell, American astronomer and academic, becomes the second woman to discover a comet (C/1847 T1), after Caroline Herschel, winning a prize established by King Frederick VI of Denmark

1847 – Annie Besant born, British socialist, women’s rights activist, theosophist, author and orator; notable speaker for the Fabian Society, the National Secular Society (NSS) and later for the Theosophist Society; prosecuted for publishing a book advocating birth control in 1877; also supported home-rule for Ireland and India, and labor movement actions, including the 1888 London matchgirls strike; elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, even though few women could vote at the time

1861 – Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management is published, selling 60,000 copies in its first year and remaining in print in revised editions to the present day

1862 – Esther Boise Van Deman born, a leading American archaeologist; first woman to specialize in Roman field archaeology, establishing the standards for dating ancient constructions using variations in building materials, which advanced the study of Roman architecture

1865 – Paul Abraham Dukas born, French composer and scholar; The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (L’apprenti sorcier)

1880 – The Edison Lamp Works begins commercial production of electric lamps

1880 – John Philip Souza is named director of the U.S. Marine Corps Band

1881 – William Boeing born, American engineer and aviation pioneer; founder of Boeing Company

1885 – Special delivery mail service begins in the U.S. with first routes in West Virginia

1890 – U.S. Congress passes the McKinley Tariff Act, raising rates to record levels, and also establishes Yosemite National Park

Yosemite Valley View by Ansel Adams

1891 – Stanford University opens its doors as a coeducational, tuition-free (until 1920) institution near Palo Alto CA

1893 – Faith Baldwin born, author of over 85 popular novels, frequently using women juggling career and family as a central theme; her last book, Adam’s Eden, was published in 1977, the year before she died at age 84

1896 – U.S. Post Office begins Rural Free Delivery

1898 – The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded

1903 – Vladimir Horowitz born in Russia, American piano virtuoso and composer, acclaimed as one of the greatest pianists of 20th century

1904 – Otto R. Frisch born in Germany, a Jewish physicist who left Germany in 1933; worked with Niels Bohr, coined the term “nuclear fission”; worked at Los Alamos on the first theoretical mechanism for detonating an atomic bomb

1908 – The Model T Ford goes on sale for $825.00, or $850.00 for the touring car

1910 – Bonnie Parker born, infamous American robber and murderer; with partner Clyde Barrow, went on crime spree (1932 -1934); dies in hail of bullets fired by police after an extended manhunt

1910 – The Los Angeles Times building is badly damaged by a bomb placed by a member of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers when it goes off prematurely, igniting gas lines, killing 21 people and injuring 100. After the union’s initial national success in organizing iron workers, industrialists, led by U.S. Steel and the American Bridge Company, form the National Erectors’ Association to bust the union, using labor spies, agents provocateur, private detectives, and strike breakers to restore “open shops.” Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, is vehemently anti-union, and uses his paper to rail against them

1912 – Kathleen Ollerenshaw born, English mathematician and politician; noted for work on critical lattices and most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares; Lord Mayor of Manchester (1975-1976), and High Sheriff of Greater Manchester (1978-1979), while serving as (Conservative party) Councilor for Rushholme (1956-1981); an amateur astronomer who donated her telescope to Lancaster University, where an observatory is named for her

1918 – WWI: Arab forces led by “Lawrence of Arabia” capture Damascus

1928 – Duke Ellington records “The Mooche”

1928 – The Soviet Union introduces its first 5-year plan

1929 – Bonnie Owens born, American singer-songwriter; Just Between the Two of Us, Why Don’t Daddy Live Here Anymore? and Don’t Take Advantage Of Me

1931 – Spain adopts women’s suffrage

1935 – Julie Andrews born, singer and actress; noted for her four-octave vocal range, she has continued her career as an actress after botched surgery for nodules in 1997 damaged her vocal chords, limiting her range and ability to hold notes

1936 – General Franco, ‘El Caudillo’ (the leader) is proclaimed Spain’s head of state

1939 – Winston Churchill describes the Soviet Union as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” during a radio broadcast

1940 – The Pennsylvania Turnpike opens as the first U.S. toll superhighway

1949 – Mao Tse-tung raises flag of the People’s Republic of China as the Nationalists forces flee to Taiwan

1952 – This is Your Life debuts on NBC-TV

1953 – Grete Waitz born, Norwegian marathon runner; former world record holder, as the first woman to run a marathon in under 2 ½ hours in 1979; she won nine New York City Marathons between 1978 and 1988, more than any other runner in history; Olympic silver medalist in the 1984 games,  and gold medalist in the 1983 World Championships

1958 – NASA replaces the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1915-1958)

1961 – The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is formed, becoming the country’s first centralized military espionage organization

1961 – East and West Cameroon merge as the Federal Republic of Cameroon

1962 – Johnny Carson begins his 29-year stint as host of the Tonight show on NBC, following after Jack Paar

1962 – The Beach Boys first album, Surfin’ Safari, is released

1964 – The Free Speech Movement starts at the University of California at Berkeley

1964 – Japanese Shinkansen (“bullet trains”) begin Tokyo-to-Osaka rail service, with speeds reaching 320 mph (515 km)

Opening ceremonies for the Tokyo-to-Osaka train

1969 – The Beatles Abbey Road album is released in the U.S., after an earlier UK release

1969 – The Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time

1971 – Walt Disney World opens in Orlando FL

1975 – International Music Day * – Yehudi Menuhin joins with UNESCO to initiate this day and promote the musical arts and UNESCO’s International Music Prize

1976 – Styx releases Crystal Ball album

1979 – U.S. hands control of the Panama Canal Zone over to Panama

1980 – Robert Redford becomes the only male featured on the cover of The Ladies’ Home Journal in its 97 years

1982 – Sony begins selling the first compact disc player, in Japan

1984 – U.S. Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan announces his leave of absence after he’s indicted on larceny and fraud charges, but he is later acquitted

1988 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes President of the Soviet Union

1990 – In Croatia, minority Serbs proclaim autonomy

1990 – U.N. International Day of Older Persons * is established by a vote of the UN General Assembly

1996 – While Fire Pup Day * had been around before the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) started in 1996, which recruits dogs rescued from shelters to partner with firefighters as search-and-rescue teams, it’s been a natural for this organization to promote a day dedicated to fire dogs

1999 – Beijing celebrates 50^th anniversary of founding of the Peoples Republic of China

2002 – The first Raccoon Appreciation Day * is launched in California to make people aware of the raccoon’s place in maintaining the ecosystem

2008 – After an initial failure to pass, a $700 billion financial industry bailout wins  lopsided passage in the Senate, 74-25, when it is loaded with tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, raises the cap on Federal Deposit Insurances from $100,000 to $250,000, and other sweeteners. The bailout money is to be used to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets from troubled institutions

2015 – International Coffee Day * is officially set on October 1 by the International Coffee Organization, and launched in Milan Italy. The ICO began in London in 1963, under the auspices of the UN because of the great economic importance of coffee; currently, it has 43 producing members and 7 importing members

____________________________________________________________