On This Day: October 18
Today's History Show Notes - Episode 13
Today is National Legging Day, and this is a friendly reminder that leggings don’t count as pants. So rock them at home or throw on a long sweater or tunic if you’re wearing them when you leave the house.
It’s also National Chocolate Cupcake Day, and if you observe this one, the legging reminder does double.
Finally, for the bros, it’s National No Beard Day, which I totally disavow because I love my husband’s beard.
1240: Ukrainian City Surrenders
Almost as if it’s been ripped from today’s headlines, no? Centuries ago, in the year 1240, the Ukrainian city of Chernigov surrendered to the forces of Ghengis Khan — who was also called Chinggis Khan.
Despite their surrender, the city was still sacked and pillaged, and the more well known “Siege of Kiev” was soon to follow.
Speaking of the former Mongol empire, centuries later in 1867, the US took formal possession of Alaska from the Russians, after paying just $7.2 million! Inflation is a real pain, right?
Next to Alaska, over in our favorite great northern land, in 1929, women were considered "Persons" under Canadian law for the first time. Ten years earlier in 1919, on the same day, Pierre Trudeau was born in Montreal. Coincidence?
Finally, on this day in 1942, Hitler ordered all allied combatants — his POWs — to be killed. Same day in 1979, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini ordered his mass executions to stop. Nice symmetry.
1356: Basel Earthquake
The earthquake that destroyed Basel, Switzerland is reported to be the most significant historic seismological event of Northern Europe. From French Moments:
“It is St. Luke’s Day, and a beautiful autumn day is ending. But at 4 p.m., the ground began to shake. In Basel and the surrounding villages, people leave their homes in panic…The earthquake was incredibly strong and intense. It was unprecedented in Basel and the region…Houses and city walls collapsed. Not a single stone building escaped destruction, partial or total. The Basel Cathedral also collapsed in part.”
They estimate that around 300 people died in the natural disaster in 1356. Centuries later in 1992, a 6.6 earthquake hit the nation of Colombia and, miraculously, there were no reported fatalities.
More recently, in 2021, natural disaster struck again on October 18 when flash foods and heavy rain in northern India and Nepal killed over 100 people.
In man made death and destruction, a suicide bomb killed over 100 people, including 20 people officers in Pakistan in 2007. That was the night that Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan after eight years in exile, and she escaped the attack unscathed — but she was assassinated the following year.
Bhutto was the 11th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and its 13th from 1993 to 1996. Bhutto was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Reading her story, it appears she was fighting her country's deep state and military industrial complex, and she went into self exile before returning to Pakistan the night of the attack.
Finally, 40 were killed in 2012 by Syrian military airstrikes in Maaret al-Numan. Seems like a nice place:
1775: Phillis Wheatley Freed
In more civilized times — more civilized than the barbarism of the Mongols, that is — African American poet Phillis Wheatley was freed from slavery.
More than a century later in 1910, E. M. Forster published his novel "Howards End," a tale as old as time — or at least as old as Victorian England. The book has been adapted multiple times, with the most acclaimed film adaptation in 1992 starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum, was officially inaugurated by King Juan Carlos I in Bilbao, Spain and, in less posh cultural history, in 1952 the first Mad Magazine was issued.
1878: Electricity Comes Home
On this day in 1878, Thomas Edison is credited with making electricity available for household use. Interestingly, on the same day in 1931, Thomas Edison died of diabetes. He was 84.
This period is where we start to see the progress of industry move rapidly, and in 1892 the first commercial long-distance phone line opened, with service between Chicago and NY.
In other weird coincidences, in 1921 Charles Strite was granted a US patent for the automatic pop-up toaster. Then, in 1956 on the same day, he died.
Finally, in 1962 the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) for their work in determining the structure of DNA.
1962: Ranger 5 Missed the Moon
Jet Propulsion Laboratories, aka NASA, had a hard time crashing into the moon.
From JPL.NASA:
“The third attempt by the United States to land a spacecraft on the moon, Ranger 5 was designed to collect data on interplanetary space, photograph the moon up close and make a rough landing on the lunar surface. The lander was part of the series of nine Ranger spacecraft launched in the early 1960s to explore the moon. However, a malfunction with the spacecraft's batteries caused them to drain after about eight hours of flight, leaving Ranger 5 inoperable. The spacecraft missed the moon by 450.5 miles (725 kilometers) on October 21, 1962 and remains in heliocentric orbit.”
Sure, why not?
Meanwhile the Soviets were kicking our ass in the space race and, in 1967, “Soviet Venera 4” became the first probe to allegedly send data back from Venus.
But hey, in 2019, the US completed its first all-female spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The Russians haven’t done that, have they?
If we’re being honest, the Russians make Americans look like Canadians in space. Not sorry.
1961: Once You’re a Jet, You’re a Jet
On this day in 1961, the film adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical "West Side Story" (1957) debuted — and we all know it and love it. It’s a classic, and it won the Academy Award for Best Picture the following year.
In other movie news, Disney’s "The Jungle Book" was released in 1967, and Jean-Claude Van Damme was born in 1960.
In Television history, in 1957 "The Frank Sinatra Show" variety show debuted on ABC. Sinatra reportedly had complete creative and operational control. I never knew this show existed. In 1988, "Roseanne" premiered. Funny, yesterday the Connors reboot premiered as well, also on ABC. And back in 1938, Dawn Wells, Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island was born.
Finally, on this day in 1926, Chuck Berry was born in Missouri. And yesterday was the anniversary of “My Ding-a-Ling” hitting Number 1!
Birthdays
1679: Ann Putnam, Jr (False Accuser)
1939: Lee Harvey Oswald (False Assassin)
1958: Letitia James (False Accuser)
Death Days
1871: Charles Babbage (Father of the Computer)
1931: Thomas Edison
2021: Colin Powell (Politician)
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