Vol.V, No.10
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Odd, But It’s A Fact By Pat Farrell
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID San Antonio, Texas Paid Permit #1590
It’s a given that on every day of the year there is some historical event that has been significant to the United States or to the whole world in general, and the days in October are no exception. Many of the October events recorded for various years in the past seem to have ushered in some that signal a “new beginning” in the lives of those living at that time and, after some major “upgrades,” for those of us alive now. As far back as the year 1492, when “Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” and on October 12 discovered that there were other continents west of Europe, he made his first landing in the Bahamas, which he thought were the Indies, and thus called the first inhabitants he met, “Indians.” Although Italian born he sailed for the Spanish Crown, making four voyages in all and as he continued to claim lands in the Americas on behalf of Spain he is cred-
ited with setting the stage for European colonization of these lands and the start of the modern era. And, here we are today in the “New World!” In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII was concerned that the Julian calendar in use at the time in Europe was, over the years, continuing to move the then date for Easter (March 25) further and further away from the spring equinox, so he introduced his Gregorian calendar on October 4 to replace it. To overcome the 11 minute miscalculation in the solar year the calendar included an additional day in February in years divisible by four but not in those divisible by 100 unless it was divisible by 400, thus almost correcting the problem with the Julian calendar. Got that? The Gregorian calendar was mandated for use by Catholics in predominantly Catholic countries but the Protestants considered it a plan by the Papacy to interfere with their movement. The new calendar was finally accepted by Germany in 1700 and by England and the American colonies in 1752. However, acceptance in some other parts of the world has been slow in adopting the calendar, some in the late 1800s and early 1900s with Saudi Arabia finally adopting it in 2016. Ushering in the American Literati, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, Harvard University, named for John Harvard, a major donor to the school, was founded on October 28, 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Several years after that, on October 16, 1701, The Collegiate School of Connecticut was founded in Killingworth, Connecticut but moved in 1716 to New Haven and two years later was renamed Yale College after philanthropist Elihu Yale, and 1886 become Yale University. Also of note for the month is the birth of
Noah Webster on October 16, 1758, who we know was responsible for compiling the first English language American Dictionary. The U.S. Navy was originally established on October 13, 1775 as the Continental Navy, primarily to offset the sea power of the British, but was disbanded after the Revolutionary war. During that same period the British Army, consisting of more than 7,000 British and Hessian troops, led by British General Lord Cornwallis, surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. Later, under then President George Washington, the Naval Act of 1794 created a permanent U.S. Navy, initially with a small fleet that through the years has continued to add more and more ships and to modernize older ones so that it has grown to be one of the largest and best equipped naval fleets in the world. Communication methods during the first half of the 19th century included things like audible drum- beats, and smoke or semaphore signals usually visible between two elevated locations but heavily dependent upon weather conditions for their reception. That all changed with the introduction of the Morse code, and the advent of the electric telegraph, attributed to Samuel F.B. Morse and others, which proved capable of transmitting a signal for long distances across a single wire. With the completion of the Western Union Telegraph Company’s first transcontinental telegraph line on October 24, 1861, the first cross-country message on the new line was sent the following day. That message from Stephen J. Field, Chief Justice of California was addressed to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, DC. telling him that he thought the new link
October 2019 would help the Western states stay loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Developments in the field of electricity during the early 19th century such as the battery invention by Volta and the scientists and inventors of the time experimenting with electromagnetism led up to the ability to communicate over longer distances. Not only did communication benefit from these developments, but Thomas Edison, on October 21, 1879, in his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory was able for the first time to keep an electric incandescent lamp lit for more than 13 hours. Life was certainly getting better or at least more comfortable. It is worth noting the birthdays of three other pioneers during the late 19th century period whose work during their lifetimes also contributed significantly to America’s success today. Robert Goddard was born in 1882 and although he was ridiculed by public and press because of his vision of space flight he was later dubbed the "Father of the Space Age." He launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926 and by1935 his rocket was able to surpass the speed of sound. Also born in 1882 was Admiral William “Bull” Halsey who played a leading role in the defeat of the Japanese when he was the American fleet commander during World War II and also launched the first air raid on Japan, known as the Doolittle Raid. Born in 1846, George Westinghouse had a major impact on rail travel as he was responsible for the development of air brakes for trains and for later establishing alternating current (AC) systems. He was also the first employer to give his employees paid vacations. That “first” was followed by a series of others beginning on October 27, 1904 when the New York City subway, the