United States Historical Events is a daily guide to the important events that shaped America to what it is today. This is a compilation of significant events for the month of October including the birth and death of famous Americans as well as laws promulgated by authorities. The list is constantly updated to incorporate the most recent events.
United States Historical Events in October
| Day | Year | Event |
| 1 | 1881 | Birth: William Boeing, the founder of the biggest US aircraft and military equipment company that bears his name, was born in Detroit, Michigan. |
| 1 | 1908 | For the first time, Henry Ford’s Model T went on sale. It was designed as a universal car for the masses. |
| 1 | 1924 | Birthday: Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, was born in Plains. Georgia. |
| 1 | 1979 | St. John Paul II’s first visit to the United States as pope starts with a tour of Boston City where he was welcomed by 100,000 people at the Boston Common. |
| 2 | 1789 | The United States Bill of Rights is sent to the various member States for ratification. |
| 3 | 1863 | US President Abraham Lincoln declares every fourth Thursday of November as the American Thanksgiving Day |
| 3 | 1949 | WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, starts operation in Atlanta, Georgia. |
| 3 | 1993 | Eighteen US soldiers and over 350 Somalis die in an American attack of a Somali warlord in Mogadishu. |
| 3 | 2008 | President George W. Bush signs the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 for the U.S. financial system |
| 4 | 1822 | Birthday: Rutherford Hayes, the 19th US president, was born in Delaware, Ohio. |
| 4 | 1829 | Birthday: Chester A. Arthur, the 21st US president, was born in Fairfield, Vermont. |
| 4 | 1960 | 62 people were killed when an airliner crashes on takeoff from Boston’s Logan International Airport. |
| 4 | 1965 | First papal visit to the United States when Pope Paul VI made a one-day stop in New York City to address the United Nations Assembly. |
| 4 | 1997 | $17.3 million in cash were robbed from the Loomis Fargo Bank in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is considered as the second largest cash robbery in U.S. history. |
| 5 | 1877 | The Nez Perce War in the northwestern United States is officially ended. |
| 6 | 1683 | Germantown in Pennsylvania is founded by first major immigrant families from Germany to America. |
| 6 | 1979 | St. John Paul II as pope visits the White House, the first pope to do so. He was welcomed by President Jimmy Carter. |
| 7 | 1826 | The Granite Railway, the first chartered railway in the United States, begins operation. |
| 7 | 2001 | The United States, together with Great Britain, launched an invasion on Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. |
| 8 | 1869 | Death: Franklin Pierce, the 14th US president, died in Concord, New Hampshire at age 64. |
| 9 | 1701 | Yale University, a private Ivy League research university, was founded in New Haven, Connecticut. |
| 9 | 1936 | Boulder Dam, later known as Hoover Dam, on the Colorado River at the border of Nevada and Arizona, begins to generate electricity. |
| 10 | 1845 | The US Naval School, later known as the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, opens with 50 students. |
| 10 | 1885 | John McCloskey, the first American cardinal of the Catholic Church, died at 75. |
| 11 | 1910 | Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane piloted by Arch Hoxsey. |
| 12 | 1892 | The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools. |
| 13 | 1775 | Establishment of the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. |
| 13 | 1792 | The cornerstone of the White House, previously known as United States Executive Mansion, is laid in Washington, D.C. |
| 14 | 1890 | Birthday: Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34h US president, was born in Denison, Texas. |
| 15 | 1878 | The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation. |
| 15 | 1914 | The Clayton Antitrust Act was enacted as part of United States antitrust law with the goal of preventing anticompetitive practices are harmful to consumers. |
| 15 | 1966 | The Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPO). |
| 16 | 1916 | Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States. |
| 17 | 1965 | Closing day of the 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. More than 51 million attendees. |
| 18 | 1898 | The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain by virtue of the Treaty of Paris. |
| 19 | 1789 | John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States. |
| 19 | 1987 | Black Monday at the New York Stock Exchange, the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6%. |
| 20 | 1781 | Robert R. Livingston is sworn into office as the first US Secretary of Foreign Affairs. |
| 20 | 1944 | World War II: The liberation of the Philippines starts with the Battle of Leyte, considered as the largest naval battle in history. Some 174,000 American troops led by General Douglas MacArthur were involved. |
| 20 | 1964 | Birthday: Kamala Harris, first woman vice president of the United States. |
| 20 | 1964 | Death: Herbert Hoover, the 31st US president, died in New York City at age 90. |
| 21 | 1879 | Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb. |
| 22 | 1746 | Princeton University, a private Ivy League research university, was established in Princeton, New Jersey. |
| 22 | 1836 | Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas. |
| 23 | 1850 | The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts. |
| 24 | 1861 | Completion of the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States. |
| 24 | 1929 | Black Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange, the day of the largest sell-off of shares in U.S. history. |
| 24 | 1945 | The United Nations Security Council was formed with the United States, Soviet Union (now Russia), China, United Kingdom, and France as permanent members. |
| 25 | 1983 | The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was executed in a coup d’état. |
| 26 | 1825 | Completion of the 351 miles Erie Canal connecting the Hudson River in upper New York State to Lake Erie. |
| 26 | 1944 | The Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines ends with an overwhelming American victory during World War II. |
| 27 | 1858 | Birthday: Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th US president, was born in New York City. |
| 28 | 1919 | The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act or National Prohibition Enforcement Act over President Wilson’s veto. |
| 28 | 1955 | Birthday: William “Bill” Gates, an American business magnate, author and philanthropist. As the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation, he was a leading figure in the microcomputer revolution. |
| 28 | 1886 | The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) was dedicated on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City. |
| 29 | 1911 | Death: Joseph Pulitzer, a former American Democratic congressman and newspaper publisher in whose name the Pulitzer Award was named. |
| 29 | 1901 | Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution. |
| 30 | 1735 | Birthday: John Adams, the 2nd US president, was born in Quincy, Massachusetts. |
| 31 | 1864 | Nevada became the 36th State to be admitted to the Union. |
| 31 | 1936 | Establishment of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California. |
RELATED: United States Historical Events in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, November, December
