On This Day in History

[Schmidt Meister]

October 21st In Music

1908 - The first two-sided vinyl record was offered for sale by the Columbia label in an ad running in this week's Saturday Evening Post.

1972 - Chuck Berry started a two week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart with 'My Ding-A-Ling', his first and only US No. 1, 17 years after his first chart hit.

1977 - Meat Loaf releases the landmark album Bat Out Of Hell. Written by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren, it's one of the most popular albums of the '70s, eventually selling over 14 million copies in America.

2006 - Weird Al Yankovic's "White & Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'," peaks at No. 9 on the Hot 100. It's Weird Al’s first Top 10 hit.

Birthdays:

1940 - Manfred Mann. South African–British keyboard player, guitarist, and vocalist Manfred Mann who had the 1964 US No. 1 single 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' and with Manfred Mann's Earth Band hits include 'For You', 'Blinded by the Light' and 'Spirit in the Night'. Born in Johannesburg, Transvaal, Union of South Africa.

1942 - Elvin Bishop. Guitarist, 1976 US No. 3 single 'Fooled Around And Fell In Love'. Member of Paul Butterfield Blues Band 65-68. Born in Glendale, California.

1946 - Lee Loughnane. American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter Lee Loughnane with Chicago who had the 1976 US No. 1 single 'If You Leave Me Now'. The band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois as The Chicago Transit Authority before shortening the name in 1970. Chicago have had five consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard chart and 20 top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Born in Elmwood Park, Illinois.

1952 - Brent Mydland. American keyboardist and vocalist, best known for being in Grateful Dead from 1979 to 1990. His eleven-year tenure was longer than that of any other keyboardist in the band. Born in Munich, Germany. He was found dead on 7.26.1990, aged 38.

1954 - Eric Faulkner. Scottish singer and guitarist of the 1970s pop group, Bay City Rollers who had the 1975 UK No. 1 single 'Bye Bye Baby' and the 1976 US No. 1 single 'Saturday Night'. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1957 - Steve Lukather. American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who with Toto had the 1983 US No. 1 single 'Africa'. Lukather has recorded guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums. Born in San Fernando Valley, California.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 22, 1962, in a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announces on October 22, 1962 that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites, under construction but nearing completion, housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine” of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place. The president made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.”
What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on October 14, 1962, the day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were building medium-range missile sites in Cuba. The next day, President Kennedy secretly convened an emergency meeting of his senior military, political, and diplomatic advisers to discuss the ominous development. The group became known as ExCom, short for Executive Committee. After rejecting a surgical air strike against the missile sites, ExCom decided on a naval quarantine and a demand that the bases be dismantled and missiles removed. On the night of October 22, Kennedy went on national television to announce his decision. During the next six days, the crisis escalated to a breaking point as the world tottered on the brink of nuclear war between the two superpowers.
On October 23, the quarantine of Cuba began, but Kennedy decided to give Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev more time to consider the U.S. action by pulling the quarantine line back 500 miles. By October 24, Soviet ships en route to Cuba capable of carrying military cargoes appeared to have slowed down, altered, or reversed their course as they approached the quarantine, with the exception of one ship, the tanker Bucharest. At the request of more than 40 nonaligned nations, U.N. Secretary General U. Thant sent private appeals to Kennedy and Khrushchev, urging that their governments “refrain from any action that may aggravate the situation and bring with it the risk of war.” At the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. military forces went to DEFCON 2, the highest military alert ever reached in the postwar era, as military commanders prepared for full-scale war with the Soviet Union.
On October 25, the aircraft carrier USS Essex and the destroyer USS Gearing attempted to intercept the Soviet tanker Bucharest as it crossed over the U.S. quarantine of Cuba. The Soviet ship failed to cooperate, but the U.S. Navy restrained itself from forcibly seizing the ship, deeming it unlikely that the tanker was carrying offensive weapons. On October 26, Kennedy learned that work on the missile bases was proceeding without interruption, and ExCom considered authorizing a U.S. invasion of Cuba. The same day, the Soviets transmitted a proposal for ending the crisis: The missile bases would be removed in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba.
The next day, however, Khrushchev upped the ante by publicly calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile bases in Turkey under pressure from Soviet military commanders. While Kennedy and his crisis advisers debated this dangerous turn in negotiations, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed. To the dismay of the Pentagon, Kennedy forbid a military retaliation unless any more surveillance planes were fired upon over Cuba. To defuse the worsening crisis, Kennedy and his advisers agreed to dismantle the U.S. missile sites in Turkey but at a later date, in order to prevent the protest of Turkey, a key NATO member.
On October 28, Khrushchev announced his government’s intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons in Cuba. With the airing of the public message on Radio Moscow, the USSR confirmed its willingness to proceed with the solution secretly proposed by the Americans the day before. In the afternoon, Soviet technicians began dismantling the missile sites, and the world stepped back from the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was effectively over. In November, Kennedy called off the blockade, and by the end of the year all the offensive missiles had left Cuba. Soon after, the United States quietly removed its missiles from Turkey.
The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed at the time a clear victory for the United States, but Cuba emerged from the episode with a much greater sense of security.The removal of antiquated Jupiter missiles from Turkey had no detrimental effect on U.S. nuclear strategy, but the Cuban Missile Crisis convinced a humiliated USSR to commence a massive nuclear buildup. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union reached nuclear parity with the United States and built intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking any city in the United States.
A succession of U.S. administrations honored Kennedy’s pledge not to invade Cuba, and relations with the communist island nation situated just 80 miles from Florida remained a thorn in the side of U.S. foreign policy for more than 50 years. In 2015, officials from both nations announced the formal normalization of relations between the U.S and Cuba, which included the easing of travel restrictions and the opening of embassies and diplomatic missions in both countries.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 22, 1797, the first parachute jump of note is made by André-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris.
Leonardo da Vinci conceived the idea of the parachute in his writings, and the Frenchman Louis-Sebastien Lenormand fashioned a kind of parachute out of two umbrellas and jumped from a tree in 1783, but André-Jacques Garnerin was the first to design and test parachutes capable of slowing a man’s fall from a high altitude.
Garnerin first conceived of the possibility of using air resistance to slow an individual’s fall from a high altitude while a prisoner during the French Revolution. Although he never employed a parachute to escape from the high ramparts of the Hungarian prison where he spent three years, Garnerin never lost interest in the concept of the parachute. In 1797, he completed his first parachute, a canopy 23 feet in diameter and attached to a basket with suspension lines.
On October 22, 1797, Garnerin attached the parachute to a hydrogen balloon and ascended to an altitude of 3,200 feet. He then clambered into the basket and severed the parachute from the balloon. As he failed to include an air vent at the top of the prototype, Garnerin oscillated wildly in his descent, but he landed shaken but unhurt half a mile from the balloon’s takeoff site. In 1799, Garnerin’s wife, Jeanne-Genevieve, became the first female parachutist. In 1802, Garnerin made a spectacular jump from 8,000 feet during an exhibition in England. He died in a balloon accident in 1823 while preparing to test a new parachute.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 22, 1957, U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties in the war when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon. The rising tide of guerrilla activity in South Vietnam reached an estimated 30 terrorist incidents by the end of the year and at least 75 local officials were assassinated or kidnapped in the last quarter of 1957.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 22, 1972, in Saigon, Henry Kissinger meets with South Vietnamese President Thieu to secure his approval of a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out at the secret peace talks with the North Vietnamese in Paris.
The proposal presumed a postwar role for the Viet Cong and Thieu rejected the proposed accord point for point and accused the United States of conspiring with China and the Soviet Union to undermine his regime. Kissinger, who had tentatively agreed to initial the draft in Hanoi at the end of the month, cabled President Nixon that Thieu’s terms “verge on insanity” and flew home.
Meanwhile, in the countryside, with a future cease-fire under discussion, both sides in the conflict ordered their forces to seize as much territory as possible and the fighting continued. The Communists hit Bien Hoa airbase with rockets and South Vietnamese commanders in the field reported that the peace talks had no effect on military action. To support the South Vietnamese forces, U.S. B-52 bombers continued to strike Communist positions in an arc north of Saigon, while other U.S. planes flew 220 missions over North Vietnam.

[Schmidt Meister]

October 22nd In Music

1966 - Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ made its debut on the US singles chart. Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. The record would reach No. 1 on the US charts in December 1966.

1969 - Led Zeppelin II was released on Atlantic Records in the UK. The Jimmy Page produced album which was recorded over six months between four European and three American tours, peaked at No. 1 in both the UK and US, going on to sell over 12 million copies in the US alone, (and spending 138 weeks on the UK chart). The album is now recognized by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.

1976 - Bob Seger releases Night Moves, his first studio album to make an impact outside of Michigan.

1988 - Phil Collins started a two week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart with his version of 'Groovy Kind Of Love', his 6th US No. 1. The song was also a hit for The Mindbenders, the group that backed Wayne Fontana in 1965.

2005 - Waterloo by ABBA was voted the best song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Viewers in 31 countries across Europe voted during a special show in Copenhagen to celebrate the annual event's 50th birthday.

Birthdays:

1942 - Bobby Fuller. The Bobby Fuller Four. 1966 US No. 9 single 'I Fought The Law' written by Sonny Curtis of Buddy Holly's Crickets. Born in Baytown, Texas. Fuller died on 7.18.1966.

1946 - Eddie Brigati. American rock band, The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) who had the US No. 1 hits 'Good Lovin'' (1966), 'Groovin'' (1967), and 'People Got to Be Free' (1968). Born in Garfield, New Jersey.

[Borg warner]

On 10/21/2022 at 1:35 AM, Schmidt Meister said:

October 21st In Music

1908 - The first two-sided vinyl record was offered for sale by the Columbia label in an ad running in this week's Saturday Evening Post.

1972 - Chuck Berry started a two week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart with 'My Ding-A-Ling', his first and only US No. 1, 17 years after his first chart hit.

1977 - Meat Loaf releases the landmark album Bat Out Of Hell. Written by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren, it's one of the most popular albums of the '70s, eventually selling over 14 million copies in America.

2006 - Weird Al Yankovic's "White & Nerdy," a parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'," peaks at No. 9 on the Hot 100. It's Weird Al’s first Top 10 hit.

Birthdays:

1940 - Manfred Mann. South African–British keyboard player, guitarist, and vocalist Manfred Mann who had the 1964 US No. 1 single 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' and with Manfred Mann's Earth Band hits include 'For You', 'Blinded by the Light' and 'Spirit in the Night'. Born in Johannesburg, Transvaal, Union of South Africa.

1942 - Elvin Bishop. Guitarist, 1976 US No. 3 single 'Fooled Around And Fell In Love'. Member of Paul Butterfield Blues Band 65-68. Born in Glendale, California.

1946 - Lee Loughnane. American trumpeter, flugelhorn player, vocalist, and songwriter Lee Loughnane with Chicago who had the 1976 US No. 1 single 'If You Leave Me Now'. The band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois as The Chicago Transit Authority before shortening the name in 1970. Chicago have had five consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard chart and 20 top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Born in Elmwood Park, Illinois.

1952 - Brent Mydland. American keyboardist and vocalist, best known for being in Grateful Dead from 1979 to 1990. His eleven-year tenure was longer than that of any other keyboardist in the band. Born in Munich, Germany. He was found dead on 7.26.1990, aged 38.

1954 - Eric Faulkner. Scottish singer and guitarist of the 1970s pop group, Bay City Rollers who had the 1975 UK No. 1 single 'Bye Bye Baby' and the 1976 US No. 1 single 'Saturday Night'. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1957 - Steve Lukather. American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who with Toto had the 1983 US No. 1 single 'Africa'. Lukather has recorded guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums. Born in San Fernando Valley, California.

8

1942 - Elvin Bishop. Guitarist, 1976 US No. 3 single 'Fooled Around And Fell In Love'. Member of Paul Butterfield Blues Band 65-68. Born in Glendale, California.

Though he was born in Glendale in the L.A. area, he performed mostly in the SF bay area. I saw him play live at the Town and Country lodge when I live in Santa Cruz in 1973

1957 - Steve Lukather. American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who with Toto had the 1983 US No. 1 single 'Africa'. Lukather has recorded guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums. Born in San Fernando Valley, California.

Steve Lukather met David Paich and the Porcaro brothers (Jeff, Steve, and Mike) at Grant High school in the San Fernando valley. Much later they later they went on to form the group Toto after Jeff pocoro and Steve Luthather had been playing with Steely Dan. Before that, Lukather  had been playing with bay area musician Boz Scaggs. I lived in the San Fernando valley off and on from 1961 to 1998 and when I was in high school our football team would play against Grant High school.

 

[Schmidt Meister]

11 minutes ago, Borg warner said:

1942 - Elvin Bishop. Guitarist, 1976 US No. 3 single 'Fooled Around And Fell In Love'. Member of Paul Butterfield Blues Band 65-68. Born in Glendale, California.

Though he was born in Glendale in the L.A. area, he performed mostly in the SF bay area. I saw him play live at teh town and country lodge when I live in Santa Cruz in 1973

1957 - Steve Lukather. American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, who with Toto had the 1983 US No. 1 single 'Africa'. Lukather has recorded guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums. Born in San Fernando Valley, California.

Steve Lukather met David Paich and the Porcaro brothers (Jeff, Steve, and Mike) at Grant High school in the San Fernando valley. Much later they later they went on to form the group Toto after Jeff pocoro and Steve Luthather had been playing with Steely Dan. Before that, Lukather  had been playing with bay area musician Boz Scaggs. I lived in the San Fernado valley off and on from 1961 to 1998 and when I was in high school our football team would play against Grant High school.

 

I was a huge Boz Skaggs fan for a while in my younger days. I still like to listen to them from time to time. Same for Toto.

[DAKA]

@Schmidt Meister ....WOW ... Tnx for all the above...YOU are a WEALTH of Knowledge      

Gonna take me a bit to read all of it !!!

[Schmidt Meister]

10 hours ago, DAKA said:

@Schmidt Meister ....WOW ... Tnx for all the above...YOU are a WEALTH of Knowledge      

Gonna take me a bit to read all of it !!!

WOW, great praise, and "I'm not worthy". What I am, is a master of copy and paste and a little bit of digging to get to the truth when I need to. I love history and I love for the truth to be told.

THANK YOU for the compliment. (I actually do have to do some digging for what I post.)

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 23, 1983, a suicide bomber drives a truck filled with 2,000 pounds of explosives into a U.S. Marine Corps barracks at the Beirut International Airport. The explosion killed 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers. A few minutes after that bomb went off, a second bomber drove into the basement of the nearby French paratroopers’ barracks, killing 58 more people. Four months after the bombing, American forces left Lebanon without retaliating.
The Marines in Beirut were part of a multinational peacekeeping force that was trying to broker a truce between warring Christian and Muslim Lebanese factions. In 1981, American troops had supervised the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Beirut and then had withdrawn themselves. They returned the next year. Eighteen hundred Marine peacekeepers moved into an old Israeli Army barracks near the airport, a fortress with two-foot–thick walls that could, it seemed, withstand anything. Even after a van bomb killed 46 people at the U.S. Embassy in April, the American troops maintained their non-martial stance: their perimeter fence remained relatively unfortified, for instance and their sentries’ weapons were unloaded.
At about 6:20 in the morning on October 23, 1983, a Lebanese terrorist plowed his bomb-laden truck through three guard posts, a barbed-wire fence, and into the lobby of the Marines Corps headquarters in Beirut, where he detonated a massive bomb, killing 241 marine, navy, and army personnel. The bomb, which was made of a sophisticated explosive enhanced by gas, had an explosive power equivalent to 18,000 pounds of dynamite. The identities of the embassy and barracks bombers were not determined, but they were suspected to be Shiite terrorists associated with Iran.
Eyewitnesses said that the force of the blast caused the entire building to float up above the ground for a moment before it pancaked down in a cloud of pulverized concrete and human remains. FBI investigators said that it was the largest non-nuclear explosion since World War II and certainly the most powerful car bomb ever detonated.
After the bombing, President Ronald Reagan expressed outrage at the “despicable act” and vowed that American forces would stay in Beirut until they could forge a lasting peace. In the meantime, he devised a plan to bomb the Hezbollah training camp in Baalbek, Lebanon, where intelligence agents thought the attack had been planned. However, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger aborted the mission, reportedly because he did not want to strain relations with oil-producing Arab nations. The next February, American troops withdrew from Lebanon altogether.

[Schmidt Meister]

October 23rd In Music

1961 - Dion started a two week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart with 'Runaround Sue’.

1966 - The Yardbirds, in their first concert featuring Jimmy Page on lead guitar, open at San Francisco's Fillmore West.

1976 - Chicago started a two week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart with 'If You Leave Me Now'. It was the group's 18th Top 40 and first US No. 1. It went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance.

1976 - Led Zeppelin made their US television debut on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, they performed ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Dazed And Confused’.

1990 - AC/DC's Back In Black album is certified Diamond for US sales of 10 million.

1993 - Meat Loaf had his first US No. 1 with 'I'd Do Anything For Love' (But I Won't Do That'). A No. 1 in twenty-eight countries and also gave Meat Loaf his first UK No. 1 hit. It stayed at No. 1 for seven weeks.

Birthdays:

1940 - Ellie Greenwich. American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer.  With Phil Spector and Jeff Barry she wrote or co-wrote many hits including 'Da Doo Ron Ron', 'Be My Baby' 'Then He Kissed Me', 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy', 'Leader of the Pack, and 'River Deep – Mountain High' among others. She died on 8.26.2009 age 68.

1945 - Ernie Watts. American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist. He has worked with The Rolling Stones, featured soloist on many of Marvin Gaye's albums, Frank Zappa (The Grand Wazoo) he played the "Mystery Horn", and played the notable saxophone riff on 'The One You Love' by Glenn Frey.

1959 - Weird Al Yankovic. Minor US hits parodying songs such as ‘Livin' In the Fridge’ from ‘Livin’ On The Edge’ by Aerosmith and ‘Tacky’ from ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams and ‘Word Crimes’ from ‘Blurred Lines’ by Robin Thicke. Born in Downey, California.

1943 - Greg Ridley. English rock bassist with Spooky Tooth and a founding member of Humble Pie. Born in Aspatria, Cumberland, England.

3 of Wierd Al's best, imo.

*“Weird Al” Yankovic - Livin' In the Fridge - Livin’ On The Edge by Aerosmith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h25C3emB5qg

*”Weird Al” Yankovic - Tacky - Happy by Pharrell Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7Eki5EZ8o

*”Weird Al” Yankovic - Word Crimes - Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&t=221s

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 24, 1945, the United Nations Charter, which was adopted and signed on June 26, 1945, is now effective and ready to be enforced.
The United Nations was born of perceived necessity, as a means of better arbitrating international conflict and negotiating peace than was provided for by the old League of Nations. The growing Second World War became the real impetus for the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union to begin formulating the original U.N. Declaration, signed by 26 nations in January 1942, as a formal act of opposition to Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis Powers.
The principles of the U.N. Charter were first formulated at the San Francisco Conference, which convened on April 25, 1945. It was presided over by President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and attended by representatives of 50 nations, including 9 continental European states, 21 North, Central, and South American republics, 7 Middle Eastern states, 5 British Commonwealth nations, 2 Soviet republics (in addition to the USSR itself), 2 East Asian nations, and 3 African states. The conference laid out a structure for a new international organization that was to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,…to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.”
Two other important objectives described in the Charter were respecting the principles of equal rights and self-determination of all peoples (originally directed at smaller nations now vulnerable to being swallowed up by the Communist behemoths emerging from the war) and international cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems around the world.
Now that the war was over, negotiating and maintaining the peace was the practical responsibility of the new U.N. Security Council, made up of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and China. Each would have veto power over the other. Winston Churchill called for the United Nations to employ its charter in the service of creating a new, united Europe, united in its opposition to communist expansion, East and West. Given the composition of the Security Council, this would prove easier said than done.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 24, 1951, President Harry Truman finally proclaims that the nation’s war with Germany, begun in 1941, is officially over. Fighting had ended in the spring of 1945.
Most Americans assumed that the war with Germany had ended with the cessation of hostilities six years earlier. In fact, a treaty with Germany had not been signed. Complicating the treaty process was the status of territory within what was formerly the German state. Following the Second World War, the major Western powers (U.S., Britain and France) and the Soviets agreed to divide the country, including the capital city of Berlin, into democratic and communist-controlled sectors. Both East and West Berlin ended up within the Soviet-controlled territory of East Germany and the capital became the epicenter of increasing tensions between the West and Soviet Russia. Each side claimed the other had violated post-war treaties regarding their respective spheres of influence in post-war Europe. The conflict over Berlin came to a head in June 1948 when Stalin ordered a blockade of the city. Truman did not want to abandon Berlin to the Soviets and ordered an airlift to supply the western sectors with food and fuel. The treaty process was put on hold until the Western powers could agree on what to do about Berlin. A Soviet atomic weapons test on October 3, 1951, increased the tension.
In his proclamation on this day, Truman stated that it had always been America’s hope to create a treaty of peace with the government of a united and free Germany, but that Soviet policy had “made it impossible.” The official end to the war came 10 years after Congress had declared open war with Nazi Germany on December 11, 1941.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 24, 1861, workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company link the eastern and western telegraph networks of the nation at Salt Lake City, Utah, completing a transcontinental line that for the first time allows instantaneous communication between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Stephen J. Field, chief justice of California, sent the first transcontinental telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, predicting that the new communication link would help ensure the loyalty of the western states to the Union during the Civil War.
The push to create a transcontinental telegraph line had begun only a little more than year before when Congress authorized a subsidy of $40,000 a year to any company building a telegraph line that would join the eastern and western networks. The Western Union Telegraph Company, as its name suggests, took up the challenge, and the company immediately began work on the critical link that would span the territory between the western edge of Missouri and Salt Lake City.
The obstacles to building the line over the sparsely populated and isolated western plains and mountains were huge. Wire and glass insulators had to be shipped by sea to San Francisco and carried eastward by horse-drawn wagons over the Sierra Nevada. Supplying the thousands of telegraph poles needed was an equally daunting challenge in the largely treeless Plains country, and these too had to be shipped from the western mountains. Indians also proved a problem. In the summer of 1861, a party of Sioux warriors cut part of the line that had been completed and took a long section of wire for making bracelets. Later, however, some of the Sioux wearing the telegraph-wire bracelets became sick, and a Sioux medicine man convinced them that the great spirit of the “talking wire” had avenged its desecration. Thereafter, the Sioux left the line alone, and the Western Union was able to connect the East and West Coasts of the nation much earlier than anyone had expected and a full eight years before the transcontinental railroad would be completed.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 24, 1921, in the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, an American officer selects the body of the first “Unknown Soldier” to be honored among the approximately 77,000 United States servicemen killed on the Western Front during World War I.
According to the official records of the Army Graves Registration Service deposited in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, four bodies were transported to Chalons from the cemeteries of Aisne-Marne, Somme, Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel. All were great battlegrounds, and the latter two regions were the sites of two offensive operations in which American troops took a leading role in the decisive summer and fall of 1918. As the service records stated, the identity of the bodies was completely unknown: “The original records showing the internment of these bodies were searched and the four bodies selected represented the remains of soldiers of which there was absolutely no indication as to name, rank, organization or date of death.”
The four bodies arrived at the Hotel de Ville in Chalons-sur-Marne on October 23, 1921. At 10 o’clock the next morning, French and American officials entered a hall where the four caskets were displayed, each draped with an American flag. Sergeant Edward Younger, the man given the task of making the selection, carried a spray of white roses with which to mark the chosen casket. According to the official account, Younger “entered the chamber in which the bodies of the four Unknown Soldiers lay, circled the caskets three times, then silently placed the flowers on the third casket from the left. He faced the body, stood at attention and saluted.”
Bearing the inscription “An Unknown American who gave his life in the World War,” the chosen casket traveled to Paris and then to Le Havre, France, where it would board the cruiser Olympia for the voyage across the Atlantic. Once back in the United States, the Unknown Soldier was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.

[Schmidt Meister]

October 24th In Music

1970 - Santana land their first No. 1 album in America as Abraxas claims the top spot. The tracklist includes "Oye Como Va" and their Fleetwood Mac cover, "Black Magic Woman."

1971 - Don McLean's second album, American Pie, is released. Thanks to the title track, it goes to No. 1 and sends him from folk obscurity to pop stardom, a transition that proves challenging.

2000 - Lenny Kravitz releases his Greatest Hits album. Peaking at No. 2, the release marks his highest entry on the US albums chart. It also features the track "Again," which earns him his third consecutive Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

Birthdays:

1946 - Jerry Edmonton. Steppenwolf drummer, who had the 1969 US No. 2 hit single 'Born To Be Wild'. Steppenwolf sold over 25 million records worldwide, released eight gold albums and scored 12 Billboard Hot 100 singles. Born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. He died on 11.28.1993.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 25, 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (“divine wind”) bombers against American warships for the first time. It will prove costly, to both sides.
This decision to employ suicide bombers against the American fleet at Leyte, an island of the Philippines, was based on the failure of conventional naval and aerial engagements to stop the American offensive. Declared Japanese naval Capt. Motoharu Okamura: “I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes…. There will be more than enough volunteers for this chance to save our country.”
The first kamikaze force was in fact composed of 24 volunteer pilots from Japan’s 201st Navy Air Group. The targets were U.S. escort carriers; one, the St. Lo, was struck by a A6M Zero fighter and sunk in less than an hour, killing 100 Americans. More than 5,000 kamikaze pilots died in the gulf battle, taking down 34 ships.
For their kamikaze raids, the Japanese employed both conventional aircraft and specially designed planes, called Ohka (“cherry blossom”) by the Japanese, but Baka (“fool”) by the Americans, who saw them as acts of desperation. The Baka was a rocket-powered plane that was carried toward its target attached to the belly of a bomber.
All told, more than 1,321 Japanese aircraft crash-dived their planes into Allied warships during the war, desperate efforts to reverse the growing Allied advantage in the Pacific. While approximately 3,000 Americans and Brits died because of these attacks, the damage done did not prevent the Allied capture of the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

[Schmidt Meister]

On October 25, 1774, the First Continental Congress sends a respectful petition to King George III to inform his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind British rule.
Despite the anger that the American public felt towards the United Kingdom after the British Parliament established the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists, Congress was still willing to assert its loyalty to the king. In return for this loyalty, Congress asked the king to address and resolve the specific grievances of the colonies. The petition, written by Continental Congressman John Dickinson, laid out what Congress felt was undue oppression of the colonies by the British Parliament. Their grievances mainly had to do with the Coercive Acts, a series of four acts that were established to punish colonists and to restore order in Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party.
The first of the Coercive Acts was the Boston Port Act, which closed the port of Boston to all colonists until damages from the Boston Tea Party were paid. The second, the Massachusetts Government Act, gave the British government total control of town meetings, taking all decisions out of the hands of the colonists. The third, the Administration of Justice Act, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America and the fourth, the Quartering Act, required colonists to house and quarter British troops on demand, including in private homes as a last resort.
The king did not respond to the petition to Congress’ satisfaction and eight months later on July 6, 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted a resolution entitled “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.” Written by John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, the resolution laid out the reasons for taking up arms and starting a violent revolution against British rule of the colonies.

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On October 25, 1983, President Ronald Reagan, citing the threat posed to American nationals on the Caribbean nation of Grenada by that nation’s Marxist regime, orders the Marines to invade and secure their safety. There were nearly 1,000 Americans in Grenada at the time, many of them students at the island’s medical school. In little more than a week, Grenada’s government was overthrown.
The situation on Grenada had been of concern to American officials since 1979, when the leftist Maurice Bishop seized power and began to develop close relations with Cuba. In 1983, another Marxist, Bernard Coard, had Bishop assassinated and took control of the government. Protesters clashed with the new government and violence escalated. Citing the danger to the U.S. citizens in Grenada, Reagan ordered nearly 2,000 U.S. troops into the island, where they soon found themselves facing opposition from Grenadan armed forces and groups of Cuban military engineers, in Grenada to repair and expand the island’s airport. Matters were not helped by the fact that U.S. forces had to rely on minimal intelligence about the situation. (The maps used by many of them were, in fact, old tourist maps of the island.) Reagan ordered in more troops, and by the time the fighting was done, nearly 6,000 U.S. troops were in Grenada. Nearly 20 of these troops were killed and over a hundred wounded; over 60 Grenadan and Cuban troops were killed. Coard’s government collapsed and was replaced by one acceptable to the United States.
A number of Americans were skeptical of Reagan’s defense of the invasion, noting that it took place just days after a disastrous explosion in a U.S. military installation in Lebanon killed over 240 U.S. troops, calling into question the use of military force to achieve U.S. goals. Nevertheless, the Reagan administration claimed a great victory, calling it the first “rollback” of communist influence since the beginning of the Cold War.

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October 25th In Music

1968 - Led Zeppelin played their first gig with their new name after initially performing as The New Yardbirds, at Surrey University, England. In 2003 a poster for the Surrey gig (billing the group as The New Yardbirds) sold at auction for $3,300.

1969 - 'Sugar Sugar' by The Archies was at No. 1 in the US, selling over six million copies worldwide. The Archies were a rock group based on comic book characters.

1970 - Led Zeppelin's LP Led Zeppelin III hits No. 1.

1975 - Paul Simon issues his fourth solo album, Still Crazy After All These Years. "Gone At Last," "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover," and the title track all reach the US Top 40, and the album hits No. 1, Simon's first.

1977 - Elton John appears on The Muppet Show, where he performs "Crocodile Rock," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." Elton is one of the inspirations for Dr. Teeth of the Muppets' house band, The Electric Mayhem.

1986 - Bon Jovi went to No. 1 on the US album chart with 'Slippery When Wet'. Featuring two US No. 1 singles, 'You Give Love A Bad Name' and 'Livin' On A Prayer'. The album went on to sell over 8 million copies world wide.

Birthdays:

1944 - Jon Anderson. English singer and songwriter, who was a member of The Warriors, and Yes who scored the 1983 US No. 1 single 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart'. Anderson is also noted for his solo career and collaborations with other artists, including Vangelis as Jon and Vangelis. Born in Accrington, Lancashire, England.

1944 - Taffy Danoff. From American pop group Starland Vocal Band, who had the 1976 US No. 1 single 'Afternoon Delight' one of the biggest-selling singles of 1976. Born in Washington, D.C.

1948 - Glenn Tipton. Judas Priest English Grammy Award-winning guitar player and songwriter. Born in Blackheath, England.

1955 - Matthias Jabs. From German rock band Scorpions. Their 1990 power ballad 'Wind Of Change' topped the European charts and was a No. 4 hit in the US. The Scorpions hold the record for the best-selling single by a German artist and band. Born in Hannover, Germany.

1962 - Chad Smith. Drummer, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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On October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal opens, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, the driving force behind the project, led the opening ceremonies and rode the canal boat Seneca Chief from Buffalo to New York City.
Work began on the waterway in August 1823. Teams of oxen plowed the ground, but for the most part the work was done by Irish diggers who had to rely on primitive tools. They were paid $10 a month, and barrels of whisky were placed along the canal route as encouragement. West of Troy, 83 canal locks were built to accommodate the 500-foot rise in elevation. After more than two years of digging, the 425 mile Erie Canal was opened on October 26, 1825, by Governor Clinton.
The effect of the canal was immediate and dramatic. Settlers poured into western New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Goods were transported at one-tenth the previous fee in less than half the time. Barges of farm produce and raw materials traveled east, as manufactured goods and supplies flowed west. In nine years, tolls had paid back the cost of construction. Later enlarged and deepened, the canal survived competition from the railroads in the latter part of the 19th century. Today, the Erie Canal is used mostly by pleasure boaters, but it is still capable of accommodating heavy barges.

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On October 26, 1775, King George III speaks before both houses of the British Parliament to discuss growing concern about the rebellion in America, which he viewed as a traitorous action against himself and Great Britain. He began his speech by reading a “Proclamation of Rebellion” and urged Parliament to move quickly to end the revolt and bring order to the colonies.
The king spoke of his belief that “many of these unhappy people may still retain their loyalty, and may be too wise not to see the fatal consequence of this usurpation, and wish to resist it, yet the torrent of violence has been strong enough to compel their acquiescence, till a sufficient force shall appear to support them.” With these words, the king gave Parliament his consent to dispatch troops to use against his own subjects, a notion that his colonists believed impossible.
Just as the Continental Congress expressed its desire to remain loyal to the British crown in the Olive Branch Petition, delivered to the monarch on September 1, so George III insisted he had “acted with the same temper; anxious to prevent, if it had been possible, the effusion of the blood of my subjects; and the calamities which are inseparable from a state of war; still hoping that my people in America would have discerned the traitorous views of their leaders, and have been convinced, that to be a subject of Great Britain, with all its consequences, is to be the freest member of any civil society in the known world.” King George went on to scoff at what he called the colonists’ “strongest protestations of loyalty to me,” believing them disingenuous, “whilst they were preparing for a general revolt.”
Unfortunately for George III, Thomas Paine’s anti-monarchical argument in the pamphlet, Common Sense, published in January 1776, proved persuasive to many American colonists. The two sides had reached a final political impasse and the bloody War for Independence soon followed.

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On October 26, 1776, exactly one month to the day after being named an agent of a diplomatic commission by the Continental Congress, Benjamin Franklin sets sail from Philadelphia for France, with which he was to negotiate and secure a formal alliance and treaty.
In France, the accomplished Franklin was feted throughout scientific and literary circles and he quickly became a fixture in high society. While his personal achievements were celebrated, Franklin’s diplomatic success in France was slow in coming. Although it had been secretly aiding the Patriot cause since the outbreak of the American Revolution, France felt it could not openly declare a formal allegiance with the United States until they were assured of an American victory over the British.
For the next year, Franklin made friends with influential officials throughout France, while continuing to push for a formal alliance. France continued to secretly support the Patriot cause with shipments of war supplies, but it was not until the American victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 that France felt an American victory in the war was possible.
A few short months after the Battle of Saratoga, representatives of the United States and France, including Benjamin Franklin, officially declared an alliance by signing the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance on February 6, 1778. The French aid that these agreements guaranteed was crucial to the eventual American victory over the British in the War for Independence.

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On October 26, 1942, the last U.S. carrier manufactured before America’s entry into World War II, the USS Hornet, is damaged so extensively by Japanese war planes in the Battle of Santa Cruz that it must be abandoned.
The battle for Guadalcanal was the first American offensive against the Japanese, an attempt to prevent the Axis power from taking yet another island in the Solomon chain and gaining more ground in its race for Australia. On this day, in the vicinity of the Santa Cruz Islands, two American naval task forces had to stop a superior Japanese fleet, which was on its way to Guadalcanal with reinforcements. As was the case in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, the engagement at Santa Cruz was fought exclusively by aircraft taking off from carriers of the respective forces; the ships themselves were not in range to fire at one another.
Japanese aerial fire damaged the USS Enterprise, the battleship South Dakota, and finally the Hornet. In fact, the explosions wrought by the Japanese bombs that rained down on the Hornet were so great that two of the Japanese bombers were themselves crippled by the blasts, and the pilots chose to dive-bomb their planes into the deck of the American carrier, which was finally abandoned and left to burn. The Hornet, which weighed 20,000 tons, had seen battle during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo (its commander at the time, Marc Mitscher, was promoted to admiral and would be a significant player in the victory over Japan) and the Battle of Midway.
While the United States losses at Santa Cruz were heavy, the cost in aircraft to the Japanese was so extensive, more than 100, including 25 of the 27 bombers that attacked the Hornet, that they were unable finally to reinforce their troops at Guadalcanal, paving the way for an American victory.