This Week In History: October 26 – November 1

Headlines & Tidbits from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s

World News & the American Experience:

1929 – Black Monday and Black Tuesday occurred this week.  The crash of the stock market was one of the factors contributing to the Great Depression.

1962 – The Cuban missile crisis ended.  President Kennedy announced USSR was dismantling missile bases.

1966 – The National Organization For Women (NOW) was founded.

Movies & TV:

1954 – “Disneyland,” Walt Disney’s 1st television program, premiered on ABC.

1956 – The “Huntley-Brinkley Report” premiered on NBC-TV.

1964 – Rolling Stones appeared on Ed Sullivan Show.

1974 – Rhoda Morgenstern married Joe Girard on “Rhoda” on CBS.

Music & Radio:

1938 – H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” was broadcast by Orson Welles on CBS’s “Mercury Theater.”   The format of the show convinced thousands of Americans that they were being attacked by aliens, and a nationwide panic ensued.

1942 – “Thanks to the Yanks,” a wartime radio show with Bob Hawk, debuted on CBS radio.

1946 – “Sky King” premiered on ABC radio for the first time.

1947 – “You Bet Your Life,” with Groucho Marx, premiered on ABC radio.

1964 – The Supremes “Baby Love” was the #1 single for 4 weeks.

1969 – “Abbey Road”, by The Beatles, was #1 on U.S. album charts for 11 weeks.

1969 – Elvis Presley had his last #1 pop single with “Suspicious Minds.”

1983 – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon stayed on the Top 200 Albums Chart for 724 consecutive weeks, breaking the record.

Media and The Arts:

1955 – New York City’s alternative newspaper, “The Village Voice” was first published.

1967 – The musical “Hair,” premiered in New York City.

1970 – Doonesbury was published in 28 newspapers across the country.  The author, Garry Trudeau, was only 22 years old.

Celebrity Headlines:

1926 – Harry Houdini died, possibly from appendicitis.

1964 – Sonny and Cher married.

1968 – Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis married on the island of Scorpios.

1975 – Rocker Bruce Springsteen appeared on the cover of both “TIME” and “Newsweek”.

1977 – Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, both from Lynyrd Skynyrd, died in a plane crash.

Sports:

1950 – Charles Cooper, from the Boston Celtics, was the first black man to play in the National Basketball Association.

1959 – Jacques Plante, a hockey player for the NHL Montreal Canadians, played with a face mask he had made out of fiberglass and resin.  He started a trend, and now every goalie wears one.

1960 – Cassius Clay won his first professional fight over Tunney Hunsaker in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

Technology & Inventions:

1931 – DuPont invented neoprene, a synthetic rubber, and called it Duprene.

1938 – DuPont settled on the name “nylon” for its new synthetic fiber.

1945 – The first ballpoint pen went on sale at Gimbels Department Store in New York City, 57 years after its patent.

Automobile News:

1954 – Chevrolet unveils the V-8 engine.

Famous Birthdays:

1936 – Michael Landon, actor

1939 – Grace Slick, singer (Jefferson Airplane)

1941 – Otis Williams, musician (Temptations)

1945 – Henry Winkler, actor

1946 – Chris Slade, rocker (AC/DC)

1947 – Hillary Rodham Clinton

1955 – Bill Gates

1967 – Julia Roberts