- Statue of Liberty Day
- Plush Animal Lover’s Day
- Animation Day
- National Chocolate Day
- National Wild Foods Day
- Independence Day-Czech Republic
- Ochi Day-Greece
- On This Day
- 1636 --- Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts. The original name was Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the first school of higher education in America.
- 1775 --- The new commander in chief of the British army, Major General Sir William Howe, issues a proclamation to the residents of Boston. Speaking from British headquarters in Boston, Howe forbade any person from leaving the city and ordered citizens to organize into military companies in order to "contribute all in his power for the preservation of order and good government within the town of Boston."
- 1793 --- Eli Whitney applied for a patent for the cotton gin.
- 1886 --- The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. The statue’s full name was Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. It had been a gift from French citizens to their American friends in recognition of the two countries’ commitment to liberty and democracy and their alliance during the American Revolutionary War, which had begun 110 years earlier. The 151-foot copper statue was built in France and shipped to New York in 350 separate parts. It arrived in the city on June 17, 1886, and over the next several months was reassembled while electricians worked to wire the torch to light up at night. As President Cleveland accepted the statue on behalf of American citizens, he declared "we will not forget that liberty here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected." The statue quickly became a symbol of America’s humanitarianism and willingness to take in the world’s "tired, poor and huddled masses"—in the words of the poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the monument’s pedestal—who yearned for freedom and a better life. "Lady Liberty" was originally intended to work as a functional lighthouse and, from 1886 to 1901, the statue was operated by the United States Lighthouse Board. In 1901, the War Department took over its operation and maintenance. The statue and the island on which it stands, now known as Liberty Island, were together proclaimed a national monument by President Calvin Coolidge on October 15, 1924, and, in 1933, the National Park Service assumed oversight of the monument. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan established a commission tasked with restoring the deteriorating Lady Liberty in time for a centennial celebration in 1986. A joint French-American preservation and rehabilitation group cleaned the statue and replaced the glass and metal torch with gold leaf. The original torch is on display in the statue’s lobby.
- 1893 --- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducted his first public performance of his Symphony Number Six in B minor "Pathetique."
- 1919 --- Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Prohibition Amendment. The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence.
- 1922 --- Fascism came to Italy as Benito Mussolini took control of the government.
- 1940 --- The Greek people had much to celebrate. Their resistance and military had turned back Mussolini’s troops and Greece’s borders were closed to the Nazi supporters. This day is still celebrated throughout Greece as Ohi (No!) Day.
- 1949 --- U.S. President Harry Truman swore in Eugenie Moore Anderson as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Anderson was the first woman to hold the post of ambassador.
- 1950 --- Jack Benny took his well-known radio show, on radio for 20 years, to television without missing a beat. Audiences watching CBS-TV this night at 7:30 p.m. finally got to see the stingy, vain-about-his-age, Benny. There he was with his violin, ancient Maxwell car, and his basement vault in living black and white. Eventually, TV audiences got to see Jack Benny, his wife Mary Livingstone, and his friends Eddy ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Don Wilson and Dennis Day in living color. The show lasted on TV for fifteen years!
- 1961 --- Brian Epstein, a record store owner in London, was asked by a customer for a copy of the record, “My Bonnie”, by a group known as The Silver Beatles. He didn’t have it in stock so he went to the Cavern Club to check out the group. He signed to manage them in a matter of days and renamed them The Beatles.
- 1961 --- The second so-called "Apache trial" begins for rock-and-roller Chuck Berry. Although his earlier conviction for transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes in violation of the Mann Act was thrown out on appeal, the prosecution decided to retry Berry. During his second trial, Berry was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. After a short stretch in Leavenworth Federal Prison, he was transferred to a Missouri jail, where he spent his time studying accounting and writing songs. Among the songs he wrote before his release from prison in October 1963 were "No Particular Place to Go" and "You Never Can Tell," later memorialized in the film Pulp Fiction.
- 1962 --- The Cuban Missile crisis comes to a close as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agrees to remove Russian missiles from Cuba in exchange for a promise from the United States to respect Cuba's territorial sovereignty. This ended nearly two weeks of anxiety and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union that came close to provoking a nuclear conflict. The consequences of the crisis were many and varied. Relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union were on shaky ground for some time after Khrushchev's removal of the missiles, as Fidel Castro accused the Russians of backing down from the Americans and deserting the Cuban revolution. European allies of the United States were also angered, not because of the U.S. stance during the crisis, but because the Kennedy administration kept them virtually in the dark about negotiations that might have led to an atomic war.
- 1965 --- Construction is completed on the Gateway Arch, a graceful 603-foot high ribbon of gleaming stainless steel, the Gateway Arch spans 630 feet at the ground and is meant to symbolically mark the gateway from the eastern United States to the West. Architect Eero Saarinen's dramatic design was chosen during a 1947 competition, and has since become a landmark famous around the world. The Gateway Arch is the most prominent feature of St. Louis's Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park, which also includes an Underground Visitors Center featuring exhibits charting the 100-year history of America's westward expansion. Although St. Louis was by no means the only jumping-off point for emigrants moving westward, during much of the 19th century the city's advantageous location, just below the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, made it an important hub for much of the nation's western expansion. Most famously, Lewis and Clark began their exploration of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory when they departed from St. Louis in May 1804, and Zebulon Pike also started his western explorations there in 1805. Once these famous trailblazers had shown the way, thousands of other followed in their footsteps.
- 1980 --- Republican nominee Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with President Jimmy Carter in Cleveland "are you better off than you were four years ago?"
- 1985 --- John A. Walker Jr. and his son, Michael Lance Walker, pled guilty to charges of spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1989 --- The Oakland Athletics beat the San Francisco Giants 9-6 to complete a four-game sweep of the World Series, the first World Series sweep since 1976. The A’s scored first in every game and never lost the lead once. Oakland pitcher Dave Stewart pitched two games, won two games, struck out fourteen hitters in sixteen innings, had an earned run average of 1.69 and was named MVP.
- 1992 --- Duluth, Minnesota mayor Gary Doty cuts the ribbon at the mouth of the brand-new, 1,480-foot–long Leif Erickson Tunnel on Interstate 35. With the opening of the tunnel, that highway—which stretches 1,593 miles, from Mexico all the way to Canada—was finished at last. As a result, the federal government announced, the Interstate Highway System itself was 99.7 percent complete.
- 2005 --- Vice President Dick Cheney's top adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, resigned after he was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation. (Libby was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison. President George W. Bush commuted his sentence.)
- 2007 --- Cristina Fernandez was elected Argentina's first woman president.
- Birthdays
- Evelyn Waugh
- Jonas Salk
- Francis Bacon
- Jamie Gertz
- Julia Roberts
- Ben Harper
- Auguste Escoffier
- Eliphalet Remington
- Edith Head
- Elsa Lanchester
- Joaquin Phoenix
- Bowie Kuhn
- Joan Plowright
- Charlie Daniels
- Dennis Franz
- Thelma Louise Hopkins
- 301st Day of 2014 / 64 Remaining
- Winter Begins in 54 Days
- Sunrise:7:31
- Sunset:6:14
- 10 Hours 43 Minutes
- Moon Rise:12:03pm
- Moon Set:9:30pm
- Moon Phase:25%
- Next Full Moon November 6 @ 2:22pm
- Full Beaver Moon
- Full Frosty Moon
This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.
- Tides:
- High Tide:3:16am/2:05pm
- Low Tide:8:07am/9:02pm