Today is Monday, October 1st, the 274th day of the year. There are 91 days until the end of the year.
On this day:
In 1888, "National Geographic" was published for the first time.
In 1890, Yosemite National Park was established.
In 1903, the first World Series began. The series pitted the Boston Pilgrims against Pittsburgh Pirates. Boston eventually won the series.
In 1908, the Ford Model T was introduced to the public at a cost of 825-dollars.
In 1931, New York City's George Washington Bridge was completed.
In 1938, German troops entered Czechoslovakia, setting off what would be World War Two.
In 1942, Robert Stanley of the Bell Aircraft Corporation tested the X-P 59 at Muroc Army Base in California. The X-P 59 was the first U.S. jet aircraft.
In 1949, Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung raised the first flag of the People's Republic of China.
In 1952, "This is Your Life" debuted on NBC. The popular show was hosted by Ralph Edwards.
In 1962, "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" debuted on NBC. Johnny went on to host the show for 29 years.
In 1970, legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix was buried in Seattle, Washington.
In 1971, Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida.
In 1977, the U.S. Department of Energy was established.
In 1982, the FDA issued a warning against Tylenol capsules after seven people died from ingesting the capsules over a three day period. The capsules were recalled a few days later. The incident led to the implementation of regulations requiring tamper-resistant packaging for all over-the-counter medication.
In 1982, Disney's EPCOT Center opened in Orlando, Florida.
In 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev was named Russian President.
In 1989, same-sex marriage was legalized in Denmark.
In 1992, the Senate voted 93-to-six to approve the Strategic Arms Reduction Act.
In 1993, the abduction of 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her home in Petaluma, California made national headlines. Klaas' body was found more than two months later. Richard Allen Davis was later convicted and sentenced to death for the child's murder.
In 1995, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine others were convicted in New York of conspiring to bomb the United Nations, FBI offices and other New York landmarks. The government said the group was also responsible for the February 26th, 1993 bombing attack on the World Trade Center that killed six people and injured more than one-thousand.
In 1996, Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski was indicted by a federal grand jury in a 1994 mail bomb killing.
In 2003, in the wake of controversial comments he made about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh resigned from his analyst duties at ESPN. Limbaugh claimed that McNabb is overrated and the media simply wanted to promote a black quarterback for social reasons.
In 2005, at least 26 people were killed and 122 others wounded when suicide bombers carried out deadly attacks at three restaurants in Bali, Indonesia. The attacks came just three years after suicide bombers attacked nightclubs on the resort island.
In 2007, a California judge ordered pop star Britney Spears to hand over her two children to their father, Spears' ex-husband Kevin Federline, "until further notice." The move followed complaints filed by Federline's attorney about Spears' erratic behavior and concerns that the children, two-year-old Sean Preston and one-year-old Jayden James, were not being properly cared for in Spears' custody.
In 2008, California officials confirmed that they had found the wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett's plane in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Mammoth Lakes. Fossett was reported missing on September 3rd, 2007 and declared legally dead on February 15th, 2008.
In 2009, David Letterman announced during an episode of his CBS late night talk show "Late Show With David Letterman" that he was a target of an attempted extortion scheme that threatened to expose his sexual relationships with a number of his female staff members. CBS producer, Robert Joel Halderman, was arrested and charged with grand larceny.
In 2013, novelist Tom Clancy died in Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 66.
In 2015, ten people were killed in a mass shooting at Umpqua [[ UMP-kwuh ]] Community College in Oregon. The gunman was killed during a shootout with police.
In 2017, 58 people were killed and 851 were injured when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas strip in Nevada. Authorities were never able to identify Paddock's motive.