Historic October

A list of historic events that occurred in October, including the Transport Minister, Barbara Castle, introducing the breathalyser…

Among many other events, October saw Lord Lucan leading The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava (pictured above) during the Crimean War – famously recorded in Tennyson’s poem.

1 Oct. 1207 Birth of England’s King Henry III.
2 Oct. 1452 England’s last Plantagenet King Richard III is born.
3 Oct. 1283 Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales, became the first nobleman in Britain to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
4 Oct. 1911 Britain’s first escalator opens at London’s Earls Court.
5 Oct. 1930 The British airship R101 crashes near Beauvais, France killing 48 people.
6 Oct. 1892 Death of the English Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who immortalised ‘The Six Hundred’ in his poem, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.
7 Oct. 1920 Women become eligible for admission as full members of Oxford University and are given the right to take degrees.
8 Oct. 1967 Clement (Richard) Atlee dies. British Labour politician. As Prime Minister 1945-51 introduced radical reform of the social welfare system and introduced the N.H.S.
9 Oct. 1967 Transport Minister, Barbara Castle, introduces the breathalyser. The breathalyser offered a way of testing a person’s BAC (blood alcohol concentration) level at the roadside.
10 Oct. 1903 Founded today by the English suffragette Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst at her home in Manchester… The Women’s Social and Political Union, campaigning for women’s suffrage in Great Britain.
11 Oct. 1899 Start of the Anglo-Boer War.
12 Oct. 1984 An IRA terrorist bomb kills 4 people at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, Sussex.
13 Oct 1852 Birth of Lillie Langtry, actress and mistress of King Edward VII.
14 Oct. 1066 Harold II, England’s last Anglo-Saxon King was killed at the Battle of Hastings in Sussex – possibly by an arrow in the eye as shown in the Bayeux Tapestry.
15 Oct. 1666 Samuel Pepys, diarist, records the wearing of the first waistcoat by King Charles II.
16 Oct. 1902 England’s first prison for Young Offenders is opened at Borstal in Kent.
17 Oct. 1860 The first professional Golf Tournament is played at Prestwick, in Western Scotland. Mr. Willie Park heads the leader board.
18 Oct. 1865 British Tory politician Lord (Pumice-stone) Palmerston dies in office. His abrasive and arrogant style earned him his nickname.
19 Oct. 1781 British general Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the American War of Independence (Revolution).
20 Oct. 1632 Birth of English architect Christopher Wren. Responsible for the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral following the Great Fire of London.
21 Oct. 1805 Admiral Nelson is mortally wounded at the Battle of Trafalgar, near Gibraltar.
22 Oct. 1957 The children’s cartoon hero Captain Pugwash makes his television debut.
23 Oct. 1642 The first major battle of the English Civil War takes place at Edgehill in south Warwickshire. Charles I and Prince Rupert lead the Royalists and the Earl of Essex leads the Parliamentarians.
24 Oct. 1537 Henry VIII‘s third wife, Jane Seymour dies following the birth of the future king Edward VI.
25 Oct. 1854 Lord Lucan leads The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava during the Crimean War – famously recorded in Tennyson’s poem.
26 Oct. 1863 Formation of the English Football Association who documents the first rules of soccer.
27 Oct. 1914 Birth of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
28 Oct. 1831 English physicist Michael Faraday demonstrates the dynamo founding the science of electro-magneticism.
29 Oct. 1618 English courtier, writer and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded on the orders of King James I.
30 Oct. 1925 The first television transmission of a moving image is made by Scottish inventor John Logie Baird.
31 Oct. 1517 Martin Luther nails his ’95 Theses’ to the church door at Wittenberg, Germany triggering the Protestant Reformation.

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