2004 SpaceShipOne wins the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first non-governmental reusable manned spacecraft to make two space flights in less than 14 days.

1990 Beverly Hills 90210 debuts on FOX.

1976 First woman anchor of a network TV news program Barbara Walters anchors her first ABC Evening News.

1976 Death penalty The U.S. Supreme Court reinstates the death penalty after overturning its 1972 ban.

1972 First reporter jailed for not revealing his Source Peter Bridge is jailed for 21 days for refusing to reveal his source for a political corruption story printed in the Newark Evening News. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June denied reporters the right to protect confidential sources.

1959 First pictures of the far side of the Moon The Soviet Lunik 3 is launched, taking its pictures three days later.

1959 Dennis the Menace debuts on CBS.

1957 Beginning of the Space Age The Soviets launch the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1.

1957 Leave It to Beaver debuts on CBS.

1955 Baseball The Dodgers win their first World Series.

1949 The Life of Riley debuts on NBC, starring Jackie Gleason. It was not a success, and was reborn in 1953 starring William Bendix as Chester A. Riley.

1931 First nonstop transpacific flight Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn depart from Japan arriving in Washington the following day.

1931 Dick Tracy comic strip, by Chester Gould, debuts in the Detroit Daily Mirror.

1927 Mt. Rushmore Carving on the memorial begins. It was completed in 1941.

1582 Start of the Gregorian Calendar Pope Gregory XIII decrees that the following day to be Friday, October 15. England and its colonies, including America, didn't convert until 1752.

1949 Armand Assante American actor. TV: The Doctors (Dr. Mike Powers).

1946 Susan Sarandon (Susan Tomaling), American actress. Film: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, Janet Weiss), Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Bull Durham (1988).

1945 Clifton Davis American actor. TV: Amen (Reverend Gregory).

1944 Patti LaBelle (Patricia Holt), American singer, Lady Marmalade (#1, 1975). Her's was the first black band to perform at New York's Metropolitan Opera House (1974).

1929 Scotty Beckett d. 1968 American actor, one of the Little Rascals. He appeared in 15 Our Gang films. TV: Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (Winky).

1923 Charlton Heston (Charles Carter), American Oscar-winning actor. Film: The Ten Commandments (1956, Moses), Ben-Hur (1959, title role, Oscar), and Planet of the Apes (1968).

1895 Buster Keaton d. 1966 (Joseph Keaton), American silent film actor. Film: The Navigator (1924) and The General (1927).

1884 Damon Runyon d. 1946 American author, columnist. Writings: Guys and Dolls (1932). The stage version of Guys and Dolls featured characters from his various stories.

1858 Michael Pupin d. 1935 Hungarian-born American physicist. He won the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography From Immigrant to Inventor.

1822 Rutherford B. Hayes d. 1893 19th U.S. President (1877-81).

1289 Louis X d. 1316 "The Quarreller," King of France (1314-16).

2004 Leroy Gordon Cooper b. 1927 American astronaut, one of the seven original Project Mercury astronauts.  He was portrayed by Dennis Quaid in the movie The Right Stuff (1983).

1989 Secretariat b. 1970 American thoroughbred racehorse, Triple Crown winner (1973), and the first horse to finish the Kentucky Derby in under two minutes (1:59.4).

1989 Graham Chapman b. 1940 British comedian. TV: Monte Python's Flying Circus.

1970 Janice Joplin b. 1943 American singer. Music: Piece of My Heart (1968) and Me and Bobby McGee (1970, #1).

1947 Max Planck b. 1858 German Nobel-winning physicist, discovered quantum physics (1900). His son was among those executed for the July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler.

1904 Frederic Auguste Bartholdi b. 1834 French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty, using his mother as the model.

1890 Catherine Booth b. 1829 English preacher, Mother of the Salvation Army, which she and her husband William founded (1865).

1669 Rembrandt b. 1607 (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn), Dutch painter.

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