On October 19…

“Months earlier, NYSE chairman John Phelan had warned in a published article that new financial products were fueling a rise in stock prices, and that there was potential for a rapid reversal of the gains. But none of us had any sense that you could see that much of a decline in one day.”
Cal Mankowski, Reuters Journalist
Black Monday Stock Market Crash Report

1796 – A political campaign turned nasty.
An essay appeared in the Gazette of The United States in which a writer, mysteriously named “Phocion,” attacked presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson, accusing Jefferson of carrying on an affair with one of his slaves.
“Phocion” turned out to be former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.
The essay typified the personal nature of political attacks in late 18th-century America. When the article appeared, Jefferson was running against presidential incumbent John Adams, in an acrimonious campaign.
The highly influential Hamilton, also a Federalist, supported Adams over Jefferson, one of Hamilton’s political rivals, even though the two men served together in George Washington’s first cabinet.
The article on October 19 was intensely personal, and the first time Jefferson would be accused of having an affair with one of his slaves – who turned out to be Sally Hemings.
Neither Jefferson nor Adams directly engaged each other during the campaign, remaining above the fray. Adams would go on to win the 1796 election, but by only three Electoral College votes, 71 to Jefferson’s 69.

1812 – One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s invading force entered a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army was forced to begin a retreat out of Russia.
The enormous army, featuring more than 500,000 soldiers and staff, was the largest European military force ever assembled to that date.
On September 14, Napoleon had arrived in Moscow intending to find supplies but instead discovered the city was practically evacuated.
Early the next morning, fires set by Russian patriots broke out across the city, and Napoleon’s winter quarters were destroyed.
After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving army out of Moscow.

1864 – Union General Philip Sheridan averted a near disaster in the Shenandoah Valley when he rallied his troops after a surprise attack by Confederate General Jubal Early, scoring a major victory that almost destroyed Early’s army at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia.
Sheridan had departed for a military conference in Washington, D.C., and before he returned, Early launched a devastating attack on the surprised Yankees at Cedar Creek. Throughout the morning, the Rebels drove the Union troops back more than three miles.
By late morning, Early slowed the attack despite the urgings of General John B. Gordon, who insisted that Early press his assault to achieve total destruction of the Federal force.
Returning from Washington, Sheridan heard the battle from Winchester and began a furious, 12-mile ride to the front. Along the way, he met his retreating soldiers and turned them back toward the battle for a counterattack. This effort, which was later called Sheridan’s Ride, became legendary.
After Early cut off his assault, an eerie silence settled on the battlefield.
Sheridan orchestrated his counterattack by late afternoon, and it was devastating. The Yankees tore through the Confederate lines and sent Early’s army into retreat.
Sheridan lost 5,500 out of 31,000 troops. Early lost almost 3,000 of the 22,000 men in his command, but nearly all of the Confederate artillery was captured in the Union counterattack.
It was the last major battle in the Shenandoah campaign, and Early was never able to mount a serious offensive again.

1864 – Twenty-one cavalrymen, organized by Confederate agent George Sanders and led by Lieutenant Bennett Young, arrived from Canada and took over St. Albans, Vermont – just 15 miles from the Canadian border – in what was to go down in history as the northernmost engagement of the Civil War; The St. Albans Raid.
The raiders – aiming to rebuild the Confederate treasury and force the Union Army to divert troops from the South to stop them – robbed three local banks and made off with over $200,000.
One townsman was killed and another wounded. The cavalrymen escaped to Canada, but in response to U.S. demands, the Canadian authorities arrested the raiders, recovering $88,000.
However, a Canadian court ruled that because they were soldiers under military orders, officially neutral Canada could not extradite them. Canada freed the bandits, but returned the money they had found to St. Albans.

1943 – The cargo vessel Sinfra, under German control, was attacked by Allied aircraft at Souda Bay, Crete.
When the ship finally went under, 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drowned with it.

1953 – After popular singer and heartthrob Julius La Rosa finished his version of Manhattan on the CBS radio broadcast of Arthur Godfrey Time, host Arthur Godfrey said, “Thanks ever so much, Julie. That was Julie’s swan song with us…” effectively firing the young singer on air without his prior knowledge.
Godfrey later held a press conference after the incident became a national scandal, claiming that by hiring his own manager, LaRosa had lost his “humility,” but several historians claim that Godfrey was actually upset that the singer was beginning to receive more fan mail than the host.

1958 – 13-year old Brenda Lee recorded Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio in Nashville.
Although Decca released the single in both 1958 and again in 1959, it did not sell well until Lee became a popular star in 1960.
It has since turned into a perennial holiday favorite.

1960 – Jerry West made his debut with the Los Angeles Lakers and Oscar Robertson debuted with the Cincinnati Royals. Both men would become two of the greatest basketball players in NBA history.

1962 – For President John F. Kennedy, the brewing Cuban missile crisis, and how to deal with it, now became a matter of “blockade” vs. “quarantine”.
According to international law, a blockade is an act of war, but legal experts at the State Department and Justice Department concluded that a declaration of war could be avoided if another legal justification, based on the Rio Treaty for defense of the Western Hemisphere, was obtained from a resolution by a two-thirds vote from the members of the Organization of American States.
Background:The Rio Treaty was an agreement signed in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many countries of the Americas. The central principle contained in its articles is that an attack against one is to be considered an attack against them all; this was known as the “hemispheric defense” doctrine.
And so the Kennedy administration rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Over the next few days, their efforts paid off.
Latin American participation would involve two Argentine destroyers which were to report to the U.S. Commander South Atlantic. An Argentine submarine and a Marine battalion were available if required, and the Argentine Air Force informally offered three SA-16 aircraft.
In addition, two Venezuelan destroyers and one submarine were promised to be ready for sea by November 2.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago offered the use of Chaguaramas Naval Base to warships of any OAS nation for the duration of the operation.
The Dominican Republic promised to make available one escort ship.
Colombia was ready to furnish units and sent military officers to the U.S. to discuss this assistance. The Argentine Air Force informally offered three SA-16 aircraft in addition to forces already committed to the “quarantine” operation.
The story continues on October 22.

1978 – Actor Gig Young died in a murder-suicide three weeks after his marriage to magazine editor Kim Schmidt.
Police theorized that Young shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself. A motive was never found, although it was well established that Young had been battling alcoholism for over 25 years. He was 64
He starred in The Desperate Hours, Teacher’s Pet, Come Fill The Cup, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

1982 – Automaker John Z. DeLorean was arrested and charged with conspiracy to obtain and distribute 55 pounds of cocaine.
DeLorean was acquitted of the drug charges in August 1984, but his legal woes were only beginning. He soon went on trial for fraud and over the next two decades was forced to pay millions of dollars to creditors and lawyers.

1987 – Black Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points or 22.6% – the largest one-day percentage drop ever.
The event marked the beginning of a global stock market decline, making Black Monday one of the most notorious days in financial history.
The cause of the massive drop cannot be attributed to any single news event because no major news event was released on the weekend preceding the crash. While there are many theories that attempt to explain why the crash happened, most agree that mass panic caused the crash to escalate.
Since Black Monday, a number of protective mechanisms have been built into the market to prevent panic selling, such as trading curbs and circuit breakers, sometimes called a collar.

1987 – George Steinbrenner did it again! He hired Billy Martin (for the fifth time!) as manager of the New York Yankees.
Billy didn’t make it halfway through the next season before he was fired again.

1990 – Dances With Wolves premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington, DC.
The film starred Kevin Costner (who also directed), Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene, and told the story of Union Army lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Costner) who traveled to the American frontier to find a military post and of his dealings with a group of Lakota.
Despite its high production costs ($22 million), the film was a was a massive box office hit, grossing $424.2 million worldwide.
Dances With Wolves was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Mixing.

1991 – One day after a small fire in Oakland, CA had been brought under control, highly flammable debris which had been smoldering unseen, was ignited by strong winds.
The winds were so intense and the area so dry that within an hour close to 800 buildings were on fire. In some places, the temperature reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it impossible to fight the fire effectively.
Homeowners attempted to hose down their roofs, but were often thwarted when water pipes burst. It took only 10 minutes in some cases for a house to be brought down by the flames.
When the fire was finally contained the following day, 25 people had lost their lives, 150 people were injured and 3,000 homes and 1,500 acres had been consumed.
The total tally of damages was $1.5 billion.

1994 – Actress/singer Martha Raye (The Big Broadcast of 1937, Rhythm On The Range, Hellzapoppin’) died of pneumonia after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 78.
Here is the reason for a photo of her in uniform.
In appreciation of her work with the USO during World War II and subsequent wars, she was buried with full military honors in the Special Forces Cemetery at Ft. Bragg, NC as an honorary colonel in the U.S. Marines and an honorary lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.
She is the only civilian buried at that location who receives military honors each Veterans’ Day.

1997 – Glen Buxton (guitarist/songwriter with Alice Cooper – School’s Out, I’m Eighteen, Elected) died of complications from pneumonia.
He was 49.

2001 – Two Army Rangers, Spc. Jonn J. Edmunds, 20, and Pfc. Kristofor T. Stonesifer, 28, of Missoula, Mont., were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Pakistan.
They were the first combat-related deaths in the U.S. war on terrorism.

2004 – The Boston Red Sox tied the American League Championship Series at three games each with a 4-2 win over the New York Yankees.
The game will be remembered as Curt Schilling’s “bloody sock” game.
Schilling pitched with a torn tendon sheath in his right ankle, which was sutured in place in an unprecedented procedure by Red Sox team doctors.
To help stabilize the tendon in his ankle, Red Sox doctors had placed three sutures connecting the skin with ligament and deep connective tissue next to the bone, effectively creating a wall of tissue to keep the peroneal tendon from disrupting Schilling’s pitching mechanics.

2005 – Appearing before the Iraqi Special Tribunal in Baghdad, a defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture. He and seven other former Iraqi officials were charged with the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail, in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt in July 1982.
Saddam rejected the tribunal’s legitimacy, loudly proclaiming, “I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq.”

2009 – Howard Unruh died of natural causes at the age of 88.
He killed 13 people as he walked the streets of Camden, NJ in a psychotic 1949 shooting rampage that was the nation’s worst mass murder at the time.
Although charges were filed for 13 counts of “willful and malicious slayings with malice aforethought” and three counts of “atrocious assault and battery,” Unruh was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and spent the remainder of his life in the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.
Unruh’s last public words, made during an interview with a psychologist, were, “I’d have killed a thousand if I had enough bullets.”

2009 – Actor Joseph Wiseman died of natural causes at the age of 91.
Viva Zapata! and ,Detective Story, but was best known for his role of the title character in the first James Bond film, Dr. No).

2010 – Actor Tom Bosley died of heart failure at the age of 83.
He starred in Murder, She Wrote and Father Dowling Mysteries, but will always be remembered for portraying Howard “Mr. C” Cunningham on Happy Days)

2014 – Noel Harrison died of a heart attack at the age of 79.
As an actor, he was featured in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.), and as a singer, he recorded The Windmills Of Your Mind and A Young Girl’
Noel Factoid: He was also a British Olympic skier and the son of actor Rex Harrison.

2014 – Raphael Ravenscroft, forever famous for his sax solo on Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, the most recognizable sax riff in pop music history, died of a heart attack at the age of 60.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2019 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.