September 26, 1960: In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.
September 26, 1820: Daniel Boone dies at 86.
September 27, 1996: The Battle of Kabul ends in a Taliban victory; an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is established.
September 28, 1912: Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
September 29, 1982: First broadcast of “Cheers” on NBC, starring Ted Danson and Shelley Long.
September 30, 1947: The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.
October 1, 1989: Denmark introduces the world’s first legal same-sex registered partnerships.
October 1, 1971: Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida.
October 1, 1924: James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. is born in Plains, Ga.; he turns 97 today. He is both the oldest living President and the one with the longest post-Presidency.
[hijack] Jimmy Carter is absolutely the best HUMAN BEING to have served as President in my lifetime. Might not have been the best President, but his post-Presidency has been the best for America and the world. [/hijack]
October 2, 1959: The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS. The first episode is “Where Is Everybody?”
October 2, 1869: Political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India.
1890: Comedian Groucho Marx was born Julius Marx in New York.
October 2nd, 1971. Don Cornelius becomes the coolest cat on TV on this date as Soul Train premieres.
October 3, 1283: Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, is the first nobleman to be executed by hanging, drawing and quartering.
October 3, 1995: The jury in the O. J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles found the former football star (and movie actor) not guilty of the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman (however, Simpson was later found liable for damages in a civil trial).
October 3, 2008: O. J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Simpson was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was granted parole in July 2017 and released from prison in October of that year.)
October 4, 1957: Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
October 5, 1982: Tylenol products are recalled after bottles in Chicago laced with cyanide cause seven deaths.
October 5, 1922: Family Circus cartoonist Bil Keane is born in Philadelphia.
October 6, 1927: Opening of The Jazz Singer, the first prominent “talkie” movie.
October 7, 1996: Fox News Network goes live.