- Oct 1 Comoros adopts constitution
- Oct 1 The Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party is founded.
- Oct 1 Tuvalu (formerly Ellice Islands) declares independence from the United Kingdom
Baseball Record
Oct 2 NY Yankees win 3rd straight AL East title beating Boston Red Sox, 5-4 in a dramatic single playoff game; Ron Guidry wins #25 aided by Bucky Dent's 3-run homer
- Oct 2 Syrian & Palestinians shoot in East Beirut, 1,300 killed
- Oct 3 Gold hits record $223.50 an ounce in London
- Oct 4 Funeral services held for Pope John Paul I
- Oct 4 Pier 39 opens in San Francisco
- Oct 5 Isaac Bashevis Singer wins the Nobel Prize for literature
- Oct 5 Over 30 major nations ratify the Environmental Modification Convention which prohibits weather warfare that has widespread, long-lasting or severe effects
- Oct 5 Sweden's Fälldin government falls
- Oct 6 "Midnight Express" film premieres directed by Alan Parker starring Brad Davis, Randy Quaid and John Hurt
- Oct 6 Hannah H Gray inaugurated as 1st female head of a US university (Chicago)
Baseball Record
Oct 6 Royals' George Brett hits 3 HRs, Yanks win championship game 3, 6-5
Days of Heaven
Oct 6 Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" film premieres starring Richard Gere
- Oct 7 LA Dodgers win the pennant
- Oct 7 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Kansas City Royals, 3 games to 1
- Oct 7 MLB National League Championship: Los Angeles Dodgers beat Philadelphia Phillies, 3 games to 1
- Oct 7 USSR performs nuclear test
Oct 8 American Mario Andretti in a Lotus finishes 10th in the season ending Canadian Grand Prix at Île Notre-Dame Circuit, but wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 13 points from Ronnie Peterson
- Oct 8 Ken Warby sets world water speed record at 275.97 knots (511.10 km/h; 317.58 mph) on Blowering Dam, Tumut River NSW, Australia
- Oct 8 Yanks win 3rd straight AL Championship, all against Kansas City
Event of Interest
Oct 9 P.W. Botha succeeds John Vorster as Prime Minister of South Africa
- Oct 10 Aerosmith's Steve Tyler & Joe Perry injured by a cherry bomb
- Oct 10 British pop music magazine "Smash Hits" first published
- Oct 10 Steve Perry joins Journey
Event of Interest
Oct 10 US Congress approves dollar coin honoring women's suffrage campaigner Susan B. Anthony
- Oct 11 Aristides Royo elected president of Panama
- Oct 11 Belgium government of Tindemans resigns
52nd Street
Oct 11 Columbia Records releases "52nd Street", singer-songwriter Billy Joel's sixth studio album; it becomes his 1st chart-topper, and wins 3 Grammy Awards
- Oct 12 Representatives of Israel & Egypt open talks in Washington
Murder of Interest
Oct 12 Sid Vicious charged with murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen
- Oct 13 "52nd Street" 6th studio album by Billy Joel is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1979)
- Oct 13 Graig Nettles at 3rd makes many spectacular plays in WS game 3 as Guidry beats Dodgers, after trailing 2 games to 0 Yanks win next 4
- Oct 13 Swaziland's new constitution promulgated bans political parties
- Oct 13 Tiros N, US's 1st third generation weather satellite, is launched
Radio History
Oct 13 US President Jimmy Carter answers callers' questions on National Public Radio
Film & TV History
Oct 14 1st TV movie from a TV series - "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" continues the story of shipwreck sitcom from1964–67; 6 of the 7 original castaways reprise their roles
- Oct 14 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
Sports History
Oct 14 Despite Denis Potvin hat trick in 3:21 NY Islanders lose 7-10 making Islander record when scoring a hat trick-22-2-1
- Oct 14 NY outfielder Reggie Jackson causes World Series controversy; interferes with a throw to 1st, deflects ball away during Yankees, 4-3 Game 4 win over LA Dodgers at Yankee Stadium
- Oct 15 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Sports History
Oct 16 Test debut of Kapil Dev, India v Pakistan at Faisalabad
- Oct 17 Baseball World Series: NY Yankees repeat as champions; beat LA, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium for 4-2 series victory; MVP: NY shortstop Bucky Dent
- Oct 17 NY Islanders start a streak of 23 undefeated games at home (15-0-8)
- Oct 17 President Jimmy Carter signs bill restoring US citizenship to Jefferson Davis
- Oct 17 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- Oct 17 Yanks win 22nd World Championship capping their great comeback year
- Oct 18 NY Islanders 1st scoreless tie, vs LA Kings
- Oct 18 US 1st daughter Susan Ford announces engagement to Charles F Vance
- Oct 20 British ska-rock band The Police perform 1st US concert at CBGBs in NYC
- Oct 20 Paul Vanden Boeynants forms Belgium government
- Oct 20 US dollar devalued below Dutch Ÿ2
- Oct 21 Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
- Oct 22 "King of Hearts" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 48 performances
- Oct 22 Grete Weitz runs female world record marathon (2:32:29.8)
- Oct 22 Laugh-in's Judy Carne arrested at Gatwick Airport for drug possession
Oct 22 New York City Marathon: Grete Waitz of Norway wins in her race debut in world record 2:32:30; Bill Rodgers wins his third straight title in 2:12:12
- Oct 22 Pope John Paul II is inaugurated as Pope
- Oct 23 CBS raises LP prices to $8.98
- Oct 23 China & Japan formally ends 4 decades of dissension
- Oct 23 Punk rock singer Sid Vicious attempts suicide while at Riker's Detention Center in NYC
- Oct 24 NHL Toronto Maple Leafs set own team record of 28 pts vs NY Islanders
- Oct 25 Israeli government approves "in principle", a draft compromise peace
Sports History
Oct 25 San Diego Padres pitcher Gaylord Perry wins NL Cy Young, 1st to do so in both leagues (AL, 1972)
- Oct 26 Independent Counsel Act is signed into law.
Sports History
Oct 28 Bobby Orr scores his last career NHL goal (vs Detroit Red Wings)
- Oct 28 Don Ritchie runs world record 100k (6:10:20)
- Oct 28 NBC's premiere of Kiss' acting debut, "Kiss Meets The Phantom of the Park" TV film
- Oct 30 Laura Nickel & Curt Noll find 25th Mersenne prime, 2 ^ 21701-1
- Oct 30 Uganda troops attack Tanzania
- Oct 31 Iranian oil workers go on strike
- Oct 31 People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) adopts constitution
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