1928: Penicillin is discovered

On his return from vacation, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming finds a staphylococci culture has been sullied by a mold that is destroying the bacteria. With this accidental discovery, Fleming has found penicillin, an antibiotic that will change the world and save countless lives.

 

September 28

1930 - Lou Gehrig's errorless streak ends at 885 consecutive games.


1941 - Ted Williams end his best year hitting season with a .406 batting average.



1960 - Ted Williams hits his final homer off Jack Fisher. Number 521.

1976 - Muhammad Ali beats Ken Norton in a 15 round unanimous points decision for the WBA, WBC and the Ring heavyweight boxing titles.


1956 - RCA records reports Elvis Presley sold over 10 million records.

1968 - Janis Joplin announces she is leaving the rock band ig Brother and the Holding Co."


1974 - "I'm a Ramblin' Man" by Waylon Jennings peaks at #75 on the pop chart and #1 on the county chart.

 

September 29

61 BC - Pompey the Great celebrates his third victory over pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.


1829 - First units of the the London Metropolitan Police {Bobbies} appear on the streets of the British capital , the cities first modern police force'


1911 - Italy declares war on Turkey, starting the Italo-Turkish War.


1916 - American oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller becomes the worlds first billionaire.


1940 - First merchant ship "Booker T. Washington" commanded by a black captain {Hugh Mulzac} launched at Wilmington, Delaware.


Film and TV

1932 - The film "Bill of Divorcement" starring John Barrymore and Katherine Hepburn premieres at the Mayfair.


1940 - The musical film "Strike Up the Band" starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland opens.


1948 - "Hamlet" , directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, opens at Park Avenue Cinema, It wins Best Picture 1949.

1949 - Elia Kazan's dramatic film "Pinky" starring Ethel Barrymore premieres at Rivoli Theater in New York City.

1953 - Make Room for Daddy" starring Danny Thomas premieres on ABC-TV.

 

September 29 marks the horrific day in 1941 that the German army began the two-day massacre of almost 34,000 Jewish men, women and children on the outskirts of Kyiv in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. The savage and brutal murders took place at a ravine called Babyn Yar (Babi Yar) and would become known as the Babi Yar Massacre - one of the worst of WWII.

The victims were summoned to the site, forced to undress, and then compelled to enter the ravine. Sonderkommando 4a, a special detachment from Einsatzgruppe C under SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, machine-gunned them in small groups. According to reports sent to the Einsatzgruppen headquarters in Berlin, 33,771 Jews were massacred during this two-day period.

It was the amount of bullets used that convinced Hitler that he needed a more cost-effective method of perpetrating his 'Final Solution,' giving rise to the creation of the Death Camps.

The Nazis continued to commit mass murders at this killing site until just before the Soviets re-took control of Kyiv in 1943. During this period, Germans shot Jews, as well as Roma, Ukrainian civilians, and Soviet POWs.

I will not show the available photos of mass heaps of bodies.
This is the Jewish shrine at the site:

 

1954: Baseball's "The Catch"
It's Game 1 of baseball's World Series and Cleveland Indians' batter Vic Wertz hits a fly ball 450 feet into centerfield where the New York Giants' Willie Mays is there to catch it. Over his shoulder. And with his back to home plate. 'The Catch' will live on in baseball lore.

 

On this day in history, September 29, 1907, cowboy crooner and Hollywood icon Gene Autry is born in Texas
Autry starred in movies and on TV, helped popularize country-western music and founded MLB's Angels franchise


Gene Autry (1907-1998), U.S. singer and actor, gained fame as "The Singing Cowboy" on radio, in the movies and on television.

 

September 29
1941 - Joe Louis TKOs Lou Nova in 6 rounds for the heavyweight boxing title.


1950 - New York Yankees second consecutive pennant under Casey Stengal.




1976 - Tommy Lasorda replaces Walter Alston as Los Angeles Dodgers manager.











1987 - New York Yankee Don Mattingly hits record 6th grand slam of the year.


1957 - Buddy Holly and the Crickets release 2nd single "Oh Boy/Not Fade Away"


1962 - Music single "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover " by Bo Didley peaks at #48.

 

September 30

1520 -Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father, Salem I, as Ottoman Sultan and rules until 1566.


1544 - King Henry VIII of England withdraws0 his armies out of France.


1659 - Peter Stuyvesant forbids tennis playing during religious services in New Netherlands, the first mention of tennis in America.

1791 - The National Constituentv Assembly in Paris is dissolved. Parisians hail Maximilian Robespierre as an incorruptible patriot.


1880 - American amateur astronomer Henry Draper takes the first ever photograph of Orion Nebula.


1895 - Stephen Cranes novel "The Red Badge of Courage " is published to wide acclaimed.


1935 - The Boulder Dam ( later the Hoover Dam), astride the border of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated by FDR.


1946 - Twenty-two Nazi leaders,including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Herman Goering , are found guilty of wasr crimes at the Nuremberg War Trials.


1965 - Donovan makes his first TV appearance on Shindig.

 

September 30 commemorates the passing of two very popular and influential performers.

1955: rising actor James Dean, who became a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s, died in a car crash at the junction of U.S. Route 466 (US 466, now State Route 46) and SR 41. as he drove to compete in a car rally in Salinas, California.

Dean had made his name in only 3 movies: East of Eden (for which he received a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor), Rebel Without a Cause and Giant.

His name lives on as his legend remains undiminished to this day.

Continue to Rest in Peace, James Byron Dean



1977: Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers), one-half of the immensely popular husband-and-wife musical team, Les Paul and Mary Ford, died in Arcadia, California, at the age of 53. Her death was due to complications of alcohol abuse after being in a diabetic coma for 54 days. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits; in 1951 alone, they sold six million records.

They are probably best remembered by two of their hits:







Continue to Rest in Peace, Mary Ford / Iris Colleen Summers.

 

1960: The Flintstones' premiers on ABC
The first animated primetime sitcom debuts, introducing viewers to Fred Flintstone and his modern stone-age family. The show will run for six seasons, but spinoffs—and vitamins—will keep the franchise rolling for more than five decades.

 

On this day in history, September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth swats record 60th home run, shocks sports world
'Ruthian' achievement came during season when no other American League team combined hit more than 56 home runs


Babe Ruth takes a mighty swing during pre-game batting practice in Yankee Stadium. He hit 60 home runs in 1927, a record that stood for 34 years and still stands as a monumental achievement today.

 

30 Sep 1938
Shortly after midnight, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini, and Édouard Daladier, in that order, signed the Munich Agreement at the Führerbau building in München, Germany, which ceded Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany; the actual document was backdated to the previous day, 29 Sep 1938.

Upon returning to the United Kingdom, outside 10 Downing Street in London, Chamberlain announced that "I believe it is peace for our time".

30 Sep 1944
The last of the German guns at Calais, France that had been shelling Dover, England for three years was destroyed. Shortly after, the 7,500 German garrison at Calais surrendered to Canadian troops.

30 Sep 1954
USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine, was commissioned.

 

October 1
331 BC - Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Guagamela.


1559 - Duke of Norfolk arrested by Queen Elizabeth I for conspiring to marry Mary, Queen of Scotts.


1768 - British troops under General Thomas Gage land in Boostin..

1867 - Karl Marx publishes "Das Kapital" in Berlin, a description of the capitalist system, it's instability and tendency to self destruct.


1907 - A downturn in the stock market leads to a run on the dollar. US President Theodore Roosevelt later calls on financier J.P. Morgan to help manage the financial crisis.


1918 - World War I : Combined Arab and British forces under T.E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus from the Turks.


1936 - Generalismo Francisco Franco established the state of Spain.

 

There is no shortage of important events that occurred on October 1st, from the horrific Las Vegas massacre of 58 people in 2017 (anybody else notice that we still know nothing about Stephen Paddock's motivations?) to the establishment of the People's Republic of China, to the Thrilla in Manilla, but let's go with this:

On October 1, 1864 Yosemite National Park in California was created by an act of the U.S. Congress. It became one of the most heavily visited national parks in the country (actually, #7 in 2023).

From Mirror Lake to El Capitan and Half Dome to Tuolomne Meadows, it is a place of immense beauty and serenity. I have camped there many times over the years.

Mirror Lake


El Capitan


Half Dome


Tuolomne Meadows


Drive-through Redwoods:






Yosemite Valley

 

On this day in history, October 1, 2013, techno-thriller novelist Tom Clancy passes away at age 66
More than 100 million copies of Tom Clancy's books have been sold


Bestselling novelist Tom Clancy is shown in 1985. He passed away on this day in history, Oct. 1, 2013, at age 66.

Tom Clancy, author of such bestselling novels as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games," and a lifelong Republican who counted President Ronald Reagan among his fans, died at the age of 66 on this day in history on Oct. 1, 2013, according to multiple sources.

Clancy was an American author best known for his espionage, military science and technological thrillers, noted Biography.com.

He was the author of 17 New York Times bestsellers — and had his career launched by President Reagan.

 

1908: Ford makes autos affordable to 'the great multitude'
Henry Ford's new auto is offered to the public at a relatively economical $825, and buyers can choose any color Model T as long as it's black. Offering a four-cylinder engine, around 20 mpg, and a top speed of 40 mph, the Detroit automaker markets his car to America's burgeoning middle class.

 

1 Oct 1932
Babe Ruth famously "called his shot" in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field before hitting a homer to center field.

Wernher von Braun, then a young Prussian student, was appointed to the German Army Ordnance Department's ballistics section under Captain Walter R. Dornberger, an artillery specialist. Post WWII, he surrendered to the US Allies and ultimately became head of NASA.

1 Oct 1939
The German euthanasia program began on the ill and feeble.

1 Oct 1944
The German garrison at Calais, France capitulated. The 3rd Canadian Division had suffered just 300 casualties in the siege of the town but had captured 7,500 Germans bringing their toll of prisoners taken in clearing the Channel ports to almost 30,000. Wreckage to the dock facilities was extensive and the port would not be available for shipping until Nov 1944.

1 Oct 1979
The Panama Canal, along with the entire Panama Canal Zone territory, was given to the Republic of Panama, under the condition that the canal would be operated in a neutral manner.

 

October 1

1955 - Jackie Gleason's sitcom "The Honeymooners debuts on CBS, replacing his variety series. Production ends after 39 episodes.


1962 - Johnny Carson hosts his first "The Tonight Show" on NBC. Guests included Mel Brooks, Tony Bennett and Josn Crawford.


1962 - Brian Epstein signs a contract to manage The Beatles through 1977.


SPORTS

1903 - First Baseball World Series game ever played. Pittsburgh Pirates beat Boston Americans 7-3. Cy Young is the losing pitcher.

1922 -St. Louis Cardinals 2nd baseman Roger Hornsby hit 3 for 5 in a 7-1 season ending win versus the Chicago Cubs. It improves his batting average to .401 making him the only MLB player to hit .400 and hit 40 home runs in the same season.


1933 - Babe Ruth makes his final pitching app in MLB. He pitched all 9 innings in a season ending 6-5win over the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. He also hits his 34th home run in the 5th inning,his famous called shot.


1945 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis is discharged from the US Army after being awarded the Legion of Merit.

 

October 2 - again a date with a rich history, from The Twilight Zone debut to the swearing in of Thurgood Marshall to SCOTUS, but my interest is with a crucial evolution in the the life of one of the greatest rock bands.

On October 2, 1970 Pink Floyd released their fifth, and first UK #1 album, Atom Heart Mother in the UK.

Following the 'bridge' established by the highly experimental (and amazing) previous album Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother (AHM) shed the last vestiges of the Syd Barrett led Floyd. Using a format of one long suite on one side and a collectioin of songs on the other (which would be maintained through the following album, Meddle), was really the first in what would become what we all know as the Pink Floyd sound.

Consisting of only 5 titles, the album garnered negative criticism from critics and the band itself. Guitarist David Gilmour has said the album was "a load of rubbish. We were at a real down point... I think we were scraping the barrel a bit at that period," and "a good idea but it was dreadful... Atom Heart Mother sounds like we didn't have any idea between us, but we became much more prolific after it."

I believe that the years that followed looked upon the album with more kindness.

The original album cover shows a cow standing in a pasture with no text, nor any other clue as to what might be on the record. Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol's famous ‘cow wallpaper,’ has said that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar, England and photographed the first cow he saw. The cow's owner identified her name as ‘Lulubelle III’.