- Oct 1 Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter, 1st US jet, makes maiden flight
- Oct 1 Little Golden Books (children's books) begins publishing
- Oct 2 RMS Queen Mary, carrying thousands of US troops, slices cruiser HMS Curacao in half, killing 239
- Oct 2 WWII: British Royal Navy boards floundering German U-boat U-559 retrieving abandoned Enigma code machine before it sinks; 2 British sailors go down with the sub
- Oct 3 Launch of 1st A-4/V-2 rocket to altitude of 53 miles (85 km)
- Oct 3 NY Yankees shortstop Frank Crosetti shoves umpire Bill Summers in Game 3 of the Baseball World Series; he is fined $250 & suspended for first 30 days of 1943 season
- Oct 3 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway, ridden by George Woolf wins the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park to become the first thoroughbred to amass more than $500,000 in lifetime earnings
- Oct 4 German assault on Tractor factory in Stalingrad
- Oct 5 5,000 Jews of Dubno, Russia massacred
- Oct 5 Baseball World Series: St Louis Cardinals win club's 4th WS; beat NY Yankees, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium for 4-1 series victory
Eve of St Mark
Oct 7 Maxwell Anderson's stage drama "The Eve of St Mark" opens at the Cort Theatre, NYC; runs for 307 performances
- Oct 7 US & UK government announce establishment of United Nations
- Oct 8 Fight at Matanikau, Guadalcanal (John Hersey-Into the Valley)
- Oct 9 Statute of Westminster 1931 passed by the Australian parliament, formalises Australian autonomy
- Oct 10 1,300 Austrian Jews transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp
- Oct 11 -Oct 12] Naval battle at Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal
- Oct 12 Successful Soviet counterattack through 37th Guard division
- Oct 12 WWII: US Navy defeats Japanese in Battle of Cape Esperance between Savo Island and Guadalcanal in theSouth Pacific's Solomon Islands
- Oct 14 Dobbe resistances group overthrows Bonkarten distribution
- Oct 14 German assault on Tractor factory, 1000s killed
- Oct 14 Japanese battleship strikes Henderson Field, Guadalcanal
- Oct 15 German 6th Army occupies Tractorenfabriek, 3,000 Germans die
Rodeo
Oct 16 Aaron Copland and Agnes de Mille's ballet "Rodeo," premieres in NYC
- Oct 16 Cyclone in Bay of Bengal kills some 40,000 south of Calcutta India
- Oct 16 National Boxing Association freezes titles of those serving in armed services
- Oct 20 "Durham Manifesto" issued by the Southern Conference on Race Relations held in Durham, North Carolina, calls for fundamental changes in race relations
Now, Voyager
Oct 22 "Now, Voyager" film directed by Irving Rapper, and starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains, premieres in New York; wins 3 Academy Awards
- Oct 22 1st ships of invasion fleet for Oran (Algeria) leave Scotland
- Oct 22 Operation Flagpole: US Major General Mark Clark & Brigadier General Lyman Lemnitzer meet Vichy French Général Charles Mast secretly in small fishing village of Cherchell, Algeria to finalize plans for Allied Invasion of North Africa
- Oct 23 All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims is composer Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory")
- Oct 23 During WWII, Britain launches major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt
- Oct 23 First ships of invasion fleet to Morocco leave Norfolk
- Oct 23 German units go through Red October factory in Stalingrad
- Oct 24 Second day of battle at El Alamein: British infantry
- Oct 25 3rd day of battle at El Alamein: British offensive
- Oct 25 Battle of Henderson Field Guadalcanal begins
- Oct 26 Battle of Santa Cruz: Japanese naval offensive against US forces near Solomon Islands
- Oct 26 Fourth day of battle at El Alamein: Australian breakthrough
- Oct 26 Second day of Battle of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal
- Oct 27 5th day of battle at El Alamein: heavy battles/Australian advance
- Oct 27 US aircraft carrier Hornet sinks off Santa Cruz
- Oct 28 6th day battle at El Alamein: British offensive under Montgomery
- Oct 28 Train crashes into bus, killing 16 & injuring 20 (Detroit Michigan)
- Oct 29 Alaska highway completed
Dodgers Appoint Rickey
Oct 29 Branch Rickey named president and general manager of Brooklyn Dodgers
- Oct 29 Nazis murder 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union
- Oct 29 Seventh day of battle at El Alamein: Montgomery assault
- Oct 30 8th day of battle at El Alamein: new Australian assault
- Oct 30 US aircraft carrier Enterprise reaches Noumea
- Oct 31 9th day of the Battle of El Alamein
- Oct 31 U-boats sink and damage 120 allied ships this month (659,457 tons)
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists