- Oct 1 14th NHL All-Star Game, Montreal Forum, Montreal, QC: All-Stars beat Montreal Canadiens, 2-1
- Oct 1 KCBY TV channel 11 in Coos Bay, OR (CBS) begins broadcasting
- Oct 1 Nigeria gains independence from the United Kingdom (National Day) and becomes the 99th member of the United Nations
A Dance of the Forests
Oct 1 Wole Soyinka's play "A Dance of the Forests" is first performed as part of Nigerian Independence celebrations
Golf Tournament
Oct 2 Mickey Wright becomes first player in LPGA Tour history to average fewer than 74 strokes per round to win the Vare Trophy after a season average of 73.25; first of 5 consecutive Vare Trophies for Wright
Flair Premieres
Oct 3 "Flair!", a daily radio program premieres on ABC radio network with Dick Van Dyke as host
- Oct 3 Janio Quadros elected president of Brazil
- Oct 3 New York Yankees beat rival Boston Red Sox, 8-7 at Yankee Stadium, ending season on 15 game winning streak & MLB record 193 HRs
- Oct 3 San Francisco's White House department store is the 1st to accept BankAmericard
- Oct 3 US sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show" premieres in CBS (runs till 1968)
- Oct 4 Courier 1B Launched; 1st active repeater satellite in orbit
- Oct 5 British Labour party demands unilateral nuclear disarmament
- Oct 5 Eastern AL Electra turbo-prop crashed in Boston Harbor (61 die)
- Oct 5 KEYC TV channel 12 in Mankato, MN (CBS) begins broadcasting
Spartacus
Oct 6 "Spartacus", directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier, premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
Oct 7 JFK and Richard Nixon's second presidential debate
- Oct 7 TV series "Route 66" premieres on CBS
- Oct 8 3rd Rugby League World Cup: Great Britain beats Australia 10-3
- Oct 9 Cowboy QB Eddie LeBaron throws shortest touchdown pass (2")
- Oct 10 "Laughs & Other Events" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 8 performances
- Oct 10 16 California Poly football team members die in plane crash in Toledo
- Oct 10 Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 4000 die
- Oct 10 Ron Stewart of Ottawa rushes for CFL-record 287 yards
- Oct 10 WGTE TV channel 30 in Toledo, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
- Oct 11 Hurricane ravages East-Pakistan (6,000 die)
- Oct 11 Radio/TV executive John Fetzer buys a controlling interest of Detroit Tigers
- Oct 12 Japanese politician Inejiro Asanuma is assassinated with a sword during a televised debate live on TV by 17-year old nationalist Otoya Yamaguchi
- Oct 12 JFK and Richard Nixon's third presidential debate
United Nations Speech
Oct 12 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe on his desk at UN General Assembly session
- Oct 13 Baseball World Series: Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski's bottom of 9th lead off HR beats NY Yankees, 10-9 at Forbes Field in series deciding Game 7; MVP: Yankees 2B Bobby Richardson
Cuban History
Oct 13 Opponents of Fidel Castro executed in Cuba
- Oct 13 Third presidential debate with Nixon in Hollywood & Kennedy in NY
- Oct 14 Belgian senator Victor Leemans reveals huge gas field in Groningen
- Oct 14 Peace Corps 1st suggested by John F. Kennedy in a speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor
- Oct 15 "Laughs & Other Events" closes at Barrymore Theater, NYC, after 8 performances
- Oct 16 NL votes to admit Houston & NY to league
- Oct 17 "Tenderloin" opens at 46th St Theater, NYC; runs for 216 performances
- Oct 17 US & Britain sign an accord granting US access to the British nuclear submarine base in Holy Loch, Scotland
Sports History
Oct 18 Casey Stengel retired by NY Yankees (won 10 pennants in 12 years)
- Oct 18 In Britain, News Chronicle & Daily Mail merge and London Evening Star merges with Evening News
- Oct 19 France grants Mauritania independence
- Oct 19 KWCS (now KOOG) TV channel 30 in Ogden, UT (IND) begins broadcasting
Event of Interest
Oct 19 Martin Luther King Jr. arrested in Atlanta sit-in
- Oct 19 US imposes embargo on exports to Cuba
- Oct 20 1st fully mechanized post office opened, Providence, Rhode Island
- Oct 20 Ralph Houk, 41, replaces Casey Stengel as Yankee manager
- Oct 21 1st British nuclear sub HMS Dreadnought launched
- Oct 21 JFK & Nixon clashed in 4th & final presidential debate (NYC)
- Oct 24 Catastrophe at Baikonur Cosmodrome: Prototype missile explodes on launch pad, killing Chief Marshal of Artillery Mitrofan Nedelin and over 100 personnel killed; USSR claims victims died in plane crash, suppressing true details until 1989
- Oct 25 1st electronic wrist watch placed on sale, NYC
- Oct 25 Cuba nationalizes all remaining US businesses
- Oct 26 MLB: American League approves existing Washington Senators move to become Minnesota Twins, and two new expansion franchises - Los Angeles Angels & Washington (D.C.) Senators; 1961 season schedule grows from 154 to 162 games
- Oct 27 AL admits LA & Washington to the league
- Oct 27 American pop and soul singer Ben E. King records "Spanish Harlem" & "Stand By Me" in NYC
Sports History
Oct 29 Cassius Clay's [Muhammad Ali] 1st professional fight; beats Tunney Hunsaker on points in 6 rounds in Louisville, Kentucky
- Oct 29 Chartered C46 carrying Cal State's football team crashes, kills 16
- Oct 30 12th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Rex White wins
- Oct 30 Guatemala's "La Hora" reports plan for invasion on Cuba
- Oct 30 Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
- Oct 31 Cyclone hits coast of Gulf of Bengal; about 10,000 die
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists