- Oct 1 Newspaper magnate Thomson purchases "The Times"
- Oct 1 WAEO (now WJFW) TV channel 12 in Rhinelander, WI (NBC) begins
- Oct 1 West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
- Oct 2 Australian Robert 'Nat' Young puts on a dominating performance to win the World Surfing Championship at Ocean Beach, San Diego; Joyce Hoffman of Capistrano Beach, California takes women's title
Baseball History
Oct 2 Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax wins his 27th game of the season, 6-3 v Philadelphia Phillies; clinches Dodgers 3rd National League pennant in 4 years
The Awakening
Oct 5 Nigerian government presents a copy of Ben Enwonwu's sculpture "The Awakening" to the United Nations
- Oct 6 LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is first declared illegal in state of California, other states follow
Sports History
Oct 6 Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer at 20, is youngest to record a World Series shutout as Baltimore beats LA Dodgers, 6-0 in Game 2 at Dodger Stadium
World Series
Oct 9 Baseball World Series: Baltimore Orioles claim first championship in franchise history; edge LA Dodgers, 1-0 at Memorial Stadium for 4-0 sweep; MVP: Orioles outfielder Frank Robinson
Music History
Oct 13 Jimi Hendrix Experience rock trio debuts with American guitarist Jimi Hendrix, British bassist Noel Redding and British drummer Mitch Mitchell in Évreux, Normandy, France
Event of Interest
Oct 15 Black Panther Party created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California
Persona
Oct 18 "Persona", Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, is released
Music History
Oct 18 Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's musical "The Apple Tree", starring Alan Alda and Barbara Harris, opens at Shubert Theater, NYC; runs for 463 performances
- Oct 19 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Nobel Prize in Literature
Oct 20 Nobel Prize for Literature awarded jointly to Jewish writers Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs
The Tragedy of Aberfan
Oct 21 116 children and 28 adults die as a coal waste heap slides and engulfs a school in Aberfan, South Wales
- Oct 22 Ice hockey legend Bobby Orr scores his first career goal (vs Montreal Canadiens)
- Oct 22 USSR launches Luna 12 for orbit around Moon
- Oct 23 Australian Jack Brabham is first to win F1 World Drivers Championship and International Cup for Constructors Championship in the same year; 2nd in season ending Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
- Oct 25 6 youths sentenced in "Johnson murderer!" in Amsterdam
- Oct 25 Jimi Hendrix Experience play their first UK gig as a private showcase at The Scotch of St. James in London
- Oct 26 First Pacific communications satellite launched, Intelsat 2
- Oct 26 US aircraft carrier Oriskany catches fire at Gulf on Tonken, 43 die
- Oct 27 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- Oct 27 UN deprives South Africa of Namibia
- Oct 27 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- Oct 28 Belgium's Gaston Roelants runs 12-4/5 miles in 1 hour
- Oct 29 NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 crashes on moon: 6.7°N 162°E
Conference of Interest
Oct 29 National Organization of Women (NOW) officially established at an organizing conference in Washington D.C.; Betty Friedan is elected as President [1]
Sports History
Oct 30 16th NASCAR Sprint Cup: David Pearson wins
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists