- 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
The Boys from Brazil
Oct 4 Film adaptation of Ira Levin's novel "The Boys from Brazil", starring Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier premieres
- 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)
Event of Interest
Oct 6 Iraq declares Ayatollah Khomeini an undesirable person
Music History
Oct 6 Mick Jagger apologizes for racist lyrics in "Some Girls"
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
F1 World Champion
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
Country Music Association Awards
Oct 9 12th Country Music Association Awards: Dolly Parton, Crystal Gayle, and Don Williams win
Music History
Oct 9 John Kander and Fred Ebb's musical "Ballroom" premieres in NYC
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
Event of Interest
Oct 10 Daniel Arap Moi succeeds Jomo Kenyatta as President of Kenya, rules for 24 years
- 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
Baseball Record
Oct 11 Dodgers Bob Welch dramatically strikes out Reggie Jackson in 9th
- 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
- 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
Nobel Prize for Economics
Oct 16 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to American political scientist Herbert A. Simon [1]
Papal Inauguration
Oct 16 Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla elected Pope John Paul II
- 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
Music History
Oct 17 US President Jimmy Carter presents Congressional Medal to singer Marian Anderson
- 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
New York City Marathon
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
Music History
Oct 24 Keith Richards convicted of heroin possession in Toronto
- Oct 24 NHL Toronto Maple Leafs set own team record of 28 pts vs NY Islanders
Halloween
Oct 25 "Halloween", directed by John Carpenter, starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut, is released
- 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.
Nobel Peace Prize
Oct 26 Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat named joint winners of 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
- Oct 27 US President Jimmy Carter signs Hawkins-Humphrey full employment bill
- 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
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists