Events Date 1983 October | History by KabAstro

Say, Say, Say

Oct 3 Parlophone releases Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's duet single "Say, Say, Say" (from Paul's "Pipes of Peace" album) in UK

Oct 4 Richard Noble driving Thrust2 reaches new land speed record of 650.88 mph (1,047.49 km/h) at Black Rock Desert, Nevada

NHL Record

Oct 5 Edmonton super star Wayne Gretzky scores a goal and assist in 5-4 win over Toronto in the Oilers season opener; starts NHL record 51-game scoring streak; ends 28/1/84

Nobel Peace Prize

Oct 5 Lech Wałęsa wins Nobel Peace Prize

Polish Politician and Labor Activist Lech Wałęsa

Oct 5 Panamanian jockey Jorge Velasquez wins his 5,000th career race, riding Banquet Scene to victory in the 4th race at Belmont Park
Oct 6 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC

NHL Record

Oct 6 NHL New York Islanders Mike Bossy's 25th career hat trick

Oct 6 NY Jets announce they are leaving Shea for Meadowlands
Oct 6 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Oct 8 1st regular season Islander OT game beat Caps 8-7
Oct 8 MLB American League Championship: Baltimore Orioles beat Chicago White Sox, 3 games to 1
Oct 8 MLB National League Championship: Philadelphia Phillies beat Los Angeles Dodgers, 3 games to 1
Oct 8 Washington Capitals 1st NHL overtime game losing to NY Islanders 8-7
Oct 9 NFL Buffalo Bill QB Joe Ferguson passes for 419 yards with 5 TDs, winning 38-35, in overtime, over Dolphins, in Miami
Oct 9 Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar) bombing: North Korean agents attempt to assassinate South Korean President results in 21 deaths, including 9 South Korean government officials; presidential advisors and security team members; and 3 reporters
Oct 10 17th Country Music Association Awards: Alabama wins

Event of Interest

Oct 10 Israel's Knesset votes 60-53 to endorse Yitzḥak Shamir as Prime Minister

Oct 10 NBC premiere of true life drama "Adam", based on John Walsh's son's murder
Oct 10 Tom Monaghan becomes CEO of Detroit Tigers

Can't Slow Down

Oct 11 "Can't Slow Down" second studio album by Lionel Richie is released

Oct 11 Last hand-cranked telephones US went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched over to direct-dial
Oct 13 Ameritech Mobile Communications (now Cingular) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
Oct 14 Grenada Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard launches a leftist coup within the revolutionary government and takes power for 3 days
Oct 14 US Marine peacekeeper Sgt Allen Soifert killed by sniper in Beirut
Oct 15 Columbia beats Yale 21-18 in football, will lose next 44 games

F1 World Champion

Oct 15 Nelson Piquet of Brazil finishes 3rd in the season ending South African Grand Prix at Kyalami to clinch his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins by 2 points from Alain Prost

Oct 15 NHL Chicago Black Hawks & Toronto Maple Leafs combine for fastest 5 goals (84 seconds), in a 10-8 Leaf win in Toronto
Oct 15 US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut International Airport
Oct 16 "Zorba" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 362 performances
Oct 16 Baseball World Series: Baltimore Orioles beat Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 for 4 games to 1 series victory; MVP: Baltimore catcher Rick Dempsey

Ryder Cup

Oct 16 Ryder Cup Golf, PGA National GC: US wins 14½-13½; Bernard Gallacher's missed 3-foot putt for bogey gives Tom Watson 2 & 1 win and the US winning point

Oct 17 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Gérard Debreu
Oct 17 STS-9 vehicle moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) due to SRB nozzle problem

The Sally Jessy Raphael Show

Oct 17 Talk show "The Sally Jessy Raphael Show" with Sally Jessy Raphael debuts on KSDK

Oct 19 Grenada army General Hudson Austin forms "revolutionary council"
Oct 19 NHL Philadelphia Flyers begin 13-game winning streak
Oct 19 Space Shuttle Columbia moves to Orbiter Processing Facility

Event of Interest

Oct 19 US Senate establishes Martin Luther King Jr. Day as federal holiday, observed on the 3rd Monday in January (on or near his 1/15 birthday)

Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Oct 20 IBM-PC DOS Version 2.1 released

Appointment of Interest

Oct 21 Pope John Paul II names 3 new Dutch bishops

Oct 22 Two correctional officers are killed by inmates in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspired the Supermax model of prisons.

NYC Women's Marathon

Oct 23 13th NYC Women's Marathon won by Grete Waitz in 2:27:00

Oct 23 14th NYC Marathon won by Rod Dixon in 2:08:59
Oct 23 400,000 demonstrate in Brussels, against cruise missile
Oct 23 Suicide terrorist truck bomb kills 243 US personnel in Beirut
Oct 25 US invades Grenada, a country 1/2,000 its population (US Wins!)
Oct 26 Hugh Whitemore's "Pack of Lies" premieres in London
Oct 26 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

Music History

Oct 27 Larry Flynt pays hitman $1M to kill Hugh Hefner, Bob Guccione, Walter Annenberg, and Frank Sinatra; Flynt's business manager immediately stops payment; Flynt claims he was just joking

Oct 29 550,000 Dutch demonstrate against cruise missiles
Oct 29 Notre Dame's Gil Fenerty rushes for 337 yards & 6 touchdowns
Oct 30 The first democratic elections are held in Argentina after seven years of military rule.