- Oct 1 Israeli air raid on PLO-headquarter at Tunis, 68 killed
- Oct 2 A Mayor Richard Caliguiri led coalition of public and private groups committed to keeping the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates in town for at least 5 years reach agreement to buy the baseball team for $22 million
- Oct 2 Detroit 1st baseman Darrell Evans hits home run #40 in Tigers' 4-2 win over Toronto Blue Jays; first to record 40 x HRs in a MLB season in both Leagues
- Oct 3 21st Shuttle Mission (51J)-Atlantis 1-all-military flight launched
- Oct 3 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) adopts constitution
Beatification
Oct 3 Pope John Paul II beatifies Dutch Roman Catholic priest and anti-Nazi activist Titus Brandsma (1881-1942); canonized as a saint in 2022
- Oct 3 South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands adopts constitution
- Oct 3 Walter Polovchak becomes a "free man" upon turning 18
- Oct 4 Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, USA
- Oct 4 Henry G Perry completes 157 day, 14,021 mile bicycle tour of Australia
- Oct 4 Shi'ite Muslims claim to have killed hostage William Buckley
- Oct 5 Grambling's Eddie Robinson wins record 324th football game
F1 World Champion
Oct 6 French McLaren driver Alain Prost clinches his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship with a 4th placing in the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch
- Oct 6 Marita Koch of E Germany sets 400m woman's record (47.6) in Australia
Sports History
Oct 6 New York Yankees knuckleballer Phil Niekro becomes 18th pitcher to win 300 games; at 46 becomes oldest to pitch a shut-out, beating Toronto 8-0
- Oct 6 PC Keith Blakelock is murdered as riots erupt in the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, north London.
- Oct 7 21st NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-J): Atlantis 1 lands at Edwards AFB
- Oct 7 KHQ-AM in Spokane Wash's final transmission
- Oct 7 Lynette Woodward chosen as 1st woman in Harlem Globetrotters
- Oct 7 PLO terrorists seize Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro
- Oct 8 "Rembrandt & Hitler or Me" premieres in Amsterdam
- Oct 8 Alain Boubil and Herbert Kretzner's musical "Les Misérables" premieres in London at the Barbican Centre
Music History
Oct 8 Little Richard seriously injured in a single car accident in Los Angeles
Music History
Oct 9 "Strawberry Fields" memorial to John Lennon in Central Park, NYC is dedicated by mayor Ed Koch
- Oct 9 "Tango Argentino" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater, NYC; runs for 198 performances
- Oct 9 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Oct 10 Sudan adopts interim constitution
- Oct 10 US fighter jets force Egyptian plane carrying hijackers of Italian ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, gunmen are placed in custody
- Oct 11 Atlantis (51-J) returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
Event of Interest
Oct 11 President Reagan bans import of South African Krugerrands to the USA
- Oct 11 US intercepts Egyptian Boeing with Achille Lauro terrorists
- Oct 12 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for maintenance of STS 61A mission
- Oct 12 Intl Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War receives Nobel Prize
- Oct 12 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- Oct 13 "Sunday in the Park with George" closes at Booth NYC after 604 performances
- Oct 13 Belgium premier Martens CVP wins parliamentary election
- Oct 13 During NLCS, Cards rookie Vince Coleman is injured stretching before game as his left leg is caught in Busch Stadium's automated tarpaulin
- Oct 14 19th Country Music Association Awards: Ricky Skaggs wins
Sports History
Oct 14 New York Jets retire Joe Namath's #12 on nationally televised Monday Night Football; beat Miami Dolphins, 23-7
- Oct 15 Nobel prize for economics awarded to Franco Modigliani
- Oct 15 Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
- Oct 15 Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit
- Oct 16 Challenger vehicle moves to launch pad for STS 61A mission
- Oct 16 KC Royals & St Louis Cardinals win their league championships
- Oct 16 MLB American League Championship: Kansas City Royals beat Toronto Blue Jays, 4 games to 3
- Oct 16 MLB National League Championship: St. Louis Cardinals beat Los Angeles Dodgers, 4 games to 2
- Oct 16 Nobel prize for chemistry awarded to Herbert Hauptman & Jerome Karle
- Oct 17 French author Claude Simon wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Oct 17 Lou Piniella named NY Yankee manager
- Oct 21 Qasim Omar (206) & Javed Miandad (203*) make 397 stand v SL
- Oct 25 Kosmos 1700 communications satellite placed in geostationary orbit
- Oct 26 CBS' premiere of fact based TV film "Children of the Night", based on sociology student Lois Lee's expose on female crime and inconsistent enforcement of prostitution laws in Los Angeles
Sports History
Oct 26 Doug Harvey's #2 jersey is retired by the Montreal Canadiens
- Oct 26 Hurricane Juan kills 97 in US
- Oct 26 On a poor call in Game 6, umpire Don Deckinger starts a string of events probably costing St. Louis Cardinals the Baseball World Series; lose 2-1 to KC when leading series, 3-2
NYC Women's Marathon
Oct 27 15th NYC Women's Marathon won by Grete Waitz in 2:28:34
- Oct 27 16th NYC Marathon won by Orlando Pizzolato in 2:11:34
- Oct 27 Anthony Carter begins NFL streak of 100+ consecutive game receptions
- Oct 27 Baseball World Series: KC Royals rout St Louis Cardinals, 11-0 at Royals Stadium for 4 games to 3 series win; MVP: KC pitcher Bret Saberhagen
Sports History
Oct 27 Billy Martin is fired by Yankees for 4th time
- Oct 27 Hurricane Juan ravages US Gulf states & east coast, 49 die
- Oct 28 Ravi Ratnayeke takes 8-83 for Sri Lanka v Pakistan
- Oct 29 Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multiparty election in Liberia
- Oct 29 St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andújar is suspended by MLB for 10 games for bumping an umpire
- Oct 30 "Rockin' with the Rhythm" second studio album by The Judds is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1986)
- Oct 30 22nd NASA Space Shuttle Mission (61-A): Challenger 9 launches
- Oct 31 Last day in Test cricket for Pakistan's Zaheer Abbas
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists