Birthdays

October 15, 1924 - Lee Iacocca
Iacocca is an American businessman known for his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s   Portfolio named Iacocca the 18th greatest CEO of all time. Throughout the 1980s, Iacocca appeared in a series of commercials for the company's vehicles, using the ad campaign "The pride is back" to denote the turnaround of the corporation, while also telling buyers a phrase that later became his trademark: "If you can find a better car, buy it."


October 16, 1843 - Noah Webster
In the United States, his name has become synonymous with dictionaries, especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828.

Though it now has an honored place in the history of American English, Webster's first dictionary only sold 2,500 copies. He was forced to mortgage his home to bring out a second edition, and his life from then on was plagued with debt.

In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. On May 28, 1843, a few days after he had completed revising an appendix to the second edition, and with much of his efforts with the dictionary still unrecognized, Noah Webster died.



Events

October 17, 1989 - San Francisco 1989 Earthquake
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Bay Area just before the third game of the World Series at Candlestick Park; the worst earthquake since 1906. Damage was estimated at almost three billion dollars in San Francisco alone. The earthquake resulted in the deaths of 62 people, injured 3,757, and left more than 12,0000 homeless.


October 17, 2006 - 300 Millionth American Born
Consider this...the 200 millionth American was born just over 40 years ago - talk about exponential growth! How long before 400 million? Well, do the math...there is a baby born every 8 seconds, someone dies every 12 seconds, and the nation gains an one new immigrant every 31 seconds on average, resulting in a growth rate of one person every 14 seconds.


October 19, 1781 - Yorktown Surrender
The battle for American Independence gained a milestone victory on this date. After a five-day bombardment, a combined American and French force overwhelmed British positions, leaving them with no choice but to surrender. This in turn triggered a series of political decisions in Britain that culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in September, 1783 that granted independence to the American colonies. During the surrender ceremony, a British band played a song titled "The World Turned Upside Down".


October 20, 1973 - Saturday Night Massacre
"Saturday Night Massacre" was a term coined by political commentators to describe the evening of October 20, 1973. An independent special prosecutor - Archibald Cox - had been assigned to investigate the Watergate scandal. He had just refused to accept the President's compromise offer for turning over tape recordings of White House conversations. President Nixon contacted Attorney General Elliot Richardson and told him to fire Cox. Richardson refused, and resigned in protest. Nixon called Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus and order HIM to fire Cox. He also refused and resigned. Finally, Nixon contacted the third-in-line authority at the Justice Department - Solicitor General Robert Bork - who complied with Nixon's order and fired the special prosecutor. Nixon's troubles were far from over - he would resign from office 10 months later.