October 27
1904
At 2:35pm, New York City Mayor George McClellan took the controls on the inaugural run of the city’s innovative new rapid transit system: the subway. While London boasts the world’s oldest underground train network (opened in 1863) and Boston built the first subway in the United States in 1897, the New York City subway soon became the largest American system. The system now has 26 lines and 472 stations in operation; the longest line, the 8th Avenue “A” Express train, stretches more than 32 miles, from the northern tip of Manhattan to the far southeast corner of Queens.
1970
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who would go on to become the most successful composer-lyricist team in modern theater history, released a double-LP “concept” album called Jesus Christ Superstar, which only later would become the smash-hit Broadway musical of the same name. Superstar grew out of Tim Rice’s longtime fascination with Judas Iscariot, whom he conceived not as a craven betrayer of Jesus, but rather as a dear friend struggling with the implications of Jesus’ growing celebrity. Although the musical would later find broad support among leaders of liberal Christian churches, it was nevertheless too controversial to gain the financial backing necessary for a stage production. Lloyd Webber and Rice therefore chose to package Superstar as an album first.
2004
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time since 1918, finally vanquishing the so-called “Curse of the Bambino” that had plagued them for 86 years. Ever since team owner and Broadway producer Harry Frazee sold the great Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, the Sox had been tragically unable to win the World Series. People said that the team was cursed. Before 1920, the Sox had won five championships and the Yanks hadn’t won any; after the Babe left, Boston’s well ran dry. The Yankees, meanwhile, won a record 26 times after 1920. The team featured all-stars David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, with Ramirez being named World Series MVP. In the 2007 World Series, the Sox did it again—they swept the Rockies for another easy victory. They won the World Series again in 2013 and 2018.
October 28
1919
Congress passed the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto. The Volstead Act, passed nine months after the ratification of the 18th Amendment, provided for the enforcement of prohibition, including the creation of a special unit of the Treasury Department. Despite a vigorous effort by law-enforcement agencies, the Volstead Act failed to prevent the large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages, and organized crime flourished in America. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.
1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis finally came to an end when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered withdrawal of missiles from Cuba. In the summer of 1962, U.S. spy planes flying over Cuba had photographed construction work on missile facilities. President John F. Kennedy announced a naval blockade to prevent the arrival of more missiles and demanded that the Soviets dismantle and remove the weapons already in Cuba. While the situation was extremely tense and could have resulted in war, Kennedy and his advisers had stared the Soviets down until the apparent capitulation of the Soviet Union.
1965
Construction was completed on the Gateway Arch, a spectacular 630-foot-high parabola of stainless steel marking the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront of St. Louis, Missouri. The Gateway Arch, designed by Finnish-born, American-educated architect Eero Saarinen, was erected to commemorate President Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and to celebrate St. Louis’ central role in the rapid westward expansion that followed.
October 29
1965
Nine months after its subject’s assassination, The Autobiography of Malcolm X was first published. Through his work with the Nation of Islam and advocacy for Black power, Malcolm X became one of the most prominent figures in the civil rights movement. Written in collaboration with journalist Alex Haley, the future author of Roots, Malcolm X was initially skeptical of the project. During the course of its writing, he publicly broke with the Nation of Islam, gave his “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech, converted to Sunni Islam, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. Already an icon, in death he became a martyr. The book has long been considered required reading for civil rights activists and continues to form the basis of Malcolm X’s enduring legacy.
1971
Duane Allman, a slide guitarist and the leader of the Allman Brothers Band, was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle and drove into the side of a flatbed truck in Macon, Georgia. He was 24 years old. After Allman’s death, his band continued to tour and record. Duane Allman was born in Nashville and grew up in Florida. Before he formed the Allman Brothers Band with his brother Gregg, a singer and keyboard player, Duane had made a name for himself as a session musician playing with artists like Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis, John Hammond, Ronnie Hawkins, Boz Scaggs and Herbie Mann. In 1969, the Allmans put together their own band. In 2004, Rolling Stone declared that the Allman Brothers were the 52nd-greatest rock band of all time.
October 30
1938
“The War of the Worlds”—Orson Welles's realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth—was broadcast on the radio. The broadcast was extremely realistic and has become famous for supposedly tricking some of its listeners into believing that a Martian invasion was taking place due to the "breaking news" style of storytelling employed in the first half of the show. The Federal Communications Commission investigated the unorthodox program but found no law was broken. Networks did agree to be more cautious in their programming in the future. The broadcast helped Orson Welles land a contract with a Hollywood studio, and in 1941 he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane—a movie that many have called the greatest American film ever made.
1974
32-year-old Muhammad Ali became the heavyweight champion of the world for the second time when he knocked out 25-year-old champ George Foreman in the eighth round of the “Rumble in the Jungle,” a match in Kinshasa, Zaire. It was the night Ali changed his narrative from pariah to prince of the world by stopping the unstoppable George Foreman. Seven years before, Ali had lost his title when the government accused him of draft-dodging and the boxing commission took away his license. His victory in Zaire made him only the second dethroned champ in history to regain his belt.
2003
18-year-old basketball prodigy LeBron James played in his first NBA game. James scored 25 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out nine assists, but his Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the more experienced Sacramento Kings, 106-92. His debut is one of the most impressive in league history—only months earlier, James had graduated from high school. James, an Akron, Ohio native who was selected with the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft, was considered the most-hyped prospect in NBA history. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a junior in high school, and was dubbed “The Chosen One.”
October 31
1864
Anxious to have support of the Republican-dominated Nevada Territory for President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection, the U.S. Congress quickly admitted Nevada as the 36th state in the Union. At the time, Nevada had only 40,000 inhabitants, considerably short of the 60,000 normally required for statehood. But the 1859 discovery of the incredibly large and rich silver deposits at Virginia City had rapidly made the region one of the most important and wealthy in the West. The decisive factor in easing the path to Nevada’s statehood was President Lincoln’s proposed 13th Amendment banning slavery. Their speedy action paid off when Congress passed the amendment on January 31, 1865.
1950
21-year-old Earl Lloyd became the first African American to play in an NBA game when he took the court in the season opener for the Washington Capitols. Lloyd grew up in Jim Crow Virginia and went to West Virginia State, where he was the star of the school's championship basketball team. After seven games with the Capitols, Lloyd was drafted into the military and sent to Korea for two years. When he returned to the United States he went to play for the Syracuse Nationals (who later became the Philadelphia 76ers). In 1970, Lloyd became the first full-time black head coach in the league and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
1993
23-year-old actor River Phoenix, who appeared in such films as Stand by Me and My Own Private Idaho, died of a drug overdose outside the Viper Room, a West Hollywood night club partially owned at the time by the actor Johnny Depp. At the time of his death, Phoenix was considered one of the most promising actors of his generation and had received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in 1988’s Running on Empty. Phoenix, who was born River Jude Bottom on August 23, 1970, had an unconventional childhood. His parents were members of a religious cult and worked as missionaries in South America. Phoenix began acting professionally as a teenager and made his big-screen debut, along with Ethan Hawke, in 1985’s Explorers.
November 1
1765
In the face of widespread opposition in the American colonies, Parliament enacted the Stamp Act, a taxation measure designed to raise revenue for British military operations in America. The new tax required all legal documents, including commercial contracts, newspapers, wills, marriage licenses, diplomas, pamphlets, and playing cards, in the American colonies to carry a tax stamp. The direct tax on the colonists led to an uproar in America over an issue that was to be a major cause of the Revolution: taxation without representation.
1950
Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman at the Blair House in Washington, D.C. Truman escaped unscathed. The assailants never made it past the entry steps due to the quick reaction of police officers and guards. Secret Service Agent Leslie Coffelt was mortally wounded in the ensuing melee, but not before he managed to kill Torresola. Apparently unfazed by the attempt on his life, Truman kept his scheduled appointments for the day. “A President has to expect these things,” he remarked dryly. Oscar Collazo was sentenced to death, but in an admirable act of forgiveness on July 24, 1952, Truman commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.
1952
The United States detonated the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb, on Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific. The test gave the United States a short-lived advantage in the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. Popularly known as the hydrogen bomb, this new weapon was approximately 1,000 times more powerful than conventional nuclear devices. Opponents of development of the hydrogen bomb argued that little would be accomplished except the speeding up of the arms race, since it was assumed that the Soviets would quickly follow suit. The Soviet Union exploded a thermonuclear device the following year and by the late 1970s, seven nations had constructed hydrogen bombs. The nuclear arms race had taken a fearful step forward.
November 2
1947
In one of the greatest upsets in presidential election history, Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeated his Republican challenger, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, by just over two million popular votes. In the days preceding the vote, political analysts and polls were so behind Dewey that on election night the Chicago Tribune published an early edition with the banner headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” In the last weeks before the election, Truman embarked on a “whistle-stop” campaign across the United States in defiance of his consistently poor showings in the polls. He traveled to America’s cities and towns, fighting to win over undecided voters by portraying himself as an outsider contending with a “do-nothing” Congress.
1983
"Michael Jackson's "Thriller" single was released worldwide. The hit single's music video, directed by John Landis of An American Werewolf in London, contains many elements that have had a lasting impact on popular culture, such as the zombie dance and Jackson's red jacket. The Library of Congress described it as "the most famous music video of all time" and it became the first music video inducted into the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant in 2009.
2000
The first residential crew arrived aboard the International Space Station. The arrival of Expedition 1 marked the beginning of a new era of international cooperation in space and of the longest continuous human habitation in low Earth orbit, which continues to this day. The space agencies of the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe agreed to cooperate on the ISS in 1998, and its first components were launched into orbit later that year. Two Russians, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, accompanied by NASA’s Bill Shepherd, were selected as the crew of Expedition 1.