On This Day

On October 7, 1916, Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University, 222-0, in the most lopsided game in college football history. Coached by John Heisman, later namesake of college football’s most famous trophy, Georgia Tech takes a 63-0 […]

On October 7, 1985, Lynette Woodard, captain of the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team in 1984, becomes the first female player for the Harlem Globetrotters. “I got chills, Woodard, 26, says of her selection. “I […]

On October 5, 2001, the Seattle Mariners become the winningest team in American League history for a regular season with a 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers. The 115th win breaks a tie with the […]

On October 4, 1895, 21-year-old Englishman Horace Rawlins wins the first U.S. Open golf tournament, edging Willie Dunn and others with a 36-hole total of 173 at the Newport (Rhode Island) Golf Club, an oceanside […]

The podcast Serial, a spinoff of the long-running radio program This American Life, debuts on October 3, 2014, and quickly becomes a smash hit.  Producer Sarah Koenig conceived of the show after she was approached by […]

In Boston on October 1, 1903, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Americans, 7-3, in the first professional baseball World Series game. Pirates right fielder Jimmy Sebring hits the first World Series home run—an inside-the-park […]

On October 1, 1977, despite a downpour, 75,646 fans pack Giants Stadium in New Jersey for soccer star Pele’s farewell game. In the exhibition, Pele plays for the only  professional teams he ever played for—the New York […]

Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam, is shot and killed in Saigon. Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to […]

On September 23, 1923, Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, a Romantic book of prose poetry centered on a prophet who shares wisdom about family, work, death, love and freedom, is published. It sold about 1,200 copies in […]

On September 20, 2011, the federal government repeals “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a law that had allowed gay people to serve in the U.S. armed forces only if they kept their sexual orientation a secret. […]