A United Airlines poster advertising Yosemite National Park

Today in History

• Thomas Edison opens the first electric lamp factory (1880)
• Yosemite National Park is established (1890)
• The Ford Model T goes on the market (1908)
• Lawrence of Arabia captures Damascus (1918)
• Spanish women get the right to vote (1931)
• Germany annexes the Sudentendland (1938)
• The Pennsylvania Turnpike opens to traffic (1940)
• Mao Zedong declares the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (1949)
• NASA is created (1958)
• The first episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson airs (1962)
• Walt Disney World opens (1971)
• Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazer in boxing’s “Thrilla in Manila” (1975)
• The US returns sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama (1979)
• Epcot opens at Walt Disney World (1982)
• The Cartoon Network begins broadcasting (1992)
• A mass shooting in Las Vegas kills 58 and wounds 546 (2017)

Birthdays

• Annie Besant, theosophist and activist (1847)
• William Boeing, aircraft manufacturer (1881)
• Vladimir Horowitz, pianist (1903)
• Bonnie Parker, criminal (1910)
• Walter Matthau, actor (1920)
• Jimmy Carter, 39th US President (1924)
• Tom Bosley, actor (1927)
• George Peppard, actor (1928)
• Richard Harris, actor (1930)
• Julie Andrews, actress and singer (1935)
• Stella Stevens, actress (1938)
• Rod Carew, baseball player (1945)
• Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons (1947)
• Randy Quaid, actor (1950)
• Mark McGwire, baseball player (1963)
• Zach Galifianakis, actor and filmmaker (1969)

Deaths

• Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator who created Madeline (1961)
• E. B. White, author (1985)
• Curtis LeMay, USAF general (1990)
• Richard Avedon, photographer (2004)
• Tom Clancy, author (2013)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Armed Forces Day (South Korea)
• Children’s Day (El Salvador, Guatemala, Sri Lanka)
• Day of Prosecutors (Azerbaijan)
• Ground Forces Day (Russia)
• Independence Day (Cyprus, Nigeria, Palau, Tuvalu)
• International Day of Older Persons
• Lincolnshire Day (UK)
• National Day (People’s Republic of China)
• Pancasila Sanctity Day (Indonesia)
• Teacher’s Day (Uzbekistan)
• Unification Day (Cameroon)
• World Vegetarian Day

October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years). There are 91 days remaining until the end of the year.