October 5 is the 278th day of the year (279th in leap years). There are 87 days remaining until the end of the year. (Image: The foot from the credits to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which premiered October 5, 1969.)

Today in History

• October 5 does not exist in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, because of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar (1582)
• Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce surrenders (1877)
• Wilbur Wright sets a world record of 24 miles in 39 minutes in the Wright Flyer III (1905)
• The Portuguese monarchy is overthrown (1910)
• The first aerial combat resulting in an intentional fatality takes place (1914)
• Baseball’s World Series is broadcast on the radio for the first time (1921)
• French women get the vote (1944)
• The first James Bond film is released (1962)
• The Beatles’ first single (“Love Me Do”) is released in the UK (1962)
• Monty Python’s Flying Circus premiers on BBC One (1969)
• Barry Bonds breaks Mark McGwire’s single-season home run total (2001)

Birthdays

• Jonathan Edwards, Puritan minister (1703)
• Denis Diderot, philosopher and encyclopediast (1713)
• Chester A. Arthur, 21st US President (1829)
• Louis Lumière, pioneering filmmaker (1864)
• Robert H. Goddard, rocketeer (1882)
• Larry Fine, middle Stooge (1902)
• Ray Kroc, McDonald’s founder (1902)
• Allen Ludden, game show host (1917)
• Donald Pleasence, actor (1919)
• Bill Willis, football player (1921)
• Bil Keane, Family Circus cartoonist (1922)
• Philip Berrigan, radical priest (1923)
• Glynis Johns, actress (1923)
• Bill Dana, José Jimenez player (1924)
• Richard F. Gordon, Jr., astronaut (1929)
• Па́вел Попо́вич (Pavel Popovich), cosmonaut (1930)
• Angelo Buono, Jr., Hillside Strangler (1934)
• Václav Havel, president and poet (1936)
• Barry Switzer, football coach (1937)
• Steve Miller, rocker (1943)
• Jeff Conaway, actor (1950)
• Karen Allen, actress (1951)
• Bob Geldof, Boomtown Rat (1951)
• Clive Barker, author (1952)
• Bernie Mac, comedian (1957)
• Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist (1958)
• Maya Lin, architect of the Vietnam Memorial wall (1959)
• Kate Winslet, actress (1975)
• Jesse Palmer, football player (1978)

Deaths

• Григо́рий Потёмкин-Таври́ческий (Grigory Potemkin), Russian leader (1791 – O.S.*)
• Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general in the American Revolution (1805)
• Tecumseh, Shawnee leader (1813)
• Jacques Offenbach, composer (1880)
• Sam Warner, studio co-founder (1927)
• Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court justice (1941)
• Hal B. Wallis, producer (1986)
• Rodney Dangerfield, disrespected comic (2004)
• Charles Rocket, Saturday Night Live cast member (2005)
• Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder (2011)

(*O. S., or “Old Style,” refers to countries who continued to use Julian dating after the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582.)

Holidays

• Armed Forces Day (Indonesia)
• Constitution Day (Vanuatu)
• Feast of Hor and Susia (Coptic Christianity)
• International Day of No Prostitution (International)
• National Apple Betty Day (US)
• Republic Day (Portugal)
• Teacher’s Day (Pakistan)
• World Teacher’s Day (International)