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October 3
George Formby's career in light entertainment spanned from 1915 until December 1960. Formby appeared as a ten-year-old in the 1915 crime thriller film By the Shortest of Heads; when his father, George Formby Snr, died in 1921 Formby took over his father's stage act. Formby developed his own act and began recording light, comical songs in 1926, accompanied by him playing the ukulele or banjolele. He moved into film work in 1934 and appeared on television for the first time in 1938; he became increasingly popular in the 1930s and 40s and became the UK's highest-paid entertainer during those decades. During the Second World War Formby joined the Entertainments National Service Association and, in addition to his film work, toured civilian establishments and military camps—the latter often very close to enemy lines. Although his domestic popularity dipped after the war, Formby toured Canada, Australia, South Africa and Sweden, and continued to appear on stage in revue or pantomime in Britain; his last television appearance was on BBC television in December 1960. (Full list...)
October 6
Chapters of the D.Gray-man manga series are written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino (pictured) and follow Allen Walker and his comrades in the Black Order as they fight against demons created from human souls by an ancient sorcerer. The manga began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 31, 2004 and are currently serialized in Shueisha's monthly Jump Square manga magazine. Since the premiere of the D.Gray-man manga series, over two hundred chapters, referred to as "nights", have been released in Japan. One chapter of the series was published in Akamaru Jump in August 2009 as the series transitioned to serialization in Jump Square, starting on November 4, 2009. The individual chapters are published in tankōbon by Shueisha. The first volume was released on October 9, 2004. The series has been licensed for an English-language release in North America by Viz Media. Viz released the first collected volume of the series on February 5, 2008, and twenty-four volumes have been released thus far. (Full list...)
October 10
One hundred and twenty-one episodes of Lost aired between September 22, 2004, and May 23, 2010. J. J. Abrams (pictured), who co-created the American television series with Damon Lindelof, directed the pilot episode, which was based upon an original script titled Nowhere written by Jeffrey Lieber. Six seasons of the show aired, in addition to numerous clip shows to recap previous episodes. The series follows the experiences of the survivors of a plane crash on a passenger jet, Oceanic Flight 815, which crashed on a tropical island in the South Pacific, with each episode typically featuring action on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life. Lost: Missing Pieces consists of thirteen original two-to-three minute clips referred to as "mobisodes" which were produced for cell phones and released between seasons three and four. Multiple former and recurring cast members made an appearance in the series finale. (Full list...)
October 13
The signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania were the twenty Lithuanian men who signed the Act of Independence of Lithuania on February 16, 1918. The signatories were elected to the Council of Lithuania by the Vilnius Conference in September 1917 and entrusted with the mission of establishing an independent Lithuanian state. The signatories succeeded in their mission and independent Lithuania existed until the Soviet Union occupied the state on June 15, 1940. The signatories comprised a wide political, professional, and social spectrum. After the declaration of Lithuania's independence the signatories continued to participate in Lithuania's public life; two of them, Antanas Smetona and Aleksandras Stulginskis, were later elected Presidents of Lithuania, and Jonas Vileišis went on to become mayor of Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania. After Lithuania lost its independence during World War II, six of the surviving signatories were sent to prison or executed by the Soviet government, and six others went into exile. (Full list...)
October 17
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There have been fourteen recorded sieges of Gibraltar. Despite occupying a peninsula that is only 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long and 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide, the modern territory of Gibraltar's strategic location on the southern Iberian coast at the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and just across the eponymous Strait from Morocco in North Africa, as well as its natural defensibility, have made it one of the most fought-over places in Europe. Only five of the sieges of Gibraltar resulted in a change of rule. Seven were fought between Muslims and Catholics during Muslim rule, four between Spain and Britain from the Anglo-Dutch capture in 1704 to the end of the Great Siege in 1783 (Grand Assault pictured), two between rival Catholic factions, and one between rival Muslim powers. Four of Gibraltar's changes in rule, including three sieges, took place over a matter of days or hours, whereas several other sieges had durations of months or years and claimed the lives of thousands without resulting in any change in rule. (Full list...)
October 20
Public holidays in Rhodesia, a historical region in southern Africa, were largely based around milestones in the region's short history. Holidays were instituted along traditional British lines, with some others created exclusively for Rhodesia. Occupation Day, held on 12 September each year, marked the anniversary of the arrival of the Pioneer Column at Fort Salisbury in 1890 (illustration pictured). Southern Rhodesia effectively became the entirety of Rhodesia in 1964 when Northern Rhodesia became independent as Zambia; Independence Day did not become celebrated in Rhodesia until Southern Rhodesia's colonial government unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965. All of these holidays were celebrated until 1979, when Rhodesia reconstituted itself under majority rule as the unrecognised state of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. The country's public holidays were replaced soon after with alternatives intended to be more inclusive: President's Day, Unity Day and Ancestors' Day. These were in turn superseded in April 1980, when the country became the recognised state of Zimbabwe. (Full list...)
October 24
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Stutterers are people who have a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks during which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was one of the 30% of stutterers who have an associated speech disorder—a lisp in his case—yet led his nation through World War II. Demosthenes (pictured) stuttered and was inarticulate as a youth, yet, through dedicated practice, using methods such as placing pebbles in his mouth, became a great orator of Ancient Greece. King George VI was so embarrassed by his stutter that he hired speech-language pathologist Lionel Logue and greatly improved his public speaking. Country singer Mel Tillis stutters when talking but not when singing. English comedian Rowan Atkinson incorporates his stuttering into his work by using over-articulation to overcome problematic consonants. German actor Dieter Thomas Heck started stuttering after being trapped under a staircase after a bombing raid in World War II. (Full list...)
October 27
The World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award is given to the player deemed to have the most impact on his team's performance in the World Series, which is the final round of the Major League Baseball postseason. The award was first presented in 1955 as the SPORT Magazine Award, but is now decided during the final game of the Series by a committee of reporters and officials present at the game. Pitchers have been named Series MVP twenty-six times; four of them were relief pitchers. Twelve of the first fourteen World Series MVPs were won by pitchers; from 1969 until 1986, the proportion of pitcher MVPs declined—Rollie Fingers (pictured) and Bret Saberhagen were the only two pitchers to win the award in this period. From 1987 until 1991, all of the World Series MVPs were pitchers, and, since 1995, pitchers have won the award eight times. Bobby Richardson of the 1960 New York Yankees is the only player in World Series history to be named MVP despite being on the losing team. (This list is part of a featured topic: Major League Baseball awards.)
October 31
The tallest dams in China are some of the tallest dams in the world. Nearly 22,000 dams over 15 metres (49 ft) in height – about half the world's total – have been constructed in China since the 1950s. Many of the tallest are located in the southwestern part of the country on rivers such as the Yangtze (Three Gorges Dam pictured). While beneficial, many throughout the country have been criticized for their effects on the environment, displacement of locals and effect on transboundary river flows. Currently, the country's and world's tallest, Jinping-I Dam, an arch dam 305 m (1,001 ft) high, is located in Sichuan. The tallest embankment dam in China is the 261 m (856 ft) Nuozhadu Dam in Yunnan. The country's highest gravity dam is Longtan Dam at 216.2 m (709 ft), which can be found in Guangxi. At 233 m (764 ft), Shuibuya Dam in Hubei is the world's tallest concrete-face rock-fill dam. In Sichuan, the government is constructing the 312 m (1,024 ft) tall Shuangjiangkou Dam which, when complete, will become the world's tallest dam. (Full list...)