100 Fun Facts About October

October takes its name from the Latin word for which number?

Eight. The early Roman year began in March, which made October its eighth month, and the name stuck even after January and February were added.

In Tom Clancy's thriller The Hunt for Red October, what is the Red October?

A Soviet submarine. Its captain, Marko Ramius, sets out to defect to the United States with the near-silent missile boat, and Sean Connery played him in the 1990 film.

Which two gemstones are the birthstones for October?

Opal and tourmaline. Opal's name as an unlucky stone is no ancient belief: it traces to Sir Walter Scott's 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein.

Whose War of the Worlds radio play on 30 October 1938 was reported to have panicked listeners with a Martian invasion?

Orson Welles. He told the story as news bulletins breaking into dance music; newspapers reported a mass panic, though historians now say few listeners were really fooled.

October's birth flower, the calendula, is better known by what common name?

Marigold. The name is a contraction of 'Mary's gold', probably in honour of the Virgin Mary; in Old English the flower was simply called 'golde'.

Which two zodiac signs fall in October?

Libra and Scorpio. The two were once one figure: the Greeks saw the Scales as the Scorpion's claws, and Libra's brightest stars still bear Arabic names meaning southern and northern claw.

In the Southern Hemisphere, October is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?

April. Seasons flip south of the equator, so October is mid-spring there: Canberra's Floriade flower festival, with more than a million blooms, runs into the middle of the month.

The full moon after the harvest moon, usually in October, is named after whom?

Hunters. The Hunter's Moon is simply whichever full moon follows the Harvest Moon, so in years when the Harvest Moon lands in early October, the Hunter's Moon slips into November.

Halloween on 31 October is the eve of which Christian feast day?

All Saints' Day. The feast was once called All Hallows, 'hallow' being an old word for a saint, and Scots speakers shortened All Hallows' Even, the night before it, to Halloween.

Before pumpkins, which vegetable was traditionally carved into Halloween lanterns in Ireland and Scotland?

The turnip. Irish and Scottish immigrants to North America switched to the native pumpkin, which was softer, bigger and far easier to carve.

Which ancient Gaelic festival, marking the harvest's end, is usually cited as the pagan root of Halloween?

Samhain. It opened the dark half of the year, when the boundary with the Otherworld was believed to open and let its spirits walk among the living.

Botanically, a pumpkin is which type of fruit, like a tomato?

A berry. Botanists class the pumpkin as a pepo, a berry with a hard rind, while strawberries and raspberries, despite their names, are not true berries at all.

As of 2025, which US state grew the most pumpkins, mostly for canning?

Illinois. Other states grow pumpkins mainly for carving and display, but most Illinois fields feed the canneries, and in 2025 the state out-produced the next four combined.

On 14 October 1947, test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person confirmed to have done what?

Broken the sound barrier. His Bell X-1 was dropped from the bomb bay of a B-29 before he lit its engine, and he had named the plane Glamorous Glennis after his wife.

Despite its name, most of Oktoberfest actually takes place in which month?

September. Munich moved the festival forward in 1872 to catch the fine late-summer weather, and since then only its final days have fallen in the month it is named for.

Oktoberfest began in 1810 as the public celebration of what event?

A royal wedding. Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese, Munich celebrated with a horse race, and the meadow where it was run is still called the Theresienwiese in her honour.

Which holiday do Canadians celebrate on the second Monday of October?

Thanksgiving. Canada's first is credited to the crew of the explorer Martin Frobisher in the 1570s, decades before the Pilgrims sat down to theirs at Plymouth.

Columbus reached the Americas on 12 October 1492 with the Niña, the Pinta and which flagship?

Santa María. She never made it home: the flagship ran aground off Hispaniola that Christmas, and her timbers went into a fort that Columbus named La Navidad.

On 31 October 1517, who is said to have nailed his Ninety-five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg?

Martin Luther. The hammer-and-nails story comes from his colleague Melanchthon; what the record shows is that he sent the Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz that day, now kept as Reformation Day.

Germany's national day, 3 October, marks which 1990 event?

East and West reuniting. The Berlin Wall had fallen on 9 November 1989, a date Germans call their day of fate: it is also the anniversary of the Nazi pogroms of 1938.

Which health awareness campaign, launched in 1985, runs every October?

Breast cancer month. Its pink ribbon came later, credited to Evelyn Lauder of Estée Lauder and Alexandra Penney, then the editor of Self magazine.

United Nations Day on 24 October marks the anniversary of what 1945 event?

The UN Charter coming into force. It had been signed in San Francisco that June, but took effect only once the five permanent Security Council members and most other signers had ratified it.

Which profession is honoured around the world by an international day on 5 October?

Teachers. The date marks the adoption in 1966 of a joint UNESCO and International Labour Organization recommendation setting out their rights and working conditions.

In the 2004 comedy Mean Girls, what does her crush Aaron Samuels ask Cady on October 3rd?

What day it is. 'It's October 3rd,' she tells him, a throwaway line that fans have turned into Mean Girls Day, marked online on that date every year.

Diwali, the festival of lights held in October or November, is most widely tied to which goddess?

Lakshmi. On the festival's main night, families gather for Lakshmi puja, a prayer to the goddess of prosperity, in homes lit with rows of clay oil lamps.

Which prizes are announced each October and presented on 10 December, the anniversary of their founder's death?

The Nobel Prizes. Alfred Nobel's will left the peace prize to a committee chosen by Norway's parliament, which is why that one is handed over in Oslo and the rest in Stockholm.

Which animal was long blamed, unfairly, for starting the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871?

A cow. A Chicago reporter later claimed that he had made up the tale of Mrs O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern, but the legend outlived his confession.

Which beach-ball-sized Soviet satellite opened the Space Age when it was launched on 4 October 1957?

Sputnik 1. It did little but beep for three weeks until its batteries ran down, yet the shock led directly to the creation of NASA the following year.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 pitted John F. Kennedy against which Soviet leader?

Nikita Khrushchev. He agreed in public to pull his missiles out of Cuba, while Kennedy promised in secret to take American Jupiter missiles out of Turkey.

What did Kennedy call the October 1962 naval cordon around Cuba, avoiding the word 'blockade'?

A quarantine. In international law a blockade is an act of war, so the milder word let Kennedy stop ships bound for Cuba without declaring one, and won him the backing of the Organization of American States.

On Black Tuesday, 29 October 1929, selling was so heavy that which Wall Street machines ran hours behind?

Stock tickers. Some 16 million shares changed hands in a single day, the tape could not keep up, and the billions of dollars lost wiped out thousands of investors.

The Dow fell about 23 percent in a single session on 19 October 1987, a crash remembered by what name?

Black Monday. The 508-point plunge pushed American exchanges to adopt circuit breakers, rules that pause trading when prices fall too far too fast.

Why is Russia's 'October Revolution' of 1917 now dated 7 November?

The country still used the Julian calendar, then 13 days behind the West's. The Bolsheviks soon scrapped it, decreeing that 31 January 1918 be followed by 14 February.

Which battle of 14 October 1066 killed King Harold Godwinson and began the Norman Conquest?

Hastings. Less than three weeks earlier Harold had force-marched north and destroyed a Norwegian invasion at Stamford Bridge, then had to march south again to meet William's landing.

"England expects that every man will do his duty" was the signal before which battle of 21 October 1805?

Trafalgar. Nelson himself was shot by a French musketeer as the fleets fought at close quarters, and he died shortly before the battle ended in the victory he had planned.

The Statue of Liberty, dedicated on 28 October 1886, hangs on an iron frame built by which Frenchman?

Gustave Eiffel. He built the hidden skeleton a few years before the Paris tower that bears his name, and the copper skin hung on it was hammered into shape by hand.

Which enormous resort opened its gates near Orlando, Florida, on 1 October 1971?

Walt Disney World. Walt died five years before it opened, so his brother Roy saw the project through and insisted that the resort carry Walt's full name.

Which car, eventually built some 15 million times, was unveiled on 1 October 1908?

The Ford Model T. Henry Ford's 'any colour so long as it is black' rule came later: for its first few years buyers could choose grey, green, blue or red.

The Great Storm of 15-16 October 1987 brought hurricane-force winds to which two countries?

England and France. It blew down about 15 million trees in England, hours after BBC forecaster Michael Fish told viewers there would be no hurricane; he says he meant a different storm.

The Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October 1989 struck the Bay Area during which sporting event?

The World Series. Game 3 was about to start at Candlestick Park, and since the Giants and the Athletics both came from the stricken Bay Area, play was suspended for ten days.

Baseball's championship series is traditionally played in October, which gives it what nickname?

The Fall Classic. It has been played every autumn since 1905 with a single exception: in 1994 a players' strike wiped out the end of the season and the championship with it.

Which slugger earned the nickname 'Mr. October', hitting three home runs on three swings in the 1977 clincher?

Reggie Jackson. The nickname came from inside his own clubhouse: his Yankees teammate Thurman Munson bestowed it, and broadcasters and sportswriters then turned it into a household phrase.

Which band's 1981 album 'October' had lyrics improvised after the singer's briefcase of drafts went missing?

U2. Bono's briefcase vanished at a Portland nightclub and came back 23 years later, handed over by a woman who said she had found it in the attic of a rented house.

October Sky, the 1999 film whose title is an anagram of the memoir Rocket Boys, stars which actor as Homer Hickam?

Jake Gyllenhaal. Hickam says the studio renamed the film because its research showed that women over thirty would never go to see a movie called Rocket Boys.

What happens inside October leaves to reveal the yellow and orange pigments they have carried all summer?

Chlorophyll breaks down. As the green fades, the yellows and oranges it was masking show through, but the reds are different: the leaf makes those pigments fresh in autumn.

Which 8th-century monk recorded that the Anglo-Saxons called October Winterfylleth, the 'winter full moon'?

Bede. He explained that the early English split the year into just two seasons, summer and winter, and that winter began at the full moon of this month.

In Catholic tradition, October is the month of what?

The Holy Rosary. Its feast day, 7 October, is the anniversary of the sea battle of Lepanto in 1571, and was first kept as the feast of Our Lady of Victory.

What is a 'sports equinox', usually seen in late October?

A day when all four major US leagues play. It needs a baseball postseason game to land on an NFL game day in the first weeks of the NBA and NHL seasons, as happened on 27 October 2025.

Which chemistry observance starts at 6:02 am on October 23?

Mole Day. The time and date spell out Avogadro's number, 6.02 × 10²³, the count of atoms or molecules in one mole, the chemist's unit for an amount of substance.

Which African country celebrates its Independence Day on October 1?

Nigeria. At midnight on 1 October 1960 it raised its green-and-white flag for the first time, a design by Taiwo Akinkunmi that had beaten thousands of entries in a national contest.

Which American institution begins each annual term on the first Monday in October and sits until early summer?

The Supreme Court opens every term on that Monday and keeps going until June or early July of the following year. The months between alternate two-week sittings, when cases are heard, with recesses for writing opinions.

Which escape artist died on Halloween 1926 in a Detroit hospital, days after a student punched him in the stomach?

Harry Houdini died of peritonitis at 52, possibly linked to appendicitis and to the blows he took in a Montreal dressing room. His widow Bess held a séance every Halloween for the next ten years.

Which fish fattens Alaska's Katmai brown bears for Fat Bear Week, the online vote held around the start of October?

Salmon, mostly sockeye from the park's rivers, can push a big male past 1,000 pounds before hibernation. The contest began in 2014 as a single day called Fat Bear Tuesday, dreamed up by a park ranger.

Which novelty song by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett topped the Billboard Hot 100 in late October 1962, just before Halloween?

Monster Mash sat at number one from 20 to 27 October, yet the BBC kept it off the air that year for being too morbid. Pickett built the song on his impression of horror actor Boris Karloff.

Who skips trick-or-treating to wait in a pumpkin patch in the 1966 special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?

Linus believes the Great Pumpkin rises on Halloween night from the most sincere patch of all, and only Sally stays to keep him company. The half-hour first aired on CBS on 27 October 1966.

Which band's debut single reached British shops on 5 October 1962, the day the first James Bond film premiered?

The Beatles released Love Me Do on the day Dr No opened at the London Pavilion, so two of Britain's biggest exports launched within hours of each other. The single climbed no higher than number 17.

The first message sent over ARPANET, on 29 October 1969, crashed the system after two letters of which word?

Login was the command a UCLA student began typing to a computer at Stanford Research Institute, so the internet's ancestor opened with just 'lo'. The whole word went through about an hour later.

Which Halloween sweet, invented in the 1880s by George Renninger, was originally sold as 'Chicken Feed'?

Candy corn got its farmyard name because confectioners were selling to a largely rural America, and each piece mimics a kernel. The Goelitz firm that took it up in 1898 later became Jelly Belly.

The Orionid meteor shower, which peaks around 21 October, is made of dust shed by which famous comet?

Halley passes close to Earth's orbit in two places, so it feeds a second shower as well, the Eta Aquariids of early May. The comet itself is not due back until 2061.

Which queen was sent to the guillotine on 16 October 1793, nine months after her husband Louis XVI?

Marie Antoinette was convicted of high treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal only two days after her trial opened. She was 37 when she died in the Place de la Révolution.

Which order of crusading knights was rounded up at dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, on the orders of King Philip IV?

The Templars were seized in simultaneous raids that also caught their Grand Master, Jacques de Molay. The order, founded around 1118 to protect pilgrims, was formally dissolved in 1312.

Which presidential home, designed by Irish-born James Hoban, had its cornerstone laid at noon on 13 October 1792?

The White House was not ready for a resident until 1800, when John Adams became the first president to move in on 1 November. It was still unfinished when he arrived from Philadelphia.

Which Chicago gangster was convicted on 17 October 1931 of income tax evasion rather than any violent crime?

Al Capone was found guilty on five counts and sentenced a week later to 11 years in federal prison. On top of the fine, he was held liable for $215,000 in back taxes plus interest.

Which landmark designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973?

Sydney Opera House opened 16 years after Utzon won the design competition, and seven after he resigned over rows about cost and delays. He died in 2008 without ever returning to see it finished.

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, some 30 shots in 30 seconds on 26 October 1881, erupted in which Arizona town?

Tombstone saw the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday kill three of the outlaw Cowboys that afternoon. Despite the name, the shooting broke out in a narrow lot off Fremont Street, not inside the corral.

Which American city opened its first underground subway line on 27 October 1904, with rides costing a nickel?

New York City drew more than 150,000 paying passengers on that first day alone. The 9.1-mile route ran north from City Hall station, almost 36 years after the first elevated line had opened.

Carving of Mount Rushmore stopped on 31 October 1941 with only which president shown in any detail below the chin?

George Washington is the only one with more than a head, because the money ran out before the planned head-to-waist figures could be cut. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum had died that March, leaving his son Lincoln to finish the job.

Which Paris cabaret, birthplace of the modern can-can, opened at the foot of Montmartre on 6 October 1889?

Moulin Rouge began as an outdoor garden café-concert and wears a landmark red windmill on its roof. When the blades collapsed into the street in spring 2024, they were back in place within three months.

What begins for the United States federal government every 1 October, a start date set by a 1974 budget law?

The fiscal year used to begin on 1 July, and the later start gave Congress more time to settle its spending decisions. The switch left the summer of 1976 as a one-off 'transition quarter'.

Which Norse explorer is honoured in the United States every 9 October, three days before the traditional Columbus Day?

Leif Erikson's own landing date is unknown, so the day borrows the date in 1825 when the ship Restauration arrived with some of the first Norwegian immigrants. It was first marked nationally in 1964.

World Animal Day falls on 4 October, the feast day of which Italian friar, patron saint of animals?

Francis of Assisi's feast was the plan from the start, but the very first World Animal Day took place in spring 1925 because the Berlin hall was booked on 4 October. It moved to his day in 1929.

The United Nations keeps its International Day of Non-Violence on 2 October, the birthday of which independence leader?

Mahatma Gandhi's birthday was already the Indian public holiday Gandhi Jayanti when the General Assembly voted in June 2007 to make it a worldwide observance.

Which annual observance, kept in February in the United States, has been marked in October in Britain since 1987?

Black History Month reached Britain through Ghanaian organiser Akyaaba Addai-Sebo, a former special projects coordinator at the Greater London Council. The first event was held in London on 1 October 1987.

Britain's Stoptober campaign challenges people to give up which habit for 28 days each October?

Smoking is the target, and the 28 days are no accident: people who last that long are five times more likely to stay smoke-free. The Chief Medical Officer launched it as the first mass quit attempt.

Which state has kept the second Monday of October as Native American Day since 1990, its 'Year of Reconciliation'?

South Dakota dropped Columbus Day by a unanimous vote of its legislature in 1989, on a proposal from Governor George Mickelson. The same law declared a year of reconciliation between Native Americans and whites.

Which European country keeps 12 October as its national day, the date of Columbus's landfall in 1492?

Spain marks the day with an armed forces parade in Madrid, and the date doubles as the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, patroness of Zaragoza.

Which country's Republic Day on 29 October marks the 1923 proclamation of a republic by its Grand National Assembly?

Turkey's deputies went on to vote Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in as the first president, an office he kept until his death. The holiday is marked with fireworks, concerts and parades.

South Korea's Hangul Day, a public holiday each 9 October, celebrates the 15th-century creation of the nation's what?

The alphabet, called Hangul, was introduced under King Sejong the Great in a text of 1446, and 9 October is only a best guess at when it was published. North Korea marks the event on 15 January instead.

Where is 'Double Ten Day' the national day each 10 October, recalling the 1911 Wuchang Uprising against the Qing?

Taiwan celebrates the revolt that brought down the dynasty and ended more than two thousand years of imperial rule. On the mainland the same date is kept only as the anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution.

Greece's Ohi Day on 28 October recalls the refusal of a 1940 ultimatum from which dictator?

Benito Mussolini's ambassador delivered the demand shortly after 3 am, and prime minister Ioannis Metaxas is reported to have answered with the Greek for no. Greek troops then pushed the invading Italians back.

Which CBS sitcom about a bandleader's scheming wife premiered on 15 October 1951 and ended its run top of the ratings?

I Love Lucy was America's most-watched show in four of its six seasons and the first to bow out while still number one. Lucille Ball played opposite her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz.

Which anthology series created and presented by Rod Serling premiered on CBS on 2 October 1959 to rave reviews?

The Twilight Zone ran for five seasons, and Serling wrote or co-wrote 92 of its 156 episodes himself. His narration opened and closed almost every story.

Which Al Jolson film, premiered on 6 October 1927, was the first feature-length picture with synchronised speech?

The Jazz Singer has talking in only a few isolated scenes, yet its success effectively ended the silent film era. Jolson performs six songs, recorded on discs by the Vitaphone system.

Which animated sitcom launched its 'Treehouse of Horror' Halloween specials in the October of its second season?

The Simpsons aired the first one on 25 October 1990, loosely inspired by old EC horror comics. The spooky tales are treated as non-canon, sitting outside the show's normal continuity.

Which musical set in the Land of Oz opened at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre on 30 October 2003 to mixed reviews?

Wicked shrugged off those notices and was still filling the Gershwin more than twenty years later. Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth led the original cast as Elphaba and Glinda.

Which storybook bear, named after a real animal at London Zoo, first had a book of his own on 14 October 1926?

Winnie-the-Pooh sold 150,000 copies before the year was out. The 'Winnie' half of his name came from Winnipeg, a bear that author A. A. Milne's son Christopher knew from the zoo.

Which American writer gathered nineteen macabre short stories in his 1955 collection The October Country?

Ray Bradbury took fifteen of the tales from Dark Carnival, his 1947 debut collection, revising some of them, and added four published elsewhere.

The world's largest hot-air balloon festival fills the skies over which US city for nine days each October?

Albuquerque's fiesta began in 1972 with just 13 balloons at a radio station's birthday party and grew to more than 500. It settled in October because autumn proved far better for flying than February.

Which German city hosts the world's largest book fair each mid-October, a trade with roots in Gutenberg's era?

Frankfurt is close to Mainz, where Gutenberg built his press, and booksellers were trading at its fair within decades. The modern event began in 1949 in St Paul's Church.

The World Conker Championships, held each October in Northamptonshire, are fought with the strung seeds of which tree?

Horse chestnut seeds, more than 2,000 of them, are collected, drilled and strung by officials before play begins. The contest started in 1965 when anglers in Ashton found the weather too foul for fishing.

Henry V's vastly outnumbered army won which battle on St Crispin's Day, 25 October 1415, largely through its longbowmen?

Agincourt was won by a sick, hungry army in which archers made up nearly 80 percent of the men. Shakespeare later wrote Henry a rousing speech for the moments before the fighting.

The Charge of the Light Brigade, led by Lord Cardigan on 25 October 1854, was a blunder of which war?

The Crimean War's most famous mistake sent about 670 horsemen head-on at a well-prepared Russian battery after a vague order. Tennyson's poem about it was published six weeks later.

Which Dutch dancer, convicted of spying for Germany, was shot by 12 French soldiers before dawn on 15 October 1917?

Mata Hari, born Margaretha Zelle, is said to have blown a kiss to the firing squad at Vincennes. Her stage name means 'sun', or literally 'eye of the day'.

Which nickname is given to the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested, set off over the Arctic on 30 October 1961?

Tsar Bomba was a Soviet device of about 50 megatons, released from a bomber above the islands of Novaya Zemlya. The blast broke windows as far away as Norway and Finland.

On 15 October 2003, which country became only the third to launch a person into space with its own rocket?

China sent Yang Liwei around the Earth 14 times aboard Shenzhou 5, landing him 21 hours after lift-off. Only the Soviet Union and the United States had managed it before.

In American politics, an 'October surprise' is a late news event that could sway the outcome of what?

An election in early November is what the surprise is meant to tip. William Casey coined the phrase in 1980 while running Ronald Reagan's campaign, though such late twists are much older.

Canada's October Crisis of 1970 began when a separatist group kidnapped a British diplomat in which province?

Quebec's FLQ seized diplomat James Cross and then provincial minister Pierre Laporte, who was murdered. Pierre Trudeau responded with the War Measures Act, its first use in peacetime.

Which Roman emperor, born in October AD 51, renamed the month after himself until his memory was condemned?

Domitian picked October because it was his birth month. After his assassination in 96 the Senate condemned his memory, melting his statues and erasing his name from public records.

Which week-long Jewish festival, often falling in October, has families eating their meals in a temporary hut?

Sukkot recalls the shelters of the Exodus, so for seven days meals are eaten in a sukkah and many people sleep in it too. It also began as an autumn harvest festival.

In ancient Rome, the 'October Horse' sacrificed each 15 October after a chariot race was offered to which god?

Mars received the right-hand horse of the winning two-horse team, killed with a spear as the farming and campaigning seasons closed. The race was run on the Campus Martius, the field named for him.