What Happened on October 2?

  • Nazi Germany began its military offensive to seize Moscow. (1941) "Operation Typhoon" was a 10-day surge in which the Nazi military attempted to take control of Moscow. The Russians were prepared, however — many fled ahead of time, burning everything before they left so there would be no provisions to support Nazi troops. "Operation Typhoon" was the beginning of the larger "Battle of Moscow," in which the Soviets prevented the Nazi's from capturing Moscow; it was the first time since the beginning of the war that the Nazi military was forced to retreat. The "Battle of Moscow" also was one of the deadliest battles of World War II — more than one million soldiers were killed.

  • A massacre of student protesters threatened the Olympic Games in Mexico. (1968) In what became known as the "Tlatelolco massacre," government army snipers opened fire on a peaceful student protest of the government occupation at the National Polytechnic Institute. Initially, the government tried to claim the students began shooting first, but this later was proved false. Hundreds of protesters, many of whom were women and children, were killed. The Olympics continued as planned, as the violence wasn't targeted at the games.

  • Nazi's suppressed the "Warsaw Uprising," killing 250,000 people. (1944) The "Warsaw Uprising" began August 1, as an attempt by the Polish resistance to take back control of Warsaw from Nazi occupation. In retaliation, more than 250,000 non-military Polish citizens were murdered by the Nazis.

  • US President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) amendments. (1996) The amendments required government agencies to provide digital access to certain records by making them available electronically and providing areas, such as reading rooms, where citizens could gain digital access.

  • Rock Hudson became the first high-profile celebrity to die of AIDS. (1985) Hudson's death was one of the major influences that changed the public's perception of the disease as a "gay disease," bringing to light the epidemic nature of the illness.

  • US President Woodrow Wilson was paralyzed by a stroke. (1919) The stroke left him blind in one eye and paralyzed on the left side of his body. The stroke and his subsequent disability wasn't revealed until after he died in 1924. He continued serving as US President until 1921.

  • The world's first television was tested. (1925) Scottish inventor John Logie Baird invented the television and later the color tube that provided color television. On this day, he transmitted the world's first televised images using "Stooky Bill," his ventriloquist's dummy.

  • The first black US Supreme Court Justice was sworn into office. (1967) Thurgood Marshall was nominated by US President Lyndon B. Johnson and served on the court until his retirement in 1991.

  • The NFL played its first ever regular season game outside the US. (2005) The Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 31 to 14. The game was held in Mexico City at the Estadio Azteca stadium, where the Mexico national football team plays. The game drew the largest crowd in NFL regular season history, with more than 103,000 fans attending. Other NFL games have been played abroad, but mainly International Series and bowl games.

  • The "Peanuts" comic strip was published for the first time. (1950) Charles Schultz wrote and illustrated the daily first-run strips that ran until one day after he died on February 12, 2000. The strip was published in 21 languages and 75 countries. Reruns continue to run in syndication.

Discussion Comments

HirenB

2nd October is also the day when India's 'Father of the Nation' - MK Gandhi was born. This day is still celebrated as a national holiday in India.

pastanaga

Wow, I had no idea that Peanuts ran for fifty years. That's kind of incredible. I wonder how long it would take to read all of them.

Although I don't know how long the strips were for each daily paper.

I remember when I was a kid I didn't even realize that Charlie Brown came from a comic strip. I thought they were just cartoon characters from the movies and I was confused the first time someone mentioned Peanuts.

Fa5t3r

@umbra21 - I can't imagine how hard that must have been for her. She must have been a very strong woman to carry on like that.

Apparently this is one of the reasons they put the 25th Amendment into place, which deals with the issue of a president who has been disabled.

It was at a fairly critical time I think as well, since that was right around when the Great War had just ended and he would have been promoting the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.

umbra21

I've heard people say that Woodrow Wilson's wife was essentially the first female president, because she basically propped him up after his stroke and did a lot of the decision making. In some cases she was literally propping him up because they would have her help to hold him steady for publicity photos.

I don't think they could get away with something like that today. With the media everywhere and so much coverage of the president, people would notice very quickly that something was wrong.

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