The month of Octo
ber is autumnal. The leaves of deciduous trees turn into the most amazing variety of shades of yellow, red, orange and pink. It is a majestic sight to behold until, that is the leaves start to fall on the ground in messy brown heaps that would take ages to clear up. LOL
October makes it nearer to the greatest celebration of all: The birth of our Lord.
However there are intervening celebrations before Christmas and the most known in October is the Halloween, October 31. As from last year, we will once again join in the fun of Halloween. Please help us compile anything and everything Halloween.
Kindly help us also compiling events that happened in October, over the years from around the world.
Month: October
Notable Events in October:
3 October 1959, postcodes were introduced in Britain.
5 October is International Teachers’ Day
12 October 1849, the safety pin was patented in Great Britain.
20 October 1973, Sydney Opera House opened.
21 October 1790, Tricolour is chosen by the French as National Flag.
22 October 1797, first successful parachute descent occurred.
24 October 2003, Concorde makes its last commercial passenger flight.
29 October 1618, Queen Elizabeth I gone mad; she had Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded in Whitehall.
31 October 1982, the Thames barrier was raised for the first time.
Hannah Dadds
6 October 1978 The first woman driver on the London Underground started work; her name was Hannah Dadds.
On 6 October 1889, the Moulin Rouge opened in the Jardin de Paris, at the foot of the Montmartre hill. Its creator Joseph Oller and his Manager Charles Zidler are formidable businessmen who understand perfectly the public’s tastes. The aim is to allow the very rich to come and slum it in a fashionable district, Montmartre. The extravagant setting – the garden is adorned with a gigantic elephant – allows people from all walks of life to mix. Workers, residents of the Place Blanche, artists, the middle classes, businessmen, elegant women and foreigners passing through Paris rub shoulders. Nicknamed “The First Palace of Women” by Oller and Zidler, the cabaret quickly becomes a great success. The ingredients for its success:
A revolutionary architecture for the auditorium that allowed rapid changes of décor and where everyone could mix;
Festive champagne evenings where people danced and were entertained thanks to amusing acts that changed regularly, such as the Pétomane;
A new dance inspired by the quadrille which becomes more and more popular: The Can-can, danced to a furious rhythm by dancers in titillating costumes;
Famous dancers whom history still remembers: la Goulue, Jane Avril, la Môme Fromage, Grille d’Egout, Nini Pattes en l’Air, Yvette Guilbert ;
A place loved by artists, of whom the most iconic was Toulouse-Lautrec. His posters and paintings secured rapid and international fame for the Moulin Rouge.
– Wikipedia
1st October
1957: British public gets ‘Asian Flu’ vaccine
By December 3,550 people had died from influenza in England and Wales – three times as many flu fatalities as in the corresponding period of 1956.
After the vaccine was made available deaths fell but a second wave of the virus in November saw fatalities rise again.
One hundred thousand deaths worldwide were attributed to Asian Flu – nearly 70,000 of them in the United States.
However, the 1957 influenza outbreak was by no means as severe as the other two main pandemics of the 20th century.
During 1918-1920 Spanish Flu resulted in up to 40 million deaths worldwide while in 1968 Hong Kong Flu claimed 700,000 victims.
…………………………..
A vaccine against the strain of influenza currently sweeping around the world has been made available to the British public.
The so-called Asian Flu pandemic has already killed thousands of people around the globe – many of them in the United States.
The virus is believed to have originated in North China in February before spreading worldwide.
It reached the UK three months ago.
The vaccine, which is being produced at the Wright-Fleming Institute of Microbiology in west London, will be distributed free on the National Health Service.
Medical priority
To give the fullest protection against the flu strain two injections are needed at an interval of not less than three weeks.
Tens of thousands of units of the vaccine have been produced during the last two months, however, there is still not enough at present for everyone to be vaccinated.
Doctors, nurses and other medical staff are being given priority.
Yesterday the Registrar-General’s latest bulletin showed the influenza mortality rate rose sharply last week with 121 deaths registered in England and Wales compared with 47 the previous week.
The latest deaths brought the total to 472 since the beginning of the year.
But that figure is well down on the 1,073 influenza deaths registered in the same period last year.
However, what is causing the concern is the rate at which the deaths due to Asian Flu are increasing.
The elderly and young children and those with heart or lung disease, are influenza’s chief victims with many dying of secondary problems, such as bronchial pneumonia.
The killing power of influenza comes from the ability of the virus to mutate easily and rapidly meaning a new vaccine must be produced to deal with each strain.
But it is rare for an epidemic to be transmitted beyond national boundaries and become a pandemic – the last was the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918-1920.