6TH DEADLIEST EARTHQUAKE IN HISTORY – OCTOBER 5, 1948

 

Ashgabat Earthquake Memorial

 

The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake, at a magnitude 7.3 Mw, occurred on October 5/6, 1948, near Ashgabat, in the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. The earthquake is considered to be the 6th deadliest earthquake in the history of humankind. Due to censorship by the national government, the Ashgabat Earthquake was not much reported in USSR media. The scholars tend to agree that ban on publicity of the extent of earthquake casualties and damages did not allow the Soviet government to allocate enough financial resources to adequitely respond to disaster. Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, former Deputy Chief of The Office Of Naval Intelligence, on his radio show Secret Missions (twice, on December 12, 1948, and on September 26, 1949), purported that the cause of the earthquake was the first Soviet atomic bomb test.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the small village Gara-Gaudan, 25 kilometers southwest of Ashgabat. The city infrastructure was badly damaged, with the exception of water pipes. Electricity was restored six days after the earthquake. This earthquake killed future Turkmenistan president Saparmurat Niyazov’s mother (his father having died during World War II) and the rest of his family, leaving him an orphan. [Source]

 

 

1ST JAMES BOND FILM DR. NO PREMIERES – OCT. 5, 1962

 

 

Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name. The James Bond films are the longest continually-running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present. In that time, Eon Productions has produced 22 film. The series has grossed just over US$5 billion to date, making it the second-highest-grossing film series of all-time (behind Harry Potter). [Source]

 

The world’s first ‘Bond Girl’, Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress

 

 

PBS IS FOUNDED – OCTOBER 5, 1970

 

 

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia.

Unlike its radio counterpart, National Public Radio, PBS has no central program production arm or news department. All of the programming carried by PBS, whether news, documentary, or entertainment, is created by (or in most cases produced under contract with) other parties, such as individual member stations. [Source]

 

 

CANADIAN OCTOBER CRISIS BEGINS – OCT. 5, 1970

 

 

The October Crisis was a series of events triggered by two kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) during October 1970 in the province of Quebec, mainly in the Montreal metropolitan area.
The circumstances ultimately culminated in the only peacetime use of the War Measures Act in Canada’s history, done by Governor General of Canada Roland Michener at the direction of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, having been requested by the Premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, and the Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau.

The invocation of the act resulted in widespread deployment of Canadian Forces troops throughout Quebec, and in Ottawa gave the appearance that martial law had been imposed, although the military remained in a support role to the civil authorities of Quebec. The police were also enabled with far-reaching powers, and they arrested and detained, without bail, 497 individuals, all but 62 of whom were later released without charges.

Pierre Laporte was eventually found to have been murdered by his captors while James Cross was freed after 60 days as a result of negotiations with the kidnappers who requested exile to Cuba rather than facing trial in Quebec. The cell members responsible for Laporte were arrested and charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder. [Source]

 

 

CHICAGO TYLENOL MURDERS CAUSE NATIONWIDE RECALL – OCT. 5, 1982

 

 

The Chicago Tylenol murders occurred when seven people died after taking pain-relief medicine capsules that had been poisoned. The poisonings, code-named TYMURS by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, took place in late 1982 in the Chicago area of the United States.

These poisonings involved Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules, manufactured by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, which had been laced with potassium cyanide. The incidents led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances and to federal anti-tampering laws. The case remains unsolved and no suspects have been charged. A $100,000 reward, offered by Johnson & Johnson, McNeil’s parent company, for the capture and conviction of the “Tylenol Killer”, has never been claimed.

Johnson & Johnson distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors and halted Tylenol production and advertising. On October 5, 1982, it issued a nationwide recall of Tylenol products; an estimated 31 million bottles were in circulation, with a retail value of over US$100 million. The company also advertised in the national media for individuals not to consume any products that contained acetaminophen. When it was determined that only capsules were tampered with, they offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules already purchased by the public with solid tablets. [Source]

 

 

MARC GARNEAU BECOMES 1ST CANADIAN IN SPACE – OCT. 5, 1984

 

Photograph by NASA

 

Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau, CC CD FCASI MP (born February 23, 1949) is a Canadian retired military officer, former astronaut, engineer and politician. Garneau was the first Canadian in space taking part in three flights aboard NASA Space shuttles. He was the president of the Canadian Space Agency from 2001 to 2006, and in 2003 was installed as the ninth Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa.

Garneau became the first Canadian in space when he flew on the shuttle Challenger, STS-41-G from October 5 to 13, 1984 as payload specialist. [Source]

 

 

CHILEAN NATIONAL PLEBISCITE – OCT. 5, 1988

 

Photograph by National Democratic Institute

 

The 1988 Chilean national plebiscite was a national referendum held to determine whether or not dictator Augusto Pinochet would extend his rule for another eight-year term in office. It was held on October 5, 1988. The NO side won with 55.99% of the vote, and Pinochet renounced office, putting an end to the 16.5 year military dictatorship.

Army General Augusto Pinochet took power on September 11, 1973 in a coup d’état which deposed the democratically-elected Socialist President Salvador Allende. Allende killed himself while the presidential palace was being bombarded. A military junta —led by Pinochet, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh, Navy Admiral José Toribio Merino, and Carabinero Chief General César Mendoza— was sworn in that same evening. The following day, the four drafted an official document suspending the 1925 constitution and Congress and establishing the Junta as Chile’s supreme power. On December 18, 1974 Pinochet was declared Supreme Leader of the nation. After that date, the junta functioned strictly as a legislative body until the return to democracy in 1990. [Source]

 

 

LINUS TORVALDS RELEASES LINUX – OCT. 5, 1991

 

 

Linux is a computer operating system which is based on free and open source software. Although many different varieties of Linux exist, all are Unix-like and based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds.

Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from mobile phones, tablet computers, routers and video game consoles, to desktop computers, mainframes and supercomputers. Linux is a leading server operating system, and runs the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world.

The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Typically Linux is packaged in a format known as a Linux distribution for desktop and server use. Some popular mainstream Linux distributions include Debian (and its derivatives such as Ubuntu), Fedora and openSUSE. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel, supporting utilities and libraries and usually a large amount of application software to fulfill the distribution’s intended use. [Source]

 

 

OVERTHROW OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC – OCT. 5, 2000

 

 

A series of events occurred in 2000 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, following the presidential elections and culminating in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime on 5 October 2000. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘5 October Overthrow’ and sometimes colloquially called the ‘Bager revolucija’, translated into English as Bulldozer Revolution, after one of the most memorable episodes from the day long protest in which an engineering vehicle operator Ljubisav Dokic fired up his engine (which was actually neither bulldozer nor an excavator – “bager” in Serbian – but a wheel loader), and used it to charge the RTS building.

The protest initially started with strikers at the Kolubara mines, which produce most of Serbia’s electricity needs. The protest reached its height on 5 October 2000. Several hundred thousand protesters from all over Serbia arrived in Belgrade to protest. Unlike previous protests, there was no large scale police crackdown. The parliament was partially burned during the protests. [Source]