October 1
1804 - Modern-day Nebraska became part of the Territory of Indiana.
1919 - Aviatrix Evelyn Sharp was born in Melrose, Mont. Her family later moved to Ord, where she became the nation’s first female airmail pilot.
October 2
1858 - The city of Columbus was incorporated by an act of the Legislature.
1951 - U.S. Rep. Karl Stefan of Norfolk died, ending a 17-year career in Congress.
October 3
1942 - Fort Robinson was designated a training center for the K-9 Corps.
1961 - Cecil Talkington, of Blair, his wife and five of their six children were killed when their car collided with a truck near Fremont. Their other child was staying with grandparents.
October 4
1878 - A special Union Pacific train rushed troops to Ogallala from Fort Sidney to try to intercept the Cheyenne Indians who had broken out of a reservation in Oklahoma. The Indians escaped but eventually were apprehended and held at Fort Robinson.
October 5
1866 - The Union Pacific Railroad reached the 100th meridian at Cozad.
1916 - President Woodrow Wilson arrived in Omaha to attend an Ak-Sar-Ben festival.
October 6
1939 - Former U.S. Rep. Douglas Bereuter was born in York.
October 7
1854 - Francis Burt, appointed the first territorial governor of Nebraska, arrived at Bellevue from South Carolina.
October 8
1899 - Tabor Lodge No. 74 of the ZCBJ Czech freethinkers movement was founded in Saline County.
1963 - Swift & Co. of Chicago announced it would build a meatpacking plant in Grand Island.
October 9
1953 - A car collides with a truck carrying ammunition near Boys Town, killing three people and injuring two others. A fourth person died of a heart attack.
October 10
1871 - The town of Osceola moved to its permanent site in Polk County.
October 11
1943 - The submarine USS Wahoo was sunk by the Japanese during World War II.
1956 - A military air transport plane, 50 of whose 59 passengers were from the Lincoln Air Force Base, was lost over the Atlantic Ocean.
1958 - William Leslie Arnold led police to the graves of his parents in the backyard of their Omaha home. Arnold was accused of shooting them to death two weeks earlier.
October 12
1956 - Vice presidential candidates Richard Nixon and Estes Kefauver spoke at the national corn-picking contest in Columbus.
October 13
1873 - The War Department established Fort McPherson National Cemetery in western Nebraska.
October 14
1880 - A great snowstorm signaled the beginning of a heavy winter that lasted until April.
2008 - A judge dismisses state Sen. Ernie Chambers’ lawsuit against God because the Almighty wasn’t served a legal notice.
October 15
1985 - Gov. Bob Kerrey announced he would not seek a second term, refusing to disclose his reasons or his plans.
October 16
1854 - Francis Burt took the oath as first governor of the Nebraska Territory. But he was so ill from his trip to Nebraska from the East Coast that he died two days later.
October 17
1953 - After losing four games, Nebraska notches its first victory of the football season by defeating Miami 20-16.
1962 - The Rev. William H. McCabe, Creighton University’s 18th president under whose tenure the university decided not to resume intercollegiate football, dies in Milwaukee of a heart attack.
2008 - Safety concerns forced University of Nebraska-Lincoln officials to cancel plans for William Ayers to speak on campus in November. Ayers had helped found the Weather Underground in the late 1960s. The group claimed responsibility for bombing several government buildings.
October 18
1854 - Francis Burt died just two days after becoming the first Nebraska Territory governor. He had become ill on his journey to Nebraska from his home state, South Carolina.
1984 - An earthquake centered near Casper, Wyo., rattled dishes and rocked rocking chairs in the Nebraska Panhandle. People on the top floors of buildings in Omaha said they could feel the quake.
October 19
1974 - Interstate 80 was completed as the golden link was made near Sidney.
October 20
1878 - A prairie fire swept through the community of Swede Home in Polk County.
October 21
1977 - Gov. Jim Exon was dismissed from a Lincoln hospital where he had surgery to remove an enlarged parathyroid gland.
October 22
1876 - Sioux Indian chief Red Cloud surrendered to U.S. troops at Camp Robinson, now known as Fort Robinson.
1921 - Father Flanagan moved Boys Town to a farm west of Omaha.
1944 - Two runways were dedicated at the municipal airport in Norfolk.
1962 - A 73-year-old cashier at the Gresham State Bank committed suicide as a bank examiner entered the building for an audit. Two days later, a bank officer admitted that he and the cashier had taken more than $469,000 from the bank since 1931.
October 23
1874 - Sioux warriors chopped down a tall, pine flagpole at the Red Cloud Agency in northwest Nebraska.
1878 - Troops from Camp Robinson surrounded a band of Cheyenne Indians led by Dull Knife who had escaped from the Indian Territory of modern-day Oklahoma.
1925 - Comedian Johnny Carson, who spent much of his childhood in Norfolk, was born in Corning, Iowa.
1943 - Nebraska beat Kansas 7-6, ending its longest football losing streak at seven games.
1984 - Survivalist Arthur Kirk was shot to death by a State Patrol special weapons team after a standoff on his farm near Cairo.
October 24
1867 - The first classes were held at the state normal school at Peru.
October 25
1877 - Troops from Camp Robinson began escorting Oglala Sioux Indians from the Red Cloud Agency north to a reservation in South Dakota.
October 26
1962 - The mood was subdued at a scheduled salute to Offutt Air Force Base and the Strategic Air Command as Nebraska felt the tension over the Cuban Missile Crisis.
October 27
1899 - Brig. Gen. Guy V. Henry died. He had been commanding officer at Fort Robinson in 1891.
1955 - The Atomic Energy Commission gave preliminary approval for a Consumers Public Power District nuclear power plant.
October 28
1854 - The Bellevue Settlers Club established rules for filing claims.
1958 - Nebraska defeated Penn State in college football 14-7, ending a seven-game Cornhusker losing streak.
October 29
1869 - The Nebraska State Horticultural Society was formed to promote tree culture.
October 30
1880 - The town of Plainview was platted.
October 31
1847 - Mormon leader Brigham Young returned to Winter Quarters north of Omaha from his first trip to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah.
1959 - The Nebraska Cornhuskers upset Oklahoma in Lincoln 25-21, ending the Sooners’ record streak of 74 conference games without a defeat.
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