Kukla, Fran and Ollie was an early TV show using puppets. It was
created for children, but was soon watched by more adults than
children. It did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed. It
was broadcast from Chicago between October 13, 1947, and
August 30, 1957. Comedienne Fran Allison starred, interacting
with puppets, Kukla and Ollie (and sometimes other puppets)
whose puppeteer was the show’s creator, Burr Tillstrom. After
the original run, the team appeared in other productions over
several decades.

On October 11, 1975, Saturday Night Live (SNL),featuring Chevy
Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris,
Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman, made its debut on NBC.

The 90-minute program, which from its inception has been
broadcast live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center, includes a
different guest host and musical act each week. The opening
sketch of each show ends with one actor saying, “Live from
New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Created by the Canadian-born comedy writer Lorne Michaels,
SNL has introduced a long list of memorable characters and catchphrases.

A news update with Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin.

The Coneheads were (from left) Laraine Newman, Jane
Curtain and Dan Akyroyd.

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Martin Milner and George Maharis

On October 7, 1960, the first episode of the one-hour television
drama "Route 66" aired on CBS. The program had a simple
premise: It followed two young men, Buz Murdock (George
Maharis) and Tod Stiles (Martin Milner), as they drove across
the country in an inherited Corvette (Chevrolet was one of the
show’s sponsors), doing odd jobs and looking for adventure 
while on a journey in search of themselves.

On October 5, 1947, President Harry S Truman (1884-1972)
made the first-ever televised presidential address from the
White House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of
grain in order to help starving Europeans.

At the time of Truman’s food-conservation speech, Europe
was still recovering from World War II and suffering from
famine.

On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union inaugurated the "Space Age"
with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for "satellite,"
was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch
base in the Kazakh Republic. Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches
and weighed 184 pounds and circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had
an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee
(nearest point) of 143 miles.

Visible with binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be
picked up by amateur radio operators. Those in the United States
with access to such equipment tuned in and listened in awe as the
beeping Soviet spacecraft passed over America several times a day.