In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F.
Kennedy announced on October 22, 1962 that U.S. spy planes
had discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile
sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed
medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major
cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C.

Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine”
of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more
offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United
States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites
currently in place. The president made it clear that America
would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.”

What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on
October 14, 1962—the day that U.S. intelligence personnel
analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were
building medium-range missile sites in Cuba.

On the morning of October 21, 1966, a landslide of coal waste
crashed into a small Welsh mining village, killing 116 children
and 28 adults. The accident left just five survivors and wiped
out half the town’s youth. The Aberfan disaster became one
of the UK’s worst coal mining accidents.

The landslide sent 140,000 cubic yards of coal waste in a tidal
wave 40-feet high hurtling down the mountainside where Merthyr
Vale Colliery stood, destroying farmhouses, cottages, houses
and part of the neighboring County Secondary School.

The avalanche is thought to have been the result of shoddy
construction and a build-up of water in one of the colliery’s
spoil tips—piles of waste material removed during mining.

On October 19, 1985, the first Blockbuster video-rental store 
opened in Dallas, Texas. At a time when most video stores
were small-scale operations featuring a limited selection of
titles, Blockbuster opened with some 8,000 tapes displayed
on shelves around the store and a computerized check-out
process.

The first store was a success and Blockbuster expanded
rapidly, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest
providers of in-home movies and game entertainment,
before eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2010.

Blockbuster was founded by David Cook (below), who had
previously owned a business that provided computer
software services to the oil and gas industry in Texas.

TIM MAGUIRE

The lead singer of the band Ronnie Van Zant, vocalist and guitarist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassier Gaines,
and the managing crew including assistant road manager
Dean Kilpatrick, died in the crash.

Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General
Lord Cornwallis surrendered 8,000 British soldiers and
seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively
bringing an end to the American Revolution.