On This Date In History
October 5, 1970 -- Uri Geller charged with being a fraud in Israel.
October 13, 1988 -- The Archbishop of Turin announces at a press conference that radiocarbon dating has established the Shroud
of Turin as having been fabricated between AD 1260 and 1390.
October 18, 1685 -- Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, forbidding exercise of reformed religion. Estimated 50,000 Protestant
families leave France, including military leaders, men of letters, and artisans.
October 21, 1914 -- The birthday of Martin Gardner.
October 22, 1844 -- William Miller (see March) predicts the end of the world, third time's the charm.
October 23, 4004 BC -- The creation of the world, according to James Usher, the Archbishop of Armagh.
October 23, 1997 -- According to Stephen Jay Gould, if we accept Archbishop Usher's date of creation, this is the
date the world ended, and we just didn't notice.
October 30, 1938 -- Orson Welles' broadcasts a radio dramatization of "The War of the Worlds" and many people are
convinced that it is for real.
October 31, 1926 -- The death of Houdini, due to complications from a burst appendix.
October 31, 1992 -- Pope John Paul II formally admitted that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in its 359-year-old persecution
of the 17th-century astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei.
October, 1991 -- The Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine are founded.
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