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History is made every year, month, and day, whether it’s the passing of a highly debated and discussed law or a 5th grader winning their city-wide spelling bee. Here are some significant events in history that occurred during October.
2 October 1967
Justice Thurgood Marshall became the first African American associate justice to the US Supreme Court. Born in 1908, Marshall found his passion for the justice system in high school after being forced to read the US Constitution as punishment. He quickly began to further his legal education, memorizing texts he found intriguing and later studying law at Howard University after being rejected by the University of Maryland due to his race. Throughout his law career, he was known as a strong advocate against discrimination and the death penalty. Before being appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to the Supreme Court, Marshall worked on and won many cases against the oppressive Jim Crow Laws, notably the famous Brown vs Board of Education case.
5 October 1936
Václav Havel was born in Prague. Born into a middle-class family during the time of communism, Havel did not have easy access to education, but still made it through high school and went on to study in university. After University, he got his first job as a stagehand for a theatre company in Prague and began to write plays of his own. Havel was a known activist for liberal reforms in 1968 (The Prague Spring). Shortly after, during the Soviet Union’s “clampdown on Czechoslovakia,” his passport was taken and his plays were censored. He spent a total of 4 years in prison during this time and was then elected as the last president of Czechoslovakia on 26 January 1993, during the “The Velvet Revolution.” He helped lead them into the Czech Republic and establish a new democracy.
22 October 1917
Highly renowned jazz musician John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Gillespie was first introduced to the world of music through his father, who was a bandleader. His father gave Gillespie lessons in many instruments–however, after his death in 1927, Dizzy settled on furthering his trumpet and trombone skills. After spending two years taking music classes at the Laurinburg Institute, Gillespie got his first job in Frankie Fairfax’s band based in Philadelphia. He was given the nickname “Dizzy” because of his goofy and often unpredictable behavior. During his career, Gillespie would play in many bands, with artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. Along withLouis Armstrong, Gillespie will go down as one of the greatest trumpet players in jazz history.
