12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for October 5, 2026
Today’s History:
- 1813 – Shawnee leader Tecumseh was killed fighting alongside British forces against the United States at the Battle of the Thames during the War of 1812.
- 1877 – Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce surrendered to the United States Army near Bear Paw Mountain, Montana, after a fighting retreat of more than 1,000 miles.
- 1892 – Residents of Coffeyville, Kansas, fought the Dalton Gang as its members attempted to rob two banks simultaneously, leaving most of the gang dead.
- 1921 – The World Series was broadcast by radio for the first time as the New York Yankees faced the New York Giants.
- 1947 – President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House, discussing the international food crisis.
- 1953 – Earl Warren took the oath of office as the 14th chief justice of the United States.
- 1958 – Clinton High School in Tennessee was bombed after becoming the first state-supported public high school in the South to integrate under a federal court order.
- 1970 – The Public Broadcasting Service began operations, replacing National Educational Television as America’s primary public-television network.
- 1986 – A cargo airplane carrying weapons for the Nicaraguan Contras was shot down, helping expose the Iran-Contra affair.
- 1989 – Televangelist Jim Bakker was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges connected to his PTL ministry.
- 2001 – Newspaper photo editor Robert Stevens became the first person killed during the anthrax attacks that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks.
- 2018 – Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2014 shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1947 – Brian Johnson, English singer and longtime lead vocalist of the rock band AC/DC (79)
- 1952 – Clive Barker, English author and filmmaker known for Hellraiser and the Books of Blood (74)
- 1958 – Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, author and host of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (68)
- 1967 – Guy Pearce, actor known for Memento, L.A. Confidential and The King’s Speech (59)
- 1975 – Kate Winslet, Academy Award-winning actress known for Titanic, The Reader and Mare of Easttown (51)
- 1983 – Jesse Eisenberg, movie actor (43)
- 1989 – Travis Kelce, football player (37)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1813 – Tecumseh, Shawnee leader who organized Native resistance to American territorial expansion (45)
- 1880 – Jacques Offenbach, composer known for The Tales of Hoffmann and numerous comic operas (61)
- 1941 – Louis Brandeis, influential jurist and the first Jewish justice of the United States Supreme Court (84)
- 2004 – Rodney Dangerfield, comedian and actor famous for his “I don’t get no respect” routine (82)
- 2004 – Maurice Wilkins, Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist whose research contributed to the discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure (87)
- 2011 – Fred Shuttlesworth, minister and civil-rights leader who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (89)
- 2011 – Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder whose work helped transform personal computing, music and mobile communications (56)
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