October 2, 1955 -
Revenge, the very first story on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents show premieres on this date.
Alfred Hitchcock drew the caricature of himself featured in the opening credits. He began his film career as an illustrator of title cards for silent movies.
October 2, 1959 -
...This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area that might be called The Twilight Zone.
Where is Everybody? the first episode of the anthology series The Twilight Zone premiered on this date
Series creator Rod Serling made up the phrase "Sixth Dimension" to use in season one's opening narration. William Self of CBS-TV asked him what was the fifth dimension (given that dimensions one through three are exemplified by a line, a plane, and a cube, respectively, and the fourth is time). Serling answered, "I don't know. Aren't there five?" He then changed the narration to "There is a fifth dimension..."
October 2, 1976 -
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
John Belushi came out on stage with Joe Cocker while he was performing on Saturday Night Live on this date.
Today in History:
Three of the past century's finest comedians were born on October 2:
Groucho Marx (1890),
Bud Abbott (1895),
and Mahatma Gandhi (1869).
Groucho and Abbott were funny enough, but they pale beside the towering comic greatness of Gandhi. "When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible," he once quipped: "but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."
That a humorist capable of such scathing sarcastic wit should have sullied himself with politics is regrettable, but not much worse than Jesus having gotten into religion.
It should also be remembered that for most of Gandhi's life the Indian subcontinent was occupied by the British, and that for the first few formative decades of his existence the British were ruled by a queen who was famously unamused. Gandhi went to extraordinary lengths to amuse Queen Victoria. It was only decades after her death that his genius came to full flower, however, and one can only hope she was amused posthumously.
(Eventually the British realized they didn't get Gandhi's jokes and withdrew from India to develop Monty Python.)
October 2, 1925 -
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird successfully transmitted the first television picture with a greyscale image: the head of a ventriloquist's dummy nicknamed Stooky Bill on this date.
Almost immediately, Logie Baird wanted to test his invention on a living, breathing human being. Baird went downstairs and grabbed an office bot, 20-year-old William Edward Taynton, to see what a human face would look like, and Taynton became the first person to be televised.
October 2, 1935 -
The Hayden Planetarium, the fourth planetarium constructed in the U.S. was opened on this date. It was named after philanthropist Charles Hayden, who donated over $100,000.00 towards its construction.
October 2, 1950 -
The comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles Schulz, debuted in nine newspapers with the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Patty and Sherman. It is still the most-read comic strip in the world.
October 2, 1967 .-
Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as a Supreme Court Judge on this date, becoming the first black justice.
Marshall was President Lyndon Johnson's second Supreme Court appointee, after Abe Fortas.
October 2, 1968 -
Government army snipers in Mexico opened fire on a peaceful student protest of the government occupation at the National Polytechnic Institute on this date. The student protest occurred 10 days before the opening of the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, and the incident became known as the "Tlatelolco massacre."
Initially, the government tried to claim the students began shooting first, but this later was proved false. Hundreds of protesters, many of whom were women and children, were killed. The Olympics continued as planned, as the violence wasn't targeted at the games.
And so it goes
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