Moments in Time: Sherlock Holmes
On Oct. 12, 1990, South Dakota became the first state to rename Columbus Day "Native American Day," in honor of the initial inhabitants of the Americas. Two years later, the city of Berkeley, California, would be the first to call it "Indigenous Peoples' Day."
On Oct. 13, 1925, groundbreaking stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce, whose freewheeling and profanity-laced routines on taboo topics notably attacked societal conventions and occasionally resulted in arrests, was born in Mineola, New York.
On Oct. 14, 1892, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Arthur Conan Doyle was published. The book was the first collection of Holmes stories, which had been published in magazines since 1887. Its titular detective was partly inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, whom Conan Doyle had met at the University of Edinburgh when he studied medicine there.
On Oct. 15, 2024, researchers announced seven new species of tree frogs in Madagascar whose high-pitched whistling calls were reminiscent of sound effects from the sci-fi series "Star Trek," prompting the monikers Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Burnham and Pike.
On Oct. 16, 1906, German shoemaker Wilhelm Voight, who already had a long criminal record, embarrassed the German army by impersonating an officer and leading an entire squad of soldiers to the town of Kopenik, where they helped him steal 4,000 marks from the mayor's office.
On Oct. 17, 1974, President Gerald Ford explained to Congress that he had chosen to pardon Richard Nixon, rather than allow Congress to pursue legal action against him, claiming that a long, drawn-out trial would have further polarized the public -- a decision that was condemned by many and may have helped cost Ford a victory in the presidential election of 1976.
On Oct. 18, 1963, Félicette, a Parisian stray cat, had the honor of becoming the first (and to date the only) cat to visit outer space. The black-and-white feline's journey lasted 98 miles and a grand total of 13 minutes before her capsule safely parachuted back to Earth.
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