Moments in Time: The Jazz Singer
The History Channel
On Oct. 6, 1927, "The Jazz Singer," a part-talkie film featuring six songs by Al Jolson, debuted in theaters, marking the end of cinema's silent film era even though it only contained about two actual minutes of synchronized dialogue.
On Oct. 7, 1944, several hundred prisoners in the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau revolted and destroyed most of the gas chambers and crematoria in which they were forced to work. A small number of Nazi officers were killed in the struggle, but after a brief escape, the perpetrators were captured and executed.
On Oct. 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire, today considered the most devastating fire in American history, started in Wisconsin, killing about 1,200 people and consuming 2 billion trees. Despite its massive scale, however, the smaller Great Chicago Fire, which began later that night, dominated newspaper headlines over the next days.
On Oct. 9, 1635, Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court of Massachusetts for protesting the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Native American land. He went on to found present-day Providence, Rhode Island, with assistance from the Narragansett tribe.
On Oct. 10, 1973, less than a year before Richard M. Nixon's resignation as President of the United States, his vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace, pleading no contest to a charge of federal income tax evasion in exchange for dropped charges of political corruption. He was fined $10,000, sentenced to three years' probation, and disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
On Oct. 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII convened an ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church for the first time in 92 years, in the hope of bringing a spiritual rebirth to Catholicism as well as fostering greater unity among other branches of Christianity.
On Oct. 12, 1945, Private First Class Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, became America's first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor for outstanding bravery as a combat medic.
(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.