Today In History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
1582 - Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15, skipping over 10 days
1883 - First run of the Orient Express
1957 - Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth

Births
1861 - Frederic Remington, painter (d. 1909)
1880 - Damon Runyon, writer (d. 1946)
1903 - John Vincent Atanasoff, American computer pioneer (d. 1995)

Deaths
1582 - Saint Teresa of Avila (b. 1515)
1669 - Rembrandt Dutch painter (b. 1606)
1880 - Jacques Offenbach, composer (b. 1819)
1904 - Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty (b. 1834)
1989 - Graham Chapman, British comedian (b. 1941)
1989 - Secretariat, Triple Crown-winning race horse (b. 1970)
1997 - Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese game developer (b. 1941)