Check out This Day in History for Oct. 1, MainStream’s daily look at significant progressive, intersectional historical events.
1908: Henry Ford introduces the Model T car, the first gasoline-powered vehicle considered affordable to the average American.
1934: Adolf Hitler’s German army enters the Rhineland Zone along the border of Germany and France, violating the Treaty of Versailles, which had been signed 15 years earlier by Germany, Britain, France and the United States to end World War I.
Above, Gen. Colin Powell, James Meredith, and Claudi Sheinbaum
1937: The Marihuana Tax Act takes effect, imposing severe regulation on the import of cannabis and effectively halting the drug’s legal use.
1943: German forces begin deporting Jews from Denmark, triggering thousands of Jews to flee to Switzerland.
1946: With World War II having ended a year before, several of the highest-ranking officials of the Nazi regime, including Hermann Goering, are sentenced to death by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg. Several more are sentenced to prison or acquitted.
1949: Gwendolyn Brooks releases “Annie Allen,” the book of poetry for which she would become the first-ever African-American recipient of a Pulitzer Prize the following year.
1957: The first paper currency carrying the phrase “In God We Trust” enters circulation. The phrase had been appearing on coins since 1908.
1962: James Meredith officially enrolls in the University of Mississippi, and by doing so gives the college the distinction of being the first public institution in the entire state to desegregate. Meredith’s enrollment happened ven while riots on campus injured 160 federal marshalls assigned to protect Meredith.
1989: Denmark becomes the first country in the world to offer legal same-sex partnerships. Colin Powell at 52 becomes the youngest chairman of hte Join Chiefs of Staff, and als the first Black person to fill the post, considered American’s highest military position.
2017: A gunman opens fire on the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and becoming the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
2022: Ukrainian forces enter Lyman in Donetsk province, taking back the province a day after Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced an illegal annexation of the province and four others.
2024: Claudia Sheinbaum, an expert on sustainable development and former mayor of Mexico City, becomes the first woman, and the first Jew, to become president of Mexico. Also, Vice President J.D. Vance (then a U.S. Senator) outdoes Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Waltz, governor of Minnesota in their only debate of the campaign.
References for today’s history nuggets include history.com, On This Day and CBC. Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
