NOW YOU KNOW

• On Oct. 1, 1940,  the first sectionof the Pennsylvania Turnpike, 160 miles in length, was opened to the public.
• On Oct. 3, 1990, West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a reunified country.
• On Oct. 4, 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit.
• On Oct. 5, 1988, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen lambasted Republican Dan Quayle during their vice-presidental debate, telling Quayle, "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy".
• On Oct. 6, 1683, 13 families from Krefeld, Germany, arrived in Philadelphia to begin Germantown, one of America's oldest settlements.
• On Oct. 7, 1910, a major wildfire devastated the northern Minnesota towns of Spooner and Baudette, charring at least 300,000 acres.  Some 40 people are belived to have died.
• On Oct. 8, 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect gamein a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in game 5, 2-0.  Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay's no-hitter Wedensday missed being a perfect game by giving up a walk in the fifth inning.
• On Oct. 10, 1913, the Panama Canal was completed as President Woodrow Wilson sent a signal from the White House by telegraph, setting off explosives that destroyed a section of the Gamboa dike.
• On Oct. 11, 1779, Polish nobleman Casimir Pulaski, fighting for American independence, died two days after being mortally wounded during the Revolutionary War Battle of Savannah, Ga.
• On Oct. 12, 1492, (according to the Old Style calendar), Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.
• On Oct. 13, 1775, the United States Navy had its origins as the Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.
• On Oct. 14, 1960, the idea of a Peace Corps was suggested by Democratic presidental candidate John F. Kennedy to an audience of students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
• On Oct. 17, 1807, Britian declared it would continue to reclaim British-born sailors from American ships and ports regardless of whether they held U.S. citizenship.
• On Oct. 18, 1892, the first long-distance telephone line between New York and Chicago was officially opened (it could only handle one call at a time).
• On Oct. 19, 2010, five years today, a defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture as his trial opened in Baghdad.
• On Oct. 20, 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
• On Oct. 25, 1910, "America the Beautiful", with words by Katherine Lee Bates and music by Samuel A. Ward, was first published.
• On Oct. 27, 1938, Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".
• On Oct. 29, 1929, Wall Street crashed on "Black Tuesday", heralding the beginning of America's Great Depression.