October 2, 2002: Jimmy Boegle writes in CityLife: “Catchy quotables. Biblical rhetoric. Ridiculous worst-case scenarios. Insults. Scare tactics. Lies. These were all used by the various Nevadans Against Legalizing Marijuana.”
October 3, 1984: Former local defense attorney and U.S. District Court Judge Harry Claiborne is sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion, “the first federal judge in U.S. history convicted for a crime while on the bench.”
October 4, 1995: Funeral services are held for high school teacher Ann Butler, 50, and her long-time partner Russell Teresi, 54, who were gunned down by Butler’s ex-husband, local FBI agent Cullen “Mike” Butler.
October 5, 1918: Schools are shut down indefinitely as 80 cases of the world’s flu pandemic strike our town.
October 6, 1928: A newspaper editorial blames parents for “the 50 boys of 12 and under roaming our streets after 11 p.m.”
October 7, 1984: Announcing his candidacy for the U.S. presidency, local entertainer Blinko the Clown says: “If politicians can act like clowns, then clowns can act like politicians.”
October 8, 1914: American Woman Suffrage President Dr. Anna Shaw, who “tears down the barriers of prejudice and precedent,” speaks here.
October 9, 1930: After a recent crime wave, as unemployed people flock here seeking work on the Boulder Dam project, three men are added to the police force, bringing the total number of officers to eight.
October 10, 1969: Under integration guidelines ordered by a federal judge, “Of the 2,381 teachers in our schools, 182, or roughly 7 percent, are minority race teachers, 25 of whom have been reassigned to the valley’s white schools.”
October 11, 1917: Seventeen-hundred “soldier boys” from Utah, heading to the war in France via L.A., stop here to give a parade before reboarding their train.
October 12, 1906: A newspaper ad touts, “There is but one reliable cure for Contagious Blood Poison (syphilis), and that is S.S.S., the great vegetable blood purifier.”
October 13, 1952: Speaking here, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, after calling local publisher Hank Greenspun “a pamphleteer of the Communist Party,” says this community “should choose between McCarthyism and Greenspunism.”
October 14, 1952: Area women are invited to a demonstration by home economist Mary Jane Isenburg on “wrapping and packaging foods for the home freezer,” at the Fun Center in North Las Vegas.
October 15, 1969: Easy Rider, starring Peter Fonda, is playing at the Huntridge Theater.
October 16, 2007: Former County Commissioner Erin Kenny reports to a “minimum-security, college-campus-like” prison in Phoenix to serve a 30-month sentence for taking bribes from strip club owner Michael Galardi.
October 17, 1960: Two lawsuits totaling $850,000 have been filed against the city by the families of two men “who were shot to death when rookie policeman Jerome Kuk went berserk at his home in Boulder City.”
October 18, 1974: Accused murderer Albert Scott, 21, tells a judge he can’t afford a lawyer but prefers that renowned defense attorney Harry Claiborne defend him rather than a public defender who would “only make me plead guilty to things I didn’t do.”
October 19, 1907: To help rid the city of hoboes and beggars, a newspaper urges commissioners to create a chain gang and put them to work.
October 20, 1960: In a speech before the American Association of University Women, publisher Hank Greenspun reportedly boasts, “I can run any woman in Vegas out of town by just starting rumors against her.”
October 21, 1916: Since no woman in Clark County “has ever been honored with election to public office,” the newspaper suggests Mrs. Jane Burns, a Republican, for the office of auditor and recorder.
October 22, 1960: Sketches for the Vegas Community Bomb Shelter, to be built next month at Fourth and Mesquite streets, have been released.
October 23, 2002: A homicide victim found in the desert three weeks ago has been identified as area resident Jay “Pinky” Smith, 87, former child actor in the Little Rascals series.
October 24, 1946: In the news: A dollar today buys what 69 cents did in 1941.
October 25, 1913: Castoria, which contains “neither opium nor morphine but rather 3 percent alcohol,” is advertised as a cure for worms, baby teething problems, and flatulence.
October 26, 1985: Also in the news: Penthouse Pet of the Year Sheila Kennedy, 23, started out as a “camera girl” at the Flamingo Hilton four years ago.
October 27, 1960: A hundred irate mothers storm City Hall “to protest the closure of the Las Vegas Child Day Center.”
October 28, 1982: Newfound funds of $345,000 in the school district budget have surprisingly surfaced at the last minute to help save 57 jobs scheduled to be cut due to the state’s $8.6 million revenue shortfall.
October 29, 1945: The Atom Bombers, a band billed as “the detonators of devastating rhythm,” are playing at the Railroad Pass Casino.
October 30, 1915: William Delegro, “the piano man,” has been in town two weeks and already has sold six pianos.
October 31, 1864: Abraham Lincoln’s determination to make Nevada the 36th state comes to fruition.
Sources: Las Vegas Age; Las Vegas Morning Tribune; Las Vegas Review-Journal; Las Vegas Sun; CityLife. Illustration by CASH