October 9 in History

The first hydroelectric generator at Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, began producing power on October 9, 1936, sending electricity 266 miles across the desert to Los Angeles through the largest transmission line ever built. The dam itself was an engineering marvel: 726 feet high, containing 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete that would take 125 years to cool naturally. Engineers embedded cooling pipes throughout the structure to speed the process. Construction had killed 96 workers during the five-year build. The cheap electricity it produced powered the aluminum smelters, aircraft factories, and military installations that fueled Southern California's wartime boom. Las Vegas, 30 miles away, grew from a railroad stop to a city on Hoover Dam power. Lake Mead behind the dam became America's largest reservoir.

Andrei Sakharov designed the Soviet hydrogen bomb in the 1950s, then spent the rest of his life trying to stop anyone from using it. The physicist became the Soviet Union's most prominent dissident, publicly opposing nuclear testing, defending political prisoners, and calling for democratic reforms. The Nobel Committee awarded him the 1975 Peace Prize on October 9 for his 'fearless personal commitment in upholding the fundamental principles of peace.' The Soviet government refused to let him travel to Oslo. His wife Elena Bonner accepted on his behalf. In 1980, the Kremlin exiled Sakharov to the closed city of Gorky, where he was kept under constant KGB surveillance for six years. Gorbachev personally called him in December 1986 to invite him back to Moscow. Sakharov died three years later, still fighting.

Eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to intentionally lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The fix was an open secret: sportswriters noticed suspicious play immediately, and gambling odds shifted dramatically before Game 1. First baseman Chick Gandil organized the scheme with gambler Arnold Rothstein, promising players $100,000 in total. Most received far less. Pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who made $6,000 a year, was promised $10,000 and received it stuffed under his hotel pillow before the first game. A grand jury investigated in 1920, but key evidence disappeared and all eight players were acquitted. Baseball's first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned them for life anyway. Shoeless Joe Jackson, who hit .375 in the Series, has been ineligible for the Hall of Fame ever since.

Bolivian soldiers captured Ernesto 'Che' Guevara on October 8, 1967, after his guerrilla column was ambushed in a ravine near La Higuera. He was held overnight in a one-room schoolhouse. The next morning, Sergeant Mario Teran was ordered to execute him. Guevara reportedly told him 'Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man.' Teran fired nine shots. The Bolivian government displayed Guevara's body to journalists, and a photograph by Freddy Alborta became one of the most reproduced images of the twentieth century. His hands were amputated and preserved as proof of identity. Guevara's guerrilla campaign in Bolivia had been a failure: he recruited fewer than 50 fighters, received no support from local communities or the Bolivian Communist Party, and was isolated from resupply for months.

Leif Erikson sailed west from Greenland around 1000 AD and established a Norse settlement at a place he called Vinland. The sagas describe three areas he explored: Helluland (likely Baffin Island), Markland (likely Labrador), and Vinland (likely Newfoundland). For centuries, historians dismissed the sagas as legend. Then in 1960, Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his archaeologist wife Anne Stine found the remains of a Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland's northern tip. They excavated eight buildings, including a forge and a carpentry workshop, along with a bronze cloak pin and iron rivets. Carbon dating placed the site around 1000 AD. The discovery proved Europeans reached North America nearly 500 years before Columbus and earned the site UNESCO World Heritage status in 1978.