Ferguson’s husband, James Edward “Pa” Ferguson, was elected Texas governor in 1914 and reelected in 1916. The following year, he was impeached and removed from office on multiple charges, including misapplication of public funds, and was barred from holding office in Texas.

Ferguson, also known as “Farmer Jim,” challenged the validity of his impeachment and sought a place on the ballot in the 1924 Democratic primary. When party leaders refused, Miriam Ferguson ran in his place. Campaigning on the slogan “two governors for the price of one,” she openly promised that her husband would help make major decisions.

In Wyoming, William Bradford Ross took office as governor in January 1923 but died on October 2, 1924, at age 50. His widow, Nellie Tayloe Ross, secured the Democratic nomination for a special election to succeed him. During her tenure, she advocated tax relief for farmers.

Miriam Ferguson served two nonconsecutive terms as governor: 1925 to 1927 and 1933 to 1935. She ran for the office five times in total, losing her final bid in 1940 before retiring from public life. She died on June 25, 1961, at age 86.

Ross served one term, from 1925 to 1927, but lost her reelection bid in 1926. She later became vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her director of the U.S. Mint, a position she held from 1933 to 1953. Ross died on December 19, 1977, at age 101.

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The Osage people originally lived on fertile land spanning parts of present-day Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska in permanent villages. As the United States expanded westward, the Osage were driven from their land through a series of broken treaties and land cessions with the U.S. government. In the early 1870s, the Osage purchased 1.5 million acres of Cherokee land in Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma) and established the sovereign Osage Nation. The arid grasslands weren’t suitable for agriculture, so the Osage initially supported themselves by leasing grazing rights to cattlemen. 

The first oil lease was purchased in 1896 by a banker from Kansas named Henry Foster. The terms were generous: Foster received a “blanket lease” giving him the right to drill anywhere in Osage territory. In exchange, the Osage got 10 percent of all oil revenue, plus a $50 annual fee per well.  

When Foster died suddenly, his brother Edwin took over the lease, forming the Phoenix Oil Company in 1896. The company’s first two exploratory wells were a bust, but the third well, completed on October 28, 1897, tapped a reservoir of high-grade oil 1,600 feet below the surface.

The first oil-producing well yielded 20 barrels a day, but Phoenix Oil didn't sell its first barrel until 1900, when a railroad reached nearby Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The company became the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company in 1901 and steadily expanded production, operating 300 wells by 1905.

In 1906, the Osage Allotment Act divided the reservation into 2,229 parcels of land. Each tribal member received a parcel of 657 acres along with a single “headright,” or share of the tribe's oil royalties. By law, Osage headrights couldn't be sold. They could be inherited, including by non-Osage heirs.

Members of the Osage Nation from Oklahoma on the steps of the Capitol in Washington D.C., during a visit to lobby senators over conditions among Native Americans in Oklahoma, circa 1925.

In 1916, the blanket lease held by the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company expired and the Osage Nation auctioned individual oil leases to the highest bidders. Oil magnates like J. Paul Getty, Harry Sinclair and Frank Phillips gathered at outdoor auctions under the “Million Dollar Elm” and paid vast sums to buy Osage oil rights.  

In the 1920s, Osage oil fields were some of the most productive in the world, producing millions of barrels a year. In 1923 alone, the Osage Nation earned more than $30 million in royalties—the equivalent of over $500 million today. Each individual headright was worth millions of dollars and the roughly 2,000 members of the Osage Nation became among the richest people on the planet per capita. The revenue from the Osage oil fields was greater than all American gold rushes combined.  

The Osage Nation’s newfound wealth attracted outsiders eager to claim a share. Discriminatory laws and policies subjected many Osage citizens to financial guardianships, giving court-appointed guardians control over their money. Corrupt guardians exploited the system, stealing millions of dollars from Osage accounts.

Then the murders began. It’s estimated that more than 100 Osage men and women were killed for their headrights during a harrowing period known as the “Reign of Terror.” Some perpetrators married Osage women to inherit their wealth, then murdered them through poisoning or other means. The killings were chronicled in David Grann's acclaimed 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, which director Martin Scorsese adapted into a 2023 film.

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Sandy formed in the southwest Caribbean Sea on October 22 and became a late-season hurricane two days later. After passing over Jamaica as a Category 1 storm, Sandy rapidly intensified into a Category 3 hurricane before striking Cuba. As it passed over cooler ocean waters, the storm weakened into a post-tropical cyclone but grew considerably in size, with hurricane-force winds stretching up to 175 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds extending some 485 miles outward.

Sandy’s wrath was felt from Maine to Florida, but the storm hit New Jersey the hardest, leaving 2 million of the state’s residents without power and more than 345,000 homes damaged or destroyed. The monster storm made landfall near Brigantine, New Jersey, with sustained 70-knot winds, torrential rain and a record-breaking storm surge exacerbated by high tides and a full moon that flooded towns along the Jersey Shore. The tidal surge washed away piers and boardwalks, even leaving the Star Jet roller coaster in Seaside Heights submerged in the ocean.

Superstorm Sandy also battered New York City, resulting in 44 deaths and an estimated $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity. The storm surge breached seawalls in lower Manhattan, flooding subway stations, tunnels and low-lying streets and sparking a fire in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens that destroyed 130 homes. The extensive destruction forced the New York Stock Exchange to close for two consecutive business days—its longest weather-related closure since the Great Blizzard of 1888.

As Sandy merged with incoming cold air from the west, it even delivered up to roughly 3 feet of heavy snow in portions of Appalachia. (A little over a week later, areas of the Northeast still reeling from Sandy were also substantially blanketed with snowfall during an early-season nor’easter.) Arriving near Halloween, the complex cyclone was dubbed “Frankenstorm” by a forecaster at the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center and left more than $62 billion in damage and at least 147 deaths in its wake.

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Jam Master Jay was born Jason Mizell in 1965 in Brooklyn, New York. Musically gifted, Jay played bass, drums and guitar before discovering the new art of turntables and scratching at age 13. His family moved to the middle-class neighborhood of Hollis, Queens, where Jay made friends with Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels, two teenage rappers who would become known as Run and DMC.  

Backed by Jay’s skilled scratching and a punchy 808 drum machine, Run-DMC created the signature sound of early 1980s hip-hop. The group’s first record, 1984’s self-titled “Run-DMC,” was the first hip-hop album to go gold, followed by “King of Rock” in 1985, the first hip-hop album to go platinum. Along the way, Run-DMC established their trademark style: Adidas tracksuits, gold chains and black Kangol hats.  

Run-DMC became a household name in 1986 with the release of the multiplatinum album “Raising Hell,” produced by hip-hop guru Rick Rubin. The group’s breakout hit was its collaboration with Aerosmith on “Walk This Way,” a groundbreaking fusion of rap and rock. A crossover sensation, Run-DMC was the first rap group to be featured prominently on MTV, the first to appear on “Saturday Night Live” and the first to make the cover of Rolling Stone.  

At a time when “gangsta rap” celebrated violence, Run-DMC was known for its playful lyrics and positive messages. When the group temporarily broke up in the 1990s, Jay started his own record label, Jam Master Jay Recordings, which signed young rap artists like Onyx. Despite his success, Jay never left Queens and his recording studio became a staple of the community.  

That’s why Jay’s 2002 murder was so shocking. On the night of October 30, two gunmen walked into the studio and shot Jay dead in cold blood. Friends, family and grieving community members were baffled by why anyone would kill a man as positive and beloved as Jam MasterJay.  

Jay’s murder remained unsolved until 2020, when two men, Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., were indicted for the killing. Separate from his music career, Jay had become involved in cocaine trafficking to dig himself out of debt. In August 2002, he bought 10 kilos (22 pounds) of cocaine and hired Washington and Jordan to distribute it in Maryland. After a dispute between Washington and another co-conspirator in Baltimore, Jay cut Washington and Jordan out of the Maryland deal, which was worth nearly $200,000. Prosecutors said the two men then conspired to kill Jay.

A third man, Jay Bryant, also pleaded guilty to a murder charge for opening a locked fire escape door to let in the killers.   

Run-DMC was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

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Canadian student J. Gordon Whitehead, accompanied by two other students, visited Houdini’s dressing room at Montreal’s Princess Theatre. Houdini reportedly agreed to be punched and allowed Whitehead to hit him extremely hard in his lower right abdomen several times while the magician lay on a divan.

The students noted that the escape artist, known for jaw-dropping stunts, seemed to be in terrible pain. But Houdini was determined to go on with the show. After performing the following evening, he traveled to Detroit, where he sent a telegram requesting medical attention. Despite a high fever and pain, he took the stage on October 24 for what would be his final performance.

After the show, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with appendicitis. During surgery, doctors discovered a burst appendix and an abdominal cavity full of pus. A few days later, a second operation failed to stop the infection. In an era before antibiotics were widely available, his condition continued to deteriorate.

Houdini, born Erik Weisz, died on October 31, 1926, at age 52. Although the timing fueled speculation that the punches had caused his appendix to rupture, medical experts have questioned that connection. It is possible he was already suffering from appendicitis.

Houdini was buried at Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, New York, where his grave continues to attract visitors, especially around Halloween.

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