October Curriculum Calendar - Lesson Plan Ideas by Date

Enhance your current curriculum with this fun reference calendar. Whether you want to highlight historic events, honor birthdays of significant people, or celebrate holidays, this is a valuable tool for every teacher. Click on any event to find a breadth of related teaching resources that will spark new ideas to spice up your daily lessons. There's something worth celebrating every day!

Curriculum Calendar

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat
29
Miguel de Cervantes born (1547)
Also try: Don Quixote
John D. Rockefeller becomes America's first billionaire (1916)
Also try: oil industry
30
Truman Capote born (1924)
The Hoover Dam dedicated by FDR (1935)
Also try: hydroelectricity
1
National Bullying Prevention Month
Also try: cyberbullying
Yosemite National Park established by US Congress (1890)
Also try: sequoia forest
Nazi leaders are sentenced at the Nuremberg Trials (1946)
Also try: Holocaust, war crimes
2
International Walk to School Day
International Day of Non-Violence
World Farm Animals Day
Also try: cows, horses, chickens, pigs
3
National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day
East and West Germany reunify (1990)
Also try: Berlin Wall
4
Construction begins on Mount Rushmore (1927)
Also try: national monuments
USSR launches Sputnik I (1957)
Also try: space race
5
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) debuts (1970)
6
Thomas Edison shows his first motion picture (1889)
Mary Leakey finds the first partial fossil of Proconsul africanus (1948)
7
World Habitat Day
Far side of the moon first observed by Luna 3 (1959)
Hua Guofeng becomes Mao Zedong's successor as chairman of Communist Party of China (1976)
Also try: Mao Zedong
8
The Great Chicago Fire starts (1871)
Also try: fire safety
First pacemaker implanted (1958)
Also try: heart, medical devices
9
The most recent supernova observed in the Milky Way (1604)
Also try: Milky Way
10
Metric system conceived (1796)
11
Eleanor Roosevelt born (1884)
Also try: first ladies
Second Boer War begins (1899)
12
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy published (1979)
Also try: science fiction
13
First spiral galaxy discovered by Charles Messier (1773)
Also try: the universe, astronomy
George Washington lays White House cornerstone (1792)
14
Dwight D. Eisenhower born (1890)
Also try: US presidents
First gay rights march on Washington, DC (1979)
Also try: civil rights, protests
15
Hispanic Heritage Month ends
Also try: Latin America, Spain
Nelson Mandela awarded Nobel Peace Prize (1993)
Also try: Nelson Mandela
16
National Fossil Day
Also try: archaeology, dinosaurs
John Brown leads raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)
Also try: John Brown
17
US Department of Education created (1979)
Also try: public education
18
Moby Dick published (1851)
19
Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Revolutionary War ends (1781)
Saddam Hussein goes on trial for crimes against humanity (2005)
20
US Senate ratifies Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Also try: westward expansion
Sydney Opera House opens (1973)
Also try: opera, Australia
21
National Reptile Awareness Day
Also try: turtles, lizards, snakes
Ferdinand Magellan discovers Strait of Magellan (1520)
Thomas Edison unveils light bulb (1879)
22
Jean-Paul Sartre awarded Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns it down (1964)
Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus (1975)
23
Women's Suffrage March in New York City (1915)
24
Annie Edson Taylor becomes first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel (1901)
Also try: waterfalls
25
Pablo Picasso born (1881)
Also try: cubism
US invades Grenada (1983)
Also try: Caribbean, Ronald Regan
26
Hillary Clinton born (1947)
Also try: Secretary of State
Erie Canal opens (1825)
Also try: the Great Lakes
27
President Theodore Roosevelt born (1858)
Also try: US presidents
28
Statue of Liberty dedicated (1886)
National Prohibition Act goes into effect (1919)
29
Stock Market crashes, "Black Tuesday" (1929)
First ARPANET link established, precursor to the Internet (1969)
30
John Adams born (1735)
Also try: US presidents
War of the Worlds radio broadcast (1938)
Also try: H.G. Wells
31
Seven Billion Day: global population reaches 7,000,000,000 (2011)
Also try: population growth
1
American Indian & Alaska Native Heritage Month begins
Also try: heritage, ancestors
European Union comes into existence (1993)
Also try: Europe
2
James Polk born (1795)
Also try: US presidents
Warren G. Harding born (1865) and elected president (1920)
Also try: US presidents