4 October

10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 4 October:

1. Two people with similar names were born on this date: in 1941 Anne Rice, American author whose books include Interview with a Vampire, and in 1958, Anneka Rice, English TV presenter.
2. In 1992 Giorgio Scrimin, 55, kept awake by a howling Cat in Venice, leaned out of his bedroom window to hit it with a broom. The cat sprang on the roof of the house, dislodging a lump of marble which fell on Senor Scimin's head and killed him.
3. The Space Age began on this date in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, (meaning "companion" or "fellow traveller") the first man-made satellite, into orbit. The satellite, built by Valentin Glushko, weighed 184 pounds and was launched from Kazakhstan by a converted Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Sputnik orbited the earth every 96 minutes at a maximum height of 584 miles. In January 1958, it re-entered the earth's atmosphere and burned up.
4. In 1988, Bavarian environment minister Alfred Dick asked people not to yodel in the Bavarian Alps as it was harmful to the environment. The noise scared chamois and drove off golden eagles and other rare birds.
5. The first complete English translation of the Bible was printed in Zurich on this date in 1535 by London printer Miles Coverdale.
6. In 1675, Christian Huygens patented the pocket watch.
7. On this date in 1779 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, aged 7, pulled a knife on his brother, ran away and slept in the open. The event made such an impression on the boy that Coleridge preferred to publish on this date, and also chose the date for both his marriages.
8. In 2010, the world's oldest known high altitude human settlement, estimated to be 49,000 years old, was uncovered near Kokoda, Papua New Guinea.
9. The New Jersey and Pennsylvania daily state Lotteries had the same winning numbers on this date in 1977.
10. An auction was held at Sotheby's New York on this date in 1997, during which the World's largest Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton sold for £5m. It was 50’ long, nicknamed Sue, and had been discovered in Faith, South Dakota in 1990.

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