1864
Confederate Major General Fagan attacked Fayetteville from the west on this day. His forces, estimated at nearly 7,000 troops, laid siege to Fayetteville for nearly a month but failed to drive the Federals out.
1911
Glenn Martin made the first airflight in Fayetteville on this day. He flew a pusher biplane — featuring many of the elements of the Curtiss biplane — at the old Washington County Fairgrounds along the west side of present-day Razorback Road.
Martin took to the skies twice more on Thursday, Oct. 5, before a crowd of 5,000 spectators attending the Washington County Fair.
A writer for the Arkansas Gazette covered the Thursday flights:
“The crowning features of today’s program were two flights of Glenn L. Martin in his Curtiss biplane. The first was successfully executed at 2:30 p.m. At 5 o’clock he gave as good an exhibition of air navigation as is usually seen. He was in the air 20 minutes.
“It covered a distance of 18 miles and it went 3,000 feet high. He started from the same point as Tuesday and sailed over the exhibition grounds toward the south, circled the fair grounds twice and then flew in a southeastern direction for about five miles circling to the north, passed over the city and directly over the university campus and back to the fair grounds. Returning toward the fair grounds he made several spiral glides.
“The exhibition given by Martin today was on a par with the best given
by national aviators of which he in one. If weather conditions are suitable he promises to give the people the best at his command tomorrow, closing his fight with several spiraling circles in landing.”
1930 — G.P. Putnam and Sons released the novel Acres of Sky by Charles Morrow Wilson, a Fayetteville native, on this day.
1963 — With President John F. Kennedy presiding, the Arkansas Razorback Marching Band played at the dedication of Greers Ferry Dam on this day.
1979 — Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series, spoke at Barnhill Arena on the University of Arkansas campus on this day. Roddenberry was
promoting Paramount’s new movie, Star Trek — The Motion Picture.