October 15, 1997: Breaking the Sound Barrier On Land

October 15, 1997: The 1st supersonic (faster than the speed of sound) land speed record is set. Wing Commander Andy Green of Britain's Royal Air Force, then 33 years old, had already set a record of 714 miles per hour on September 25, in the jet-powered Thrust SSC (SuperSonic Car), at Black Rock Desert in Utah. He tries again, in the same vehicle, at the same location, and does it: 763 miles per hour. This happens 1 day after the 50th Anniversary of Chuck Yeager becoming the 1st pilot to fly faster than sound.

Thrust SSC

Thrust SSC was designed by Green and Richard Noble, who held the previous record, set in 1983, at age 37. The record of 763 still stands, but it might not for much longer: Green, now 57, and Noble, 73, have designed a new car, Bloodhound SSC, and they think they could break the 1,000 MPH barrier. 

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October 15, 1997 was a Wednesday. Game 6 of the American League Championship Series is played at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Cleveland Indians win it, 1-0, beating the Baltimore Orioles on Tony Fernández's home run in the top of the 12th. I have a separate entry for this event.

The National League Championship Series ended the day before, with the Florida Marlins beating the Atlanta Braves for the Pennant.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start for another 16 days. There were 9 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Ottawa Seantors, 5-1 at the Corel Center in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now the Canadian Tire Centre. The town was absorbed into Ottawa proper in 2001.)

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 1-1 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

* The Buffalo Sabres and the Carolina Hurricanes played to a tie, 3-3 at the Greensboro Coliseum.

* The Florida Panthers beat their arch-rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1 at the Miami Arena.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-0 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2 at the Edmonton Coliseum (as the Northlands Coliseum was named at the time).

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim played to a tie, 2-2 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now named the Honda Center).

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. 

October 14, 2012: Breaking the Sound Barrier Without a Vehicle

October 14, 2012: Felix Baumgartner, a 43-year-old Austrian former air force officer wearing a pressurized suit, jumps from a hot-air balloon 24 miles above the Earth, and breaks the sound barrier without a vehicle, peaking at 834 miles per hour. He opens his parachute, and lands safely in eastern New Mexico.

The jump, sponsored by Red Bull, the Salzburg, Austria-based soft drink company, had been scheduled for October 9, but weather delays allowed him to make his jump on the 65th Anniversary of Chuck Yeager becoming the 1st man to travel faster than the speed of sound with a vehicle.

Interviewed that day on CNBC, Yeager said he wasn't impressed by it, claiming it had been done before by others. This is in dispute, but Baumgartner was the 1st person certified to have done it.

UPDATE: On July 17, 2025, Baumgartner was paragliding in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Italy when he suffered what was called "a medical episode," and crashed into a swimming pool. He was dead at the age of 56. It was only upon his death that I learned that he was an archconservative, who opposed women's rights and supported Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán.

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October 14, 2012 was a Sunday. The NBA season wouldn't start for another 16 days. The NHL team owners had locked out the players, so the season didn't start until after the new year.

Game 2 of the American League Championship Series was played at the new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. Aníbal Sánchez outpitched Hiroki Kuroda, and the Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees, 3-0. The Yankees just didn't hit in this series, and the Tigers swept them.

Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. With superb starting pitching by Jason Frasor, and a 6th-inning sacrifice fly by Billy Butler, the Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1. The Royals completed the sweep the next day, for their 1st Pennant in 29 years. The Orioles hadn't won one for 31 years.

Game 1 was also played in the National League Championship Series, at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. Home runs from Carlos Beltrán and the previous season's postseason hero, David Freese, gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 6-4 win over the San Francisco Giants. But the Giants would win the Series in 7 games, then sweep the Tigers in the World Series.

And there were NFL games. The preceding Thursday, the Tennessee Titans beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 26-23 at LP Field (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville. Rob Bironas won it with a 40-yard field goal on the last play. In the Sunday games:

* The New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers, 26-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The New York Jets beat the Indianapolis Colts, 35-9 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 26-23 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Jason Hanson won it with a 45-yard field goal with 11:00 left in overtime.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-29 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Minnesota Vikings, 38-26 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Oakland Raiders, 23-20 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 38-10 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the St. Louis Rams, 17-14 at Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Houston Texans, 42-24 at Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) in Houston.

* The Cleveland Browns beat their cross-State rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-24 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now named Huntington Bank Field).

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 19-16 at the University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. Rian Lindell won it with a 25-yard field goal with 11:10 left in overtime.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots, 24-23 at CenturyLink Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle. Russell Wilson threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Sidney Rice to win it with 1:18 left in regulation.

* The Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears, the Jackonsville Jaguars and the New Orleans Saints had a bye week.

* And the next night, on Monday Night Football, the Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 35-24 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

October 14, 1947: Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier

October 14, 1947: Captain Charles E. Yeager, U.S. Air Force, pilots a Bell X-1 plane he named Glamorous Glennis, after his wife, to a speed of 700 miles per hour, over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert of California. At his altitude, 45,000 feet (about 8 1/2 miles above sea level), that was faster than the speed of sound, making Chuck Yeager the 1st human to travel faster than sound.

He named the plane after his wife because, "You're my good-luck charm, Hon. Any plane I name after you always brings me home."

Yeager served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, earning 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He continued to serve in the Air Force until 1975, retiring with the rank of Brigadier General (1 star). That year, Congress awarded him a special silver medal, which it called "equivalent to a non-combat Medal of Honor."

He later served on the commission investigating the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, and as a consultant for flight simulator video games. In 1997, on the 50th Anniversary of the event, he broke the sound barrier again. In 2012, on the 65th Anniversary, at the age of 89, he broke the sound barrier one last time.

In 2013, Flying magazine named 51 Heroes and Heroines of Aviation. Yeager was ranked 5th, the 2nd-highest-ranking living person, behind Paul Poberezny, who soon died, making Yeager the highest-ranking living one. Poberezny was a champion of home-built aircraft, including making a replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh was ranked 3rd, Orville and Wilbur Wright were a joint entry at 2nd, and Neil Armstrong -- a fighter pilot in the Korean War before he was the 1st man to walk on the Moon -- 1st. (John Glenn, also a fighter pilot in Korea, was only ranked 25th.)

A cousin of baseball player Steve Yeager, Chuck Yeager lived until December 7, 2020, age 97. He lived long enough to see the start of the Space Age, the 1st Moon landing, the speed of sound surpassed by a land vehicle; and a man jumping off a platform in the atmosphere, breaking the sound barrier without a vehicle, and parachuting safely to the Earth. Glennis died in 1990.

The Glamorous Glennis is now at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

On May 18, 1953, Jacqueline Cochran, who served as a WAAC and a WASP in World War II, became the 1st woman to break the sound barrier, flying an F-86 Sabrejet. She was older than Yeager, and was 74 when she died in 1980.

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October 14, 1947 was a Tuesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NHL season started the next day. And the NBA season didn't start for another month. So there were no scores on this historic day.

Josip Hrvoje Peruzović, the Croatian professional wrestler who portrayed the Soviet wrestler Nikolai Volkoff, was born on this day.