October was a scary time, 54 years ago

In the middle of October that year, Nikita Khrushchev lost his job as first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party…less than a year after the assassination of America’s president, John Kennedy. Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, who would continue as one of the top Soviet leaders for almost 20 years. The Russians put three cosmonauts into one spaceship during an October flight, before the U.S. even attempted a two-man spaceflight. It was seen as proof that Russia wanted to get to the moon first. That same week, China…also known as ‘Red China’…exploded an atomic bomb.

La Crosse’s Catholic Bishop, John Treacy, died in mid-October. Treacy was 73, and had led the La Crosse Diocese for 16 years. He had been ill with a kidney disease. The funeral mass at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral, built during Treacy’s time as bishop, drew a few archbishops and many Wisconsin political leaders, including Governor John Reynolds.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Junior was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for his civil rights work and his philosophy of non-violence.

A new segment of I-90 was dedicated…46 miles of road connecting Tomah and the Dells.

And a Harvard graduate who ran the college testing program predicted a college education would be free by the 1970’s. Dr. Henry Dyer said America was becoming so affluent, the public would be willing to pay tuition for college students. Maybe they didn’t talk much about student loans in 1964…yesterday in La Crosse.