- 362 The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire
- 794 Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto).
- 1335 Ex-emperor Hanazono (95th Emperor of Japan) became a Zen priest
- 1383 The 1383-85 Crisis in Portugal: A period of civil war and disorder begins after King Fernando dies without a male heir to the Portuguese throne
- 1575 Foundation of Aguascalientes (one of 32 Federal Entities of Mexico)
- 1633 Battle of Liaoluo Bay: Dutch East India Company defeated by Chinese Ming naval forces in southern Fujian sea
- 1707 Scilly Naval Disaster: shipwreck of four Royal navy warships and loss of 1400 men during a storm off the Scilly Isles - will prompt 1714 British Act of Parliament competition to find longitude at sea
- 1708 Great Alliance occupies Rijsel
Emperor of all Russia
1721 Tsar Peter the Great titles himself "Emperor of All Russia"
- 1746 Princeton University (NJ) received its charter
- 1797 Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes 1st parachute descent from a balloon in Paris
- 1799 Russia leaves second anti-French Coalition
- 1812 Duke of Wellington seizes Burgos, Spain
- 1827 German chemist Friedrich Wöhler is the first to isolate pure aluminium
President Sam Houston
1836 Sam Houston inaugurated as 1st elected President of the Republic of Texas
- 1844 Millerite Adventists wait for appearance of Jesus
- 1861 1st telegraph line linking West & East coasts completed
- 1862 Battle at Old Fort Wayne, Indian Territory
- 1862 Confederate troops reconquer Cumperland Gap, Tennessee
- 1867 Foundation of the National University of Colombia.
- 1868 Jacques Offenbach's opera "Genevieve de Brabant" premieres in NYC
- 1875 First telegraphic connection in Argentina.
- 1875 Sons of American Revolution organizes
- 1877 The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners. Those widows and orphans who were unable to support themselves were evicted by the mine owners and likely sent to the Poor House.
- 1878 The first rugby match under floodlights takes place in Salford, between Broughton and Swinton.
Edison Perfects Light Bulb
1879 Thomas Edison perfects carbonized cotton filament light bulb
NY's Metropolitan Opera House Opens
1883 New York's original Metropolitan Opera House has its grand opening with a performance of Charles Gounod's opera "Faust"
- 1884 General Gordon receives letter of Mahdi
- 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) worldwide, creating 24 international time zones with longitude zero at the Greenwich meridian
- 1884 Sporting Life announces that both pennant winners will meet in 3 game series Oct 23-25 at Polo Grounds NYC to determine baseball champion
- 1885 John Ward & several teammates secretly form Brotherhood of Prof Base Ball Players, 1st baseball union
- 1895 David Belasco's "Heart of Maryland" premieres in NYC
- 1895 In Paris an express train overruns a buffer stop, crosses more than 30 meters of concourse before plummeting through a window at Gare Montparnasse
- 1897 World's first car dealer opens in London
- 1899 British troops flee Dundee, Natal South Africa
- 1904 Russian fleet shoots at British fishing ship
- 1906 3000 blacks demonstrate & riot in Philadelphia
Henry Ford Takes Over
1906 Henry Ford becomes President of Ford Motor Company
- 1907 Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock leads to US wide run on banks
Ringling Bros. Buys Barnum & Bailey
1907 Ringling Brothers Greatest Show on Earth buys Barnum & Bailey circus
How Long Must Women Wait?
1916 Suffragette Inez Milholland collapses during a speech in Los Angeles, California and dies weeks later. Her last word's are to President Woodrow Wilson “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?”
The Punch that Killed Harry Houdini
1926 Boxer J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in his dressing room at the Princess Theater in Montreal. The attack started or helped cause the appendicitis that would take Houdini's life 9 days later.
- 1928 China expels all Russian instructors & civil servants
- 1928 ESL Robinson's "Far-Off Hills" premieres in Dublin
Rugged Individualism
1928 Herbert Hoover speaks of "American system of rugged individualism"
- 1928 Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.
Fall of Briand's 8th Government
1929 8th French government of Aristide Briand falls
Red Dust
1932 Film "Red Dust" directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Mary Astor premieres
- 1932 George Kaufman & Edna Ferbers "Dinner at 8" premieres in NYC
Carnera vs. Uzcudun
1933 Italian boxer Primo Carnera beats Spanish challenger Paulino Uzcudun on points in Rome, Italy to retain the IBU heavyweight title
Pretty Boy Floyd Killed
1934 Notorious bank robber Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents in East Liverpool, Ohio
Exile of Edvard Beneš
1938 President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš goes into exile in London, in the aftermath of the Munich agreement and German annexation of Sudetenland
- 1939 NBC becomes first network to televise a pro football game; Brooklyn Dodgers beat Philadelphia Eagles, 23-14 at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field
Candle in the Wind
1941 Maxwell Anderson's play "Candle in the Wind" premieres in NYC
Now, Voyager
1942 "Now, Voyager" film directed by Irving Rapper, and starring Bette Davis, Paul Henreid and Claude Rains, premieres in New York; wins 3 Academy Awards
- 1942 1st ships of invasion fleet for Oran (Algeria) leave Scotland
- 1942 Operation Flagpole: US Major General Mark Clark & Brigadier General Lyman Lemnitzer meet Vichy French Général Charles Mast secretly in small fishing village of Cherchell, Algeria to finalize plans for Allied Invasion of North Africa
- 1944 David Diamond's 2nd Symphony premieres with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky
- 1944 WWII: Japanese Navy Admiral Takeo Kurita's fleet leaves North Borneo
- 1946 2 British ships sink near Albania
- 1948 First Arab–Israeli War: Israeli Navy sinks Egyptian Navy flagship 'King Farouk' using explosive-laden motorboat in the Mediterranean Sea near Gaza
- 1949 200 killed in train derailment near Nowy Dwor Poland
- 1949 Emile Zatopek runs world record 10,000m (29:21.2)
- 1950 LA Rams beat Baltimore Colts 70-27
- 1951 Earthquake hits Formosa, 100 killed
- 1951 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1953 Laos gains full independence from France
- 1954 West Germany joins North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- 1955 WWNY TV channel 7 in Carthage-Watertown, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1956 A concrete girder weighing 200 tons kills 48 in Karachi, Pakistan.
- 1956 France intercept Moroccan plane, arrest Ahmed Ben Bella
- 1956 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
- 1957 KJAC TV channel 4 in Port Arthur-Beaumont, TX (NBC) 1st broadcast
Adenauer Re-elected
1957 Konrad Adenauer re-elected Chancellor of West Germany
- 1961 75,000 Flemings demand equal rights & Flemish language in Belgium
Cuban Missile Crisis
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy addresses TV about Russian missile bases in Cuba and imposes a naval blockade on Cuba, beginning the missile crisis
- 1962 Pacific Science Center opens at Seattle Center
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1963 225,000 students boycot Chicago schools in Freedom Day protest
- 1963 BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner crashes on October 22 in UK with the loss of all on board.
- 1964 EMI rejects audition by "High Numbers"; they go on to become "The Who"
Nobel Prize
1964 French philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre refuses Nobel prize
- 1964 US performs underground nuclear test at Hattiesburg, Mississippi
- 1966 USSR launches Luna 12 for orbit around Moon
- 1967 Denny Hulme becomes first New Zealander to win the F1 World Drivers Championship with 3rd place in the Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez; wins title by 5 points from team leader Jack Brabham
- 1967 Ian Brayshaw (W Aus v Vic, Perth) takes all 10 cricket wkts
Sports History
1967 Joe DiMaggio is hired as executive VP of A's by Charlie Finley
Music History
1969 Paul McCartney denies greatly exaggerated rumors of his death
Baseball Trade
1974 MLB New York Yankees trade outfielder Bobby Murcer to San Francisco Giants for outfielder Bobby Bonds
- 1975 Soviet spacecraft Venera 9 soft-lands on Venus, becoming the first lander to return images from the surface of another planet
- 1975 Turkish diplomat shot to death in Vienna
- 1975 World Football League disbands after the Week 12 of their second season
- 1976 Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
Sports History
1976 Rick Barry (San Francisco), begins then longest NBA free throw streak of 60
New York City Marathon
1978 New York City Marathon: Grete Waitz of Norway wins in her race debut in world record 2:32:30; Bill Rodgers wins his third straight title in 2:12:12
Papal Inauguration
1978 Pope John Paul II is inaugurated as Pope
- 1979 "One Mo' Time" with Vernel Bagners premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
1979 Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrives in NYC for medical treatment
- 1979 Walt Disney World's 100-millionth guest
- 1980 4th government of Martens forms in Belgium
- 1980 New South Korean constitution comes into effect
- 1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization decertified
- 1981 Start of 1st-class game at Newcastle, NSW v Queensland
- 1981 The founding congress of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Organisation faction led by Hareram Sharma and D.P. Singh begins.
- 1981 The TGV railway service Paris-Lyon is inaugurated.
- 1981 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame artificial sweetener for tabletop use following years of scrutiny
- 1981 US national debt tops $1 trillion
- 1981 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1982 Gene Mauch resigns as manager of Angels
- 1983 Two correctional officers are killed by inmates in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspired the Supermax model of prisons.
- 1984 Future Pro Football HOF quarterback Ken Stabler retires after 17 seasons in the NFL with Oakland Raiders, Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints
- 1984 Paul McCartney releases "Give My Regards to Broad Street" soundtrack
- 1986 WNBC-AM NYC helicopter crashes into Hudson River during a live report, killing traffic reporter Jane Dornacker
- 1987 American composer John Adams's first opera, "Nixon in China", premieres at the Houston Grand Opera, in Houston, Texas
- 1987 Nobel prize for literature awarded to Joseph Brodsky
Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground
1988 "Devil Worship: Exposing Satan's Underground" TV special hosted by Geraldo Rivera screens on NBC
Music Concert
1988 Elton John sells out Madison Square Garden, NYC, for a record 26th time
Event of Interest
1988 US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor survives breast cancer surgery
- 1989 Denver Nuggets beat Jugoplastika Split 135-129 in 3rd McDonald Open
F1 World Champion
1989 Over-competitive McLaren teammates Alain Prost & Ayrton Senna famously collide and skid into an escape road during Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka; Prost retires from race and claims 3rd Formula 1 World Drivers Championship
The Sisters Rosensweig
1992 Wendy Wasserstein's play "The Sisters Rosensweig" premieres off-Broadway in NYC
- 1993 Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov makes record 9th space walk
- 1994 Statue of Sam Houston unveiled in Texas
- 1994 Tony Rominger bicycles world record time (53,832 km)
- 1996 NY Yankee Bernie Williams hits record tying 7th post season HR, as Yanks tie record of 6th straight post season road win (en route to 8)
- 1997 Compaq testifies Microsoft threaten to break Windows 95 agreement if they showcased a Netscape icon
Event of Interest
1997 Larry Flynt sells Hustler to an under-age buyer in a non-zoned area of Cincinnati, Ohio
Sports History
1997 NHL superstar Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet is knocked unconscious and gets 2 stitches after plexiglass falls on her watching a game
- 1997 Yahoo completes purchase of Four11
- 1999 Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
Sports History
1999 NHL goaltender Grant Fuhr wins his 400th career game (vs Florida Panthers)
F1 World Champion
2000 German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher wins Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, his 4th straight race victory to finish season; 3rd, and 1st of 5 straight F1 World Drivers Championships; wins by 19 points from Mika Häkkinen
- 2004 Discovery and isolation of new wonder material Graphene announced in paper by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov (Nobel Prize 2010). Incredibly they used scotch tape to peal layers off Graphite. [1]
- 2005 Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.
- 2006 Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama
- 2006 Spanish Renault driver Fernando Alonso finishes 2nd in season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix at Autódromo José Carlos Pace to retain Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins by 13 points from Michael Schumacher
- 2008 Google Play is launched, the official app store for the Android operating system
- 2008 India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
Gregorio Álvarez Sentenced
2009 Former Uruguayan dictator Gregorio Álvarez sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated murder of 37 Uruguayan dissidents who had fled to Argentina [1]
- 2009 Microsoft releases Windows 7
Red
2012 "Red" 4th studio album by Taylor Swift is released (Billboard Album of the Year 2012/2013)
- 2012 6 Italian scientists are convicted of manslaughter for their failure to predict the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
- 2012 Hurricane Sandy forms in the Western Caribbean Sea
- 2013 "Lego Marvel Super Heroes" first released in North America for some formats including Xbox and Wii - Lego's best-selling video game
Thor: The Dark World
2013 "Thor: The Dark World", directed by Alan Taylor, starring Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, premieres in London
- 2013 22 security force personal are killed in attacks on military checkpoints in Anbar Province, Iraq
- 2013 37 Boko Harem Islamist militants are killed by air and ground strikes in Nigeria
- 2016 AT&T buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion
- 2017 "LA Times" publishes investigation with 38 woman accusing Hollywood writer-director James Toback of sexual harassment
Film & TV History
2018 Actress Selma Blair reveals she has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
Event of Interest
2018 Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison makes a public apology to victims of child sexual abuse in institutions
- 2018 Cameroon's President Paul Biya wins seventh term in office, extending his 36 years in office, in election marred by intimidation and low turnout
Event of Interest
2018 Pipe bomb sent to George Soros' New York home address, first Democrat to receive series of pipe bombs in US
Agreement of Interest
2019 Chilean president Sebastián Piñera agrees to meet opposition leaders after 15 people killed in growing nationwide protests over living costs and inequality
- 2019 Legislation for Northern Ireland legalizing same-sex marriage and abortion comes into effect
Agreement of Interest
2019 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agree deal to jointly control former Kurdish territory in Northern Syria
Event of Interest
2019 Top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testifies President Donald Trump tied aid to Ukraine to demands the country open an investigation into the Biden family
- 2019 UK parliament approves Brexit deal to leave the EU but rejects legislation to fast-track it to meet October 31 deadline
- 2019 US drug company Biogen claims to have created 1st drug to slow advance of Alzheimer's disease called aducanumab
- 2020 Goldman Sachs agrees to pay record $3 billion to end probe into its role in 1MDB corruption scandal to regulators in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia
- 2021 Australian city of Melbourne "world's most locked down city" exits its sixth lockdown after a total of 260 days
- 2022 Italy forms new coalition government, choosing far-right Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia - FdI) leader Giorgia Meloni as Prime Minister, the 1st female to hold the office [1]
