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An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2022 day arrangement |
October 1: Unification Day in Cameroon (1961); Independence Day in Nigeria (1960) and Tuvalu (1978); Filipino American History Month begins
- 1800 – With the signing of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain returned the colonial territory of Louisiana to France in return for territories in the Italian region of Tuscany.
- 1868 – St Pancras railway station (pictured) in London, now the terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, opened to the public.
- 1906 – A deputation of Muslim leaders led by the Aga Khan III met Indian viceroy Lord Minto to secure greater political representation, eventually leading to the founding of the All-India Muslim League.
- 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces invaded the area surrounding Dubrovnik, Croatia, beginning a seven-month siege of the city.
- Morphia of Melitene (d. 1126 or 1127)
- Helen Mayo (b. 1878)
- Faik Ali Ozansoy (d. 1950)
October 2: International Day of Non-Violence; Gandhi Jayanti in India
- 1263 – Scottish–Norwegian War: Norwegian and Scottish armies fought the Battle of Largs, an inconclusive engagement near the present-day town of Largs, Scotland.
- 1835 – Mexican dragoons dispatched to disarm settlers at Gonzales in Mexican Texas encountered stiff resistance from a Texian militia at the Battle of Gonzales, the first armed engagement of the Texas Revolution.
- 1937 – President Rafael Trujillo announced that Dominican troops had begun mass killings of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.
- 1971 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (pictured) was re-elected unopposed as President of South Vietnam.
- 1996 – A maintenance worker's failure to remove tape covering the aircraft's static ports caused Aeroperú Flight 603 to crash into the ocean near Lima, Peru, killing all 70 people on board.
- François-Timoléon de Choisy (d. 1724)
- Ruth Cheney Streeter (b. 1895)
- Maria Ressa (b. 1963)
- 2333 BC – According to Korean legend, Dangun established Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom.
- 1792 – Spanish forces departed Valdivia, Chile, to suppress the Huilliche uprising.
- 1951 – The First Battle of Maryang-san, widely regarded as one of the Australian Army's greatest accomplishments during the Korean War, began.
- 1981 – The hunger strike by Irish Republican Army prisoners at HM Prison Maze in Belfast ended after seven months and ten deaths (memorial pictured).
- 1991 – Nadine Gordimer became the first South African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- Gabriel Lalemant (b. 1610)
- Carl Nielsen (d. 1931)
- Kathryn D. Sullivan (b. 1951)
October 4: Cinnamon Roll Day in Sweden and Finland
- 1602 – Anglo-Spanish War: An English fleet intercepted and attacked six Spanish galleys in the Dover Straits (depicted).
- 1779 – American Revolution: James Wilson and his colleagues were forced to defend themselves after a mob, angered by his successful legal defense of 23 people from exile, converged on his house, resulting in six deaths.
- 1925 – Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji captured the city of Hama from the French Mandate of Syria.
- 1941 – Willie Gillis, one of Norman Rockwell's trademark characters, debuted on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
- 1958 – The current Constitution of France was signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.
- Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton (d. 1581)
- Amaro Pargo (d. 1747)
- Henrietta Lacks (d. 1951)
- 1607 – Venetian statesman Paolo Sarpi survived an attack by assassins sent by Pope Paul V.
- 1869 – During construction of the Eastman tunnel in St. Anthony, Minnesota (now Minneapolis), the Mississippi River broke through the tunnel's limestone ceiling, nearly destroying Saint Anthony Falls.
- 1903 – Samuel Griffith (pictured) became the first Chief Justice of Australia, while Edmund Barton and Richard O'Connor became the first Puisne Justices of the High Court of Australia.
- 1973 – Seven nations signed the European Patent Convention, providing an autonomous legal system according to which European patents are granted.
- 2011 – Two Chinese cargo ships were attacked on a stretch of the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle area of Southeast Asia, and their crews murdered.
- Paul Fleming (b. 1609)
- Bill Willis (b. 1921)
- Eduardo Duhalde (b. 1941)
October 6: German-American Day in the United States
- 618 – Wang Shichong's army defeated that of Li Mi, allowing Wang to consolidate his power and soon depose China's Sui dynasty.
- 1762 – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Manila concluded with a British victory over Spain, leading to a twenty-month occupation.
- 1927 – The Jazz Singer (poster pictured), one of the first feature-length motion pictures with a synchronized recorded music score, was released.
- 1976 – Two bombs placed by the CIA-linked Cuban dissident group Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations exploded on Cubana Flight 455, killing all 73 aboard.
- 1985 – Police constable Keith Blakelock was killed during rioting in the Broadwater Farm housing estate in Tottenham, London.
- Samuel of Bulgaria (d. 1014)
- Francesco Manfredini (d. 1762)
- Sadiq al-Ahmar (b. 1956)
- 1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: A Venetian army under Bartolomeo d'Alviano was decisively defeated by the Spanish army commanded by Ramón de Cardona and Fernando d'Ávalos.
- 1849 – American writer Edgar Allan Poe (pictured) died under mysterious circumstances at Washington Medical College four days after being found on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, in a delirious and incoherent state.
- 1944 – The Holocaust: Sonderkommando work-unit members in Auschwitz concentration camp revolted upon learning that they were due to be killed; although a few managed to escape, most were massacred on the same day.
- 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: The Yugoslav People's Army conducted an air strike on Banski dvori, the official residence of the president of Croatia in Zagreb.
- Pierre Le Muet (b. 1591)
- Uncle Dave Macon (b. 1870)
- Michelle Alexander (b. 1967)
- 1076 – Demetrius Zvonimir, the last native king who exerted any real power over the entire Croatian state, was crowned.
- 1871 – Five large fires broke out in the United States, including the Great Chicago Fire in Illinois and the Peshtigo fire in Wisconsin, the latter being the deadliest in U.S. history.
- 1904 – The Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta (Downtown Edmonton pictured), was incorporated.
- 1952 – Three trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station in London, killing 112 people and injuring 340 others.
- 2019 – Anti-government protests calling for free and fair elections began in Baku, Azerbaijan.
- Pilgrim I (d. 923)
- John Hay (b. 1838)
- Varsha Bhosle (d. 2012)
October 9: Feast day of Saint John Henry Newman (Catholicism); Leif Erikson Day
- 1793 – French Revolution: After a month-long siege, the leaders of Lyon surrendered, ending their revolt against the National Convention.
- 1888 – The Washington Monument (pictured) in Washington, D.C., at the time the world's tallest building, officially opened to the general public.
- 1913 – Carrying a cargo hold full of highly flammable chemicals, the ocean liner SS Volturno caught fire in the north Atlantic and sank, resulting in 136 deaths.
- 1986 – The Phantom of the Opera, a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and currently the longest-running Broadway show in history, opened in London's West End.
- 2019 – Syrian civil war: Turkish forces began an offensive into north-eastern Syria following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region.
- Claude Gaspar Bachet de Méziriac (b. 1581)
- Reginald Dyer (b. 1864)
- Clare Boothe Luce (d. 1987)
- 1760 – In a treaty with the Dutch colonial authorities, the Ndyuka people of Suriname gained territorial autonomy.
- 1846 – English astronomer William Lassell discovered Triton (pictured), the largest moon of Neptune.
- 1933 – In the first proven act of sabotage in the history of commercial aviation, a Boeing 247 operated by United Airlines exploded in mid-air near Chesterton, Indiana, killing all seven people aboard.
- 1943 – World War II: The Kenpeitai, the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army, arrested and tortured fifty-seven civilians and civilian internees on suspicion of their involvement in a raid on Singapore Harbour during Operation Jaywick.
- 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty, a treaty that forms the basis of international space law, entered into force.
- John Paston (b. 1421)
- Antoine Coysevox (d. 1720)
- Gavin Newsom (b. 1967)
October 11: Feast day of Saint James the Deacon (Anglicanism); National Coming Out Day; Thanksgiving in Canada (2021)
- 1311 – The peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England published the Ordinances of 1311 to restrict King Edward II's powers.
- 1531 – Swiss Reformation leader Huldrych Zwingli was killed in battle when Zürich forces were attacked by Catholic cantons in response to a food blockade being applied by his alliance.
- 1840 – Bashir Shihab II (pictured) surrendered to the Ottoman Empire and was removed as Emir of Mount Lebanon after an imperial decree by Sultan Abdülmecid I.
- 1937 – Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, arrived at Friedrichstraße station in Berlin to begin their tour of Germany.
- 1991 – During the confirmation hearings upon the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States, Anita Hill testified that he had sexually harassed her several years earlier.
- Edward Colston (d. 1721)
- Henry J. Heinz (b. 1844)
- Beni Montresor (d. 2001)
October 12: National Day in Spain (1492)
- 1398 – The Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Konrad von Jungingen signed the Treaty of Salynas, the third attempt to cede Samogitia to the Knights.
- 1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Garnerin (pictured) became the first woman to make a parachute descent, falling 900 m (3,000 ft) in a hot-air balloon gondola.
- 1871 – The Criminal Tribes Act entered into force in British India, giving law enforcement sweeping powers to arrest, control, and monitor the movements of the members of ethnic or social communities that were defined as "habitually criminal".
- 1984 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England, in a failed attempt to assassinate British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet.
- Thomas Dudley (b. 1576)
- Arthur Harden (b. 1865)
- Sheila Florance (d. 1991)
- 1773 – French astronomer Charles Messier discovered the Whirlpool Galaxy (pictured), an interacting, grand design spiral galaxy located an estimated 31 million light-years away.
- 1843 – B'nai B'rith, the world's oldest continually operating Jewish service organization, was founded in New York City.
- 1921 – The Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia signed the Treaty of Kars with the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, establishing the current borders between Turkey and the Caucasian states.
- 1961 – Newly elected Burundian prime minister Louis Rwagasore was assassinated by his political rivals.
- Rudolf Virchow (b. 1821)
- Lillie Langtry (b. 1853)
- Antonio Berni (d. 1981)
October 14: Defenders and Defendresses of Ukraine Day
- 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
- 1888 – French inventor Louis Le Prince filmed Roundhay Garden Scene (featured), the earliest surviving motion picture, in Leeds, England.
- 1926 – The first book featuring English author A. A. Milne's fictional bear Winnie-the-Pooh was published.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: Prisoners at Sobibor extermination camp revolted, killing 11 SS officers and staging a mass escape.
- 1964 – Members of the Politburo voted to remove Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and replace him with Leonid Brezhnev.
- Samuel Daniel (bur. 1619)
- Joseph Plateau (b. 1801)
- Sumner Welles (b. 1892)
October 15: Vijayadashami (Hinduism, 2021)
- 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces captured Glasgow, Missouri, although it had little long-term benefit as Price's Missouri Expedition was defeated a week later.
- 1888 – George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in London, received a letter allegedly from Jack the Ripper.
- 1917 – Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari (pictured) was executed by a firing squad for spying for Germany.
- 1954 – Hurricane Hazel made landfall in the Carolinas in the United States before moving north to Toronto in Canada later the same day, killing a total of 176 people in both countries.
- 2011 – Global demonstrations against economic inequality, corporate influence on government, and other issues, were held in more than 950 cities in 82 countries.
- Lambert of Italy (d. 898)
- Louis-Eugène Cavaignac (b. 1802)
- Julia Yeomans (b. 1954)
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI, was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the French Revolution.
- 1869 – Girton College (pictured), one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge and England's first residential college for women, was founded.
- 1923 – Roy and Walt Disney founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood; it eventually grew to become one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world.
- 1964 – With the success of Project 596, China became the world's fifth nuclear power.
- 1991 – A man drove his vehicle through the window of a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and opened fire, killing 23 people before fatally shooting himself.
- Shams al-Din Juvayni (d. 1284)
- John Hunter (d. 1793)
- Hema Malini (b. 1948)
- 1346 – Hundred Years' War: King David II of Scotland was captured at the Battle of Neville's Cross following his invasion of England under the terms of Scotland's Auld Alliance with France.
- 1660 – A series of executions of the commissioners who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England concluded; six were hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.
- 1931 – American gangster Al Capone (pictured) was convicted on five counts of income-tax evasion.
- 1952 – Indonesian Army elements surrounded the Merdeka Palace, demanding that President Sukarno disband the Provisional People's Representative Council.
- 2001 – Rehavam Ze'evi, the Israeli minister of tourism, was assassinated in revenge for the killing of PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa.
- Jupiter Hammon (b. 1711)
- Raffaele Bendandi (b. 1893)
- Micheline Ostermeyer (d. 2001)
October 18: Mawlid (Sunni Islam, 2021); Feast day of Saint Luke (Christianity); Alaska Day (1867)
- 1561 – Sengoku period: The Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima (depicted), one of the most famous in Japanese history, was fought in present-day Nagano Prefecture.
- 1748 – The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
- 1929 – In the Persons Case, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decided that women were eligible to sit in the Senate of Canada.
- 2019 – Protests in Santiago that started 11 days prior escalated into open battle against the Chilean national police, forcing President Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency.
- John FitzWalter, 2nd Baron FitzWalter (d. 1361)
- Isaac Jogues (d. 1646)
- Jesse Helms (b. 1921)
- 1596 – The Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on the Japanese island of Shikoku, and its cargo confiscated by the local daimyō.
- 1752 – The Pennsylvania Gazette published a statement by Benjamin Franklin describing a kite experiment (depicted) to determine the electrical nature of lightning.
- 1943 – World War II: Allied aircraft sank the German cargo ship Sinfra, killing mostly Italian POWs.
- 1955 – At a meeting of its general assembly, the European Broadcasting Union approved the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.
- 1987 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 22.6 percent on Black Monday, the largest one-day percentage decline in the stock market index's history.
- Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (b. 1897)
- Demetrios Christodoulou (b. 1951)
- Ali Treki (d. 2015)
- 1097 – Forces of the First Crusade arrived at Antioch, beginning an eight-month siege of the city.
- 1740 – Under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction, Maria Theresa (pictured) ascended the Habsburg throne.
- 1951 – African-American college football player Johnny Bright was the victim of an on-field assault that eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules that mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards.
- 1991 – An earthquake struck the Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing at least 768 people and destroying thousands of homes.
- 2011 – First Libyan Civil War: Deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured by rebel forces during the Battle of Sirte and killed shortly thereafter.
- Bálint Balassi (b. 1554)
- James Anthony Froude (d. 1894)
- Kamala Harris (b. 1964)
- 1096 – The Seljuk forces of Kilij Arslan destroyed the army of the People's Crusade as it marched toward Nicaea.
- 1858 – French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring the music most associated with the can-can (audio featured), was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris.
- 1941 – World War II: German soldiers massacred nearly 2,800 Serbs in Kragujevac in reprisal for insurgent attacks in the district of Gornji Milanovac.
- 1968 – At the height of the Japanese university protests, protestors occupied Shinjuku Station and clashed violently with police.
- 1994 – North Korea and the United States signed the Agreed Framework to limit the former's nuclear weapons program and to normalize relations between the two countries.
- Birger Jarl (d. 1266)
- Sims Reeves (b. 1821)
- Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)
October 22: International Stuttering Awareness Day; feast day of Saint John Paul II (Catholicism)
- 1633 – Ming Chinese naval forces defeated a Dutch East India Company fleet in the Taiwan Strait, the largest naval encounter between Chinese and European forces before the First Opium War more than two hundred years later.
- 1740 – A two-week massacre of ethnic Chinese in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, came to an end with at least 10,000 people killed.
- 1907 – A bank run forced New York's Knickerbocker Trust Company to suspend operations, which triggered the Panic of 1907.
- 1940 – After evading French and Spanish authorities, Belgian prime minister Hubert Pierlot (pictured) arrived in London, marking the beginning of the Belgian government in exile.
- 2001 – The controversial video game Grand Theft Auto III was first released to critical acclaim, and went on to popularise open-world and mature-content games.
- James Strachan-Davidson (b. 1843)
- George Coulthard (d. 1883)
- Deepak Chopra (b. 1946)
October 23: Mawlid (Shia Islam, 2021); Mole Day
- 1295 – The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England was signed in Paris.
- 1850 – The inaugural National Women's Rights Convention, presided over by American activist Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, began in Worcester, Massachusetts.
- 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flew his biplane 14-bis (depicted) for 50 metres (160 ft) at a height of about four metres (13 ft).
- 1934 – Jeannette Piccard piloted a hot-air balloon flight that reached 57,579 feet (17,550 m), becoming the first woman to fly in the stratosphere.
- 1956 – The Hungarian Revolution began as a peaceful student demonstration that attracted thousands while marching through central Budapest to the parliament building.
- Johan Gabriel Ståhlberg (b. 1832)
- Emma Vyssotsky (b. 1894)
- Josh Kirby (d. 2001)
- 1648 – The second treaty of the Peace of Westphalia was signed, ending both the Thirty Years' War and the Dutch Revolt, and officially recognising the Dutch Republic and the Swiss Confederation as independent states.
- 1795 – As a result of the Third Partition of Poland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist as an independent state, with its territory divided between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
- 1889 – Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of the Colony of New South Wales, gave a speech in which he called for the federation of the six Australian colonies.
- 1931 – The George Washington Bridge (pictured), connecting New York City to Fort Lee, New Jersey, and today the world's busiest motor-vehicle bridge, was dedicated.
- 1964 – Charges in a military court against generals Dương Văn Đức and Lâm Văn Phát of leading a coup attempt against South Vietnamese leader Nguyễn Khánh, were dropped..
- Marianne North (b. 1830)
- Désiré Charnay (d. 1915)
- Carlo Abarth (d. 1979)
October 25: Labour Day in New Zealand (2021)
- 1147 – Reconquista: Forces under Afonso I of Portugal (pictured) captured Lisbon from the Moors after a four-month siege in one of the few Christian victories during the Second Crusade.
- 1854 – Crimean War: Lord Cardigan led his cavalry on a disastrous assault in the Battle of Balaclava.
- 1927 – The Italian cruise liner SS Principessa Mafalda sank when a propeller shaft broke and fractured the hull, resulting in 314 deaths.
- 1944 – Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a nonconformist youth group that assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Nazis.
- 2001 – Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale.
- Évariste Galois (b. 1811)
- Larry Itliong (b. 1913)
- Kara Hultgreen (d. 1994)
- 1341 – The Byzantine army proclaimed chief minister John VI Kantakouzenos emperor, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of John V Palaiologos, the heir to the throne.
- 1902 – A group of Russian explorers led by Baron von Toll left their camp on Bennett Island and disappeared without a trace.
- 1921 – The Chicago Theatre (pictured), the oldest surviving grand movie palace, opened.
- 1955 – Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam after defeating former emperor Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.
- 2001 – President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law, significantly expanding the authority of law enforcement agencies in fighting terrorism in the United States and elsewhere.
- Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet (d. 1671)
- William T. Anderson (d. 1864)
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (d. 1902)
- 1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The French Army of the Rhine under François Bazaine was forced to surrender after a nine-week siege of the fortifications of Metz.
- 1946 – Inter-religious riots in which Hindu mobs targeted Muslim families began in the Indian state of Bihar, resulting in anywhere between 2,000 and 30,000 deaths.
- 1981 – Cold War: The Soviet Whiskey-class submarine U137 ran aground near Sweden's Karlskrona naval base (monument pictured), sparking an international incident termed "Whiskey on the rocks".
- 2004 – The Boston Red Sox completed a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series, breaking the so-called "Curse of the Bambino".
- 2011 – Michael D. Higgins was elected President of Ireland with far more votes than any politician in the country's history.
- Abulfeda (d. 1331)
- William Gillies (b. 1868)
- Jan Duursema (b. 1954)
October 28: Feast day of Saint Jude the Apostle (Western Christianity)
- 1776 – American Revolutionary War: As George Washington's Continental Army retreated northward from New York City, the British Army captured the village of White Plains.
- 1891 – The Mino–Owari earthquake, the strongest known inland earthquake in Japan's history, caused widespread damage and 7,273 deaths.
- 1928 – Indonesian composer Wage Rudolf Supratman introduced "Indonesia Raya", now the country's national anthem.
- 1971 – Prospero (flight spare pictured), the first British satellite launched on a British rocket, lifted off from Launch Area 5B at Woomera, South Australia.
- 2013 – The first terrorist attack in Beijing's recent history took place when members of the Turkistan Islamic Party drove a vehicle into a crowd, killing five people and injuring thirty-eight others.
- Robert Liston (b. 1794)
- Max Henry Ferrars (b. 1846)
- Rosalie Slaughter Morton (b. 1876)
October 29: Republic Day in Turkey (1923)
- 539 BC – Cyrus the Great captured Babylon, incorporating the Neo-Babylonian Empire and making the Achaemenid Empire the largest in history at that time.
- 1792 – William Robert Broughton, a member of George Vancouver's expedition, observed a peak in the present-day U.S. state of Oregon and named it Mount Hood (pictured) after British admiral Samuel Hood.
- 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The Israel Defense Forces massacred at least 52 villagers while capturing the Palestinian Arab village of Safsaf.
- 1986 – British prime minister Margaret Thatcher officially opened the M25, one of Britain's busiest motorways.
- 1991 – Galileo became the first spacecraft to visit an asteroid when it made a flyby of 951 Gaspra.
- Dan Emmett (b. 1815)
- Franz von Papen (b. 1879)
- Woody Herman (d. 1987)
- 1863 – Seventeen-year-old Vilhelm, Prince of Denmark, arrived in Athens to become King George I of Greece (pictured).
- 1888 – King Lobengula of Matabeleland granted the Rudd Concession to agents of Cecil Rhodes, setting in motion the creation of the British South Africa Company.
- 1918 – The Armistice of Mudros was signed in Greece, ending hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I and paving the way for the occupation of Constantinople and the subsequent partition of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1938 – CBS Radio broadcast the radio drama The War of the Worlds, causing panic among some listeners who believed that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.
- 1991 – The Madrid Conference, an attempt by the international community to revive the Israeli–Palestinian peace process through negotiations, convened.
- Adelaide Anne Procter (b. 1825)
- Günther von Kluge (b. 1882)
- Florence Nagle (d. 1988)
- 475 – Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last effective ruling emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1517 – According to one account, Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, present-day Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
- 1941 – Approximately 400 workers completed the 60-foot (18 m) busts of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
- 1984 – Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi (pictured) was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, sparking riots that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs.
- 2015 – Shortly after takeoff, Metrojet Flight 9268 exploded and then crashed into the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.
- John Keats (b. 1795)
- Juliette Gordon Low (b. 1860)
- Larry Mullen Jr. (b. 1961)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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