Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/October
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2018 day arrangement | ||||||
October 1: Shemini Atzeret (Judaism, 2018); Beginning of the National Day celebrations in China (1949); Unification Day in Cameroon (1961); Filipino American History Month (begins)
- 1868 – St Pancras railway station (pictured) in London, which is now the terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, opened to the public.
- 1890 – At the encouragement of preservationist John Muir and writer Robert Underwood Johnson, the United States Congress established Yosemite National Park.
- 1918 – First World War: British and Arab troops captured Damascus from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1949 – Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
- 1998 – Europol was founded, when the Europol Convention signed by all European Union member states came into force.
Yaqub Spata (d. 1416) · Rose O'Neal Greenhow (d. 1864) · Zhu Rongji (b. 1928)
October 2: International Day of Non-Violence; Gandhi Jayanti in India
- 1263 – Scottish–Norwegian War: The armies of Norway and Scotland fought the Battle of Largs, an inconclusive engagement near the present-day town of Largs in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
- 1835 – Mexican dragoons dispatched to disarm settlers at Gonzales, Mexican Texas, encountered stiff resistance from a Texian militia in the Battle of Gonzales, the first armed engagement of the Texas Revolution.
- 1928 – Spanish priest Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei (logo pictured), a worldwide organization of the Catholic Church.
- 1941 – World War II: Military forces of Nazi Germany began Operation Typhoon, an all-out offensive which began the three-month-long Battle of Moscow.
- 1990 – A hijacked airliner collided with two other planes while attempting to land at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China, resulting in a total of 128 deaths.
David Teniers III (d. 1685) · Charles Lee (d. 1782) · Sting (b. 1951)
- 2333 BC – According to Korean legend, Dangun established Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom.
- 1951 – The First Battle of Maryang-san, widely regarded as one of the Australian Army's greatest accomplishments during the Korean War, began.
- 1962 – Mercury-Atlas 8, the fifth United States manned space mission, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
- 1991 – Nadine Gordimer (pictured) became the first South African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 2008 – The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, establishing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, was enacted.
Sophie Treadwell (b. 1885) · Carl Nielsen (d. 1931) · Olivia Shakespear (d. 1938)
- 1876 – Texas A&M University opened as the first public institution of higher education in the U.S. state of Texas.
- 1918 – An ammunition plant in Sayreville, New Jersey, U.S., exploded, killing around 100 people and destroying more than 300 buildings.
- 1957 – The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 (replica pictured), the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, was launched by an R-7 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
- 1958 – The current Constitution of France was signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.
- 2010 – The dam holding a waste reservoir in western Hungary collapsed, freeing 1 million m3 (1.3 million yd3) of red mud, which flooded nearby communities and killed ten people.
John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll (d. 1743) · Jenny Twitchell Kempton (b. 1835) · Zinha Vaz (b. 1952)
- 1789 – French Revolution: Upset about the high price and scarcity of bread, thousands of Parisian women and their various allies marched (pictured) on the royal palace at Versailles.
- 1869 – During construction of the Hennepin Island tunnel in St. Anthony, Minnesota (now Minneapolis), U.S., the Mississippi River broke through the tunnel's limestone ceiling, nearly destroying Saint Anthony Falls.
- 1930 – The British airship R101 crashed in France en route to India on its maiden overseas flight, killing 48 passengers and crew.
- 1970 – Members of the Front de Libération du Québec kidnapped British diplomat James Cross, sparking the October Crisis in Montreal.
- 1986 – Eugene Hasenfus's plane was shot down by Nicaraguan forces while carrying weapons to the Contra rebels on behalf of the U.S. government; he was subsequently captured, leading to an international controversy.
Giovanni Visconti (d. 1354) · Paul Fleming (b. 1609) · 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 short British occupation of Manila.
- 1934 – Catalonia's autonomous government declared a general strike, an armed insurgency, and the establishment of the Catalan State in reaction to the inclusion of conservatives in the republican regime of Spain.
- 1998 – University of Wyoming gay student Matthew Shepard was attacked and fatally wounded near Laramie, Wyoming, U.S., dying six days later.
- 2010 – Instagram (current logo pictured) released the initial version of its mobile application for iOS devices.
Sarah Crosby (b. 1729) · Goh Keng Swee (b. 1918) · Babasaheb Bhosale (d. 2007)
- 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.
- 1800 – The French privateer Robert Surcouf led a 150-man crew to capture the 40-gun, 437-man East Indiaman Kent.
- 1868 – Cornell University (co-founder Ezra Cornell pictured) in Ithaca, New York, was established, with an initial enrollment of 412 men the next day.
- 1988 – Near Point Barrow in Alaska, an Iñupiat hunter discovered three gray whales trapped in pack ice, which resulted in an international effort to free them.
- 2008 – 2008 TC3 exploded above the Nubian Desert in Sudan, the first time that an asteroid impact had been predicted prior to its entry into the atmosphere as a meteor.
Guru Gobind Singh (d. 1708) · Charles XIII of Sweden (b. 1748) · Beatrice Hutton (d. 1990)
October 8: Thanksgiving in Canada (2018); Independence Day in Croatia (1991)
- 1897 – Composer Gustav Mahler (pictured) was appointed the director of the Vienna Court Opera.
- 1918 – World War I: After his platoon suffered heavy casualties during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France's Forest of Argonne, American Corporal Alvin York led the 7 remaining men on an attack against a German machine gun nest, killing at least 25 German soldiers and capturing 132 others.
- 1952 – Three trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone station in London, killing 112 people and injuring 340.
- 1962 – The German news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the unpreparedness of the West German armed forces against the communist threat from the east, and was accused of treason shortly afterwards.
- 1969 – Demonstrations organized by the Weather Underground known as the Days of Rage began in Chicago.
Harriet Taylor Mill (b. 1807) · Kiichi Miyazawa (b. 1919) · Wendell Willkie (d. 1944)
October 9: Leif Erikson Day in the United States
- 1708 – Great Northern War: Russia defeated Sweden at the Battle of Lesnaya on the Russian–Polish border in what is now Belarus.
- 1888 – The Washington Monument (pictured) in Washington, D.C., at the time the world's tallest building, officially opened to the general public.
- 1914 – World War I: The civilian authorities of Antwerp surrendered, allowing the German army to capture the city.
- 1942 – World War II: American forces defeated the Japanese at the Third Battle of the Matanikau in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, reversing the Japanese victory a couple of weeks earlier.
- 2016 – Militants attacked a border police post in Myanmar, killing nine people and triggering a period of intense persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Henry Constable (d. 1613) · Benjamin Banneker (d. 1806) · Mona Best (d. 1988)
- 1780 – One of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record struck the Caribbean Sea, killing at least 20,000 people over the next seven days.
- 1846 – English astronomer William Lassell discovered Triton (pictured), the largest moon of the planet Neptune.
- 1911 – The Xinhai Revolution began with the Wuchang Uprising, marking the beginning of the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.
- 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.
- 1963 – The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits all test detonations of nuclear weapons except for those conducted underground, came into effect.
Paulinus of York (d. 644) · Han van Meegeren (b. 1889) · R. K. Narayan (b. 1906)
October 11: National Coming Out Day (international)
- 1142 – The Treaty of Shaoxing was ratified, ending the Jin–Song Wars, although sporadic fighting continued until 1234.
- 1311 – The peerage and clergy of the Kingdom of England published the Ordinances of 1311 to restrict King Edward II's powers.
- 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.
- 1950 – A field-sequential color system developed by Hungarian-American engineer Peter Goldmark became the first color television system to be adopted for commercial use, only for it to be abandoned a year later.
- 1987 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Indian Peace Keeping Force began Operation Pawan to take control of Jaffna from the Tamil Tigers and enforce their disarmament as a part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
Grigory Potemkin (b. 1739) · Henry J. Heinz (b. 1844) · Dorothea Lange (d. 1965)
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 Labrosse (pictured) became the first woman to make a parachute descent, falling 900 m (3,000 ft) in a hot-air balloon gondola.
- 1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States was first used in public schools to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
- 1960 – Japan Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was assassinated during a live television recording by a man using a samurai sword.
- 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 most of her cabinet.
Thomas Dudley (b. 1576) · Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth (d. 1758) · Sheila Florance (d. 1991)
October 13: Friday the 13th (2017)
- 1307 – Agents of King Philip IV of France launched a dawn raid, arresting many members of the Knights Templar, and subsequently torturing them into "admitting" heresy.
- 1885 – The Georgia Institute of Technology (pictured) was established in Atlanta as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the Southern United States.
- 1917 – At least 30,000 people in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal, witnessed the "Miracle of the Sun".
- 1963 – Poet of the Republic of Korea and Rev. Seung-Moo Ha is born.
- 1979 – Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" topped the Billboard Hot 100.
- 2000 – President Kim Dae-jung of South Korea became the first Korean winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 2013 – During the Hindu festival of Navratri at a temple in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, rumours about an impending bridge collapse caused a stampede that resulted in 115 deaths.
Iyasu I (d. 1706) · Lillie Langtry (b. 1853) · Walter Houser Brattain (d. 1987)
October 14: Defender of Ukraine Day
- 1066 – Norman conquest of England: The forces of William the Conqueror defeated the English army at Hastings and killed Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.
- 1863 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Bristoe Station, the Union II Corps surprised and repelled the Confederate attack on the Union rearguard, resulting in a Union victory.
- 1943 – The Holocaust: Inmates at the Sobibór extermination camp in eastern Poland led a revolt, killing 11 SS officers; the camp was shut down a few days later.
- 1956 – B. R. Ambedkar (pictured), a leader of India's "Untouchable" caste, publicly converted to Buddhism, becoming the leader of the Dalit Buddhist movement.
- 2012 – Felix Baumgartner jumped from a helium balloon in the stratosphere to become the first person to break the sound barrier without vehicular power.
Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham (b. 1726) · Mary Margaret O'Reilly (b. 1865) · Julius Nyerere (d. 1999)
- 1529 – The Siege of Vienna ended as the Austrians repelled the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of conquest in Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
- 1888 – George Lusk, the chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee in London, received a letter allegedly from Jack the Ripper.
- 1932 – Air India (modern aircraft pictured), the flag carrier airline of India, began operations under the name Tata Airlines.
- 1965 – Vietnam War protests: At an anti-war rally in New York City, David J. Miller burned his draft card, the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.
- 2013 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Bohol in the Philippines, resulting in 222 deaths.
Al-Mu'tamid (d. 892) · Dolores Jiménez y Muro (d. 1925) · Julia Yeomans (b. 1954)
- 1384 – Jadwiga was officially crowned as "King of Poland" instead of "Queen" to reflect the fact that she was a sovereign in her own right.
- 1793 – Marie Antoinette (pictured), queen consort of Louis XVI, was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the French Revolution.
- 1875 – Brigham Young University, the largest religious university in the United States, was founded in Provo, Utah.
- 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.
- 1978 – Polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years and the first ever from a Slavic country.
Pedro González de Lara (d. 1130) · Lucy Stanton (b. 1831) · Angela Lansbury (b. 1925)
October 17: Dessalines Day in Haiti (1806)
- 1604 – German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed an exceptionally bright star, now known as Kepler's Supernova, which had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus earlier in October.
- 1964 – Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies inaugurated the artificial Lake Burley Griffin (pictured) in the middle of the capital, Canberra.
- 1992 – Having gone to the wrong house for a Halloween party, Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori was shot and killed by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
- 2001 – Rehavam Ze'evi, the Israeli Minister of Tourism, was assassinated in revenge for the killing of the PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa.
Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke (d. 1781) · Childe Hassam (b. 1859) · Chuka Umunna (b. 1978)
October 18: Vijayadashami begins (Hinduism, 2018); Feast day of Saint Luke; Independence Day in Azerbaijan (1991); Alaska Day (1867)
- 1565 – The first recorded naval battle between Europeans and the Japanese occurred when a flotilla of samurai attacked two Portuguese trade vessels in Nagasaki.
- 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 Canadian Senate.
- 1968 – At the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, American Bob Beamon (pictured) set a world record of 8.90 metres (29.2 ft) in the long jump, a mark that stood for 23 years.
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (d. 1744) · Lucy Stone (d. 1893) · Freida Pinto (b. 1984)
- 1596 – The Spanish ship San Felipe was shipwrecked on the Japanese island of Shikoku and its cargo was confiscated by the local daimyō.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Despite incurring nearly twice as many casualties as the Confederates, the Union Army emerged victorious in the Battle of Cedar Creek.
- 1943 – Streptomycin (molecular model pictured), the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated by a PhD student at Rutgers University.
- 1988 – The British government banned the voices of representatives from Sinn Féin and several Irish republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups from being broadcast on television and radio in the United Kingdom.
- 2005 – Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar.
Annie Smith Peck (b. 1850) · Demetrios Christodoulou (b. 1951) · Ali Treki (d. 2015)
- 1740 – Under the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Maria Theresa (pictured) assumed the throne of the Habsburg Monarchy in Austria.
- 1944 – World War II: Fulfilling a promise he made two years previously, General Douglas MacArthur landed on Leyte to begin the recapture of the entire Philippine Archipelago.
- 1973 – Watergate scandal: Both Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than obey Richard Nixon's order to have Archibald Cox fired.
- 1982 – During a UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, a large number of attendees tried to leave the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium at the same time, resulting in a stampede that caused 66 deaths.
- 2011 – Libyan Civil War: Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured during the Battle of Sirte and killed less than an hour later.
Pauline Bonaparte (b. 1780) · Tom Petty (b. 1950) · Farooq Leghari (d. 2010)
- 1520 – The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon near Canada were visited by Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who named them "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins".
- 1854 – Florence Nightingale (pictured) and a staff of 38 nurses and 15 nuns were sent to Turkey to help treat wounded British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War.
- 1944 – World War II: The three-week-long Battle of Aachen concluded, making the city the first on German soil to be captured by the Allies.
- 1950 – Korean War: The Battle of Yongju began as British and Australian troops of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade engaged in heavy fighting with North Korean forces.
- 1978 – After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft, Frederick Valentich disappeared in unexplained circumstances while piloting a Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King Island, Australia.
Edmund Waller (d. 1687) · Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929) · Steph Davies (b. 1987)
October 22: International Stuttering Awareness Day
- 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.
- 1707 – In one of the worst maritime disasters in the history of the British Isles, at least 1,400 sailors on four Royal Navy ships were lost in stormy weather off the Isles of Scilly.
- 1895 – At Gare Montparnasse station in Paris, an express train derailed after overrunning the buffer stop, crossing the concourse before crashing through a wall and falling to the plaza below (pictured).
- 1924 – The educational non-profit organization Toastmasters International was founded at a YMCA in Santa Ana, California.
- 2015 – Sweden suffered its deadliest school attack when a sword-wielding man attacked students and teachers in a high school in Trollhättan, killing three people.
George Coulthard (d. 1883) · Edith Kawelohea McKinzie (b. 1925) · Oona King (b. 1967) Bob Odenkirk (b. 1962)
- 1641 – Irish Catholic gentry in Ulster tried to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, to force concessions to Catholics.
- 1850 – The first National Women's Rights Convention, presided over by Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (pictured), began in Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
- 1934 – Jeannette Piccard piloted a hot-air balloon flight that reached 57,579 feet (17,550 m), and became the first woman to fly in the stratosphere.
- 1983 – Lebanese Civil War: Suicide bombers destroyed two barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, 58 French paratroopers of the international peacekeeping force, and 6 civilians.
- 2002 – Chechen separatists seized a crowded theater in Moscow, taking approximately 700 patrons and performers hostage, at least 130 of whom were later killed.
Sweyn III of Denmark (d. 1157) · Ludwig Leichhardt (b. 1813) · Soong Mei-ling (d. 2003)
- 1648 – The second treaty of the Peace of Westphalia, the Treaty of Münster, was signed, ending both the Thirty Years' War and the Dutch Revolt, and officially recognizing the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and Swiss Confederation as independent states.
- 1931 – The George Washington Bridge (pictured), today the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge, connecting New York City to Fort Lee, New Jersey, was dedicated.
- 1945 – The UN Charter, the constitution of the United Nations, entered into force after being ratified by the five original permanent members of the Security Council and a majority of the other signatories.
- 1975 – To protest wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices, 90% of the female population in Iceland went on strike for a day.
William Prynne (d. 1669) · Letitia Woods Brown (b. 1915) · Roman Abramovich (b. 1966)
- 1415 – Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England's army, consisting mostly of archers, unexpectedly defeated the numerically superior French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt on Saint Crispin's Day.
- 1854 – Crimean War: Lord Cardigan led his cavalry on a disastrous assault (pictured) in the Battle of Balaclava.
- 1924 – The Daily Mail published the Zinoviev letter, purportedly a directive from Moscow to increase communist agitation, pushing the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in the UK general election four days later.
- 1950 – Korean War: The People's Volunteer Army ambushed the South Korean II Corps and elsewhere engaged the 1st Infantry Division, marking China's entry into the war.
- 2001 – Windows XP, one of the most popular and widely used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, was released for retail sale.
Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar (b. 840) · Grace Banker (b. 1892) · Katy Perry (b. 1984)
- 1597 – Thirteen Korean ships commanded by Admiral Yi Sun-sin defeated a far larger Japanese invasion fleet at the Battle of Myeongnyang in the Myeongnyang Strait.
- 1813 – War of 1812: A British force and its Mohawk allies under Charles de Salaberry repulsed an American attempt to invade Canada.
- 1902 – A group of Russian explorers led by Baron Eduard Toll left their camp on Bennett Island and disappeared without a trace.
- 1921 – The Chicago Theatre (pictured), the oldest surviving grand movie palace, opened.
- 1994 – Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty settling relations between the two countries and pledging that neither would allow its territory to become a staging ground for military strikes by a third country.
John Basset (b. 1518) · William T. Anderson (d. 1864) · Oro (d. 1993)
- 1838 – Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive Order 44, ordering all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.
- 1914 – World War I: The Royal Navy dreadnought HMS Audacious was sunk by a mine, but its loss was kept secret for four years.
- 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.
- 1958 – General Ayub Khan (pictured) deposed Iskander Mirza to become the second President of Pakistan.
- 2004 – The Boston Red Sox completed a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series, breaking the so-called "Curse of the Bambino".
Mary Sidney (b. 1561) · Robert Hubert (d. 1666) · Judy LaMarsh (d. 1980)
October 28: Feast day of Jude the Apostle (Western Christianity)
- 1707 – The Hōei earthquake ruptured all of the segments of the Nankai megathrust simultaneously – the only earthquake known to have done this.
- 1886 – In New York Harbor, U.S. President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty (pictured), a gift from France commemorating the Declaration of Independence.
- 1940 – World War II: Italy invaded Greece after Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas rejected Benito Mussolini's ultimatum demanding the cession of Greek territory.
- 1995 – A fire in the Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, killed at least 289 people and injured 270 more in the world's deadliest subway disaster.
- 2007 – In the Argentine general election, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became the first woman to be elected President of Argentina.
Ibas of Edessa (d. 457) · Marie of the Incarnation (b. 1599) · Francis Bacon (b. 1909)
- 1618 – English courtier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (pictured) was executed in London after King James I reinstated a fifteen-year-old death sentence against him.
- 1787 – The opera Don Giovanni, based on Don Juan, the legendary fictional libertine, and composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, premiered in the Estates Theatre in Prague.
- 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: As the Israel Defense Forces captured the Palestinian Arab village of Safsaf, they massacred at least 52 villagers.
- 1998 – At 77 years old as a crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-95 mission, John Glenn became the oldest person to go to space.
- 2015 – China announced the abolition of its one-child policy, allowing families to have two children instead.
Marie of Romania (b. 1875) · Diana Serra Cary (b. 1918) · Carlos Guastavino (d. 2000)
October 30: Arba'een/Arba'een Pilgrimage (Shia Islam, 2018); Mischief Night in some areas of the United States
- 1485 – Having seized the throne of England after the Wars of the Roses, Henry VII was formally crowned at Westminster Abbey.
- 1863 – Seventeen-year-old Vilhelm, Prince of Denmark, arrived in Athens to become George I (pictured), King of Greece.
- 1918 – The Armistice of Mudros was signed in Greece, ending the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, and paving the way for the occupation of Constantinople and the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1938 – The radio drama The War of the Worlds, based on the science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, frightened many listeners in the United States into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.
- 1993 – The Troubles: Three members of the Ulster Defence Association opened fire in a crowded pub during a Halloween party, killing eight civilians and wounding nineteen.
André Chénier (b. 1762) · William H. Webb (d. 1899) · Florence Nagle (d. 1988)
- 475 – Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last effective ruling emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
- 1517 – According to some traditional accounts, Martin Luther first posted his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, present-day Germany, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
- 1917 – World War I: Allied forces defeated Turkish troops in Beersheba in Southern Palestine at the Battle of Beersheba, with the battle involving one of the last successful cavalry charges.
- 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.
Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1723) · Marie Louise Andrews (b. 1849) · Muriel Duckworth (b. 1908)
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