Historical Events
Event of Interest
Oct 1 World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") capture Damascus
T. E. Lawrence
- Oct 6 US ship Otranto sinks between Scotland & Ireland, 425 die
Sgt. Alvin York Kills 25 German Soldiers
Oct 8 American soldier Alvin York single-handedly attacks German gun nest, killing at least 25 and capturing 132 Germans
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- Oct 10 Baden's Geisz forms government
- Oct 11 Major tsumani shakes Caribbean
- Oct 12 Cloquet fire kills 453 and injures or displaces 52,000 people
- Oct 15 British Q-ship Cymric sinks British submarine J6
- Oct 17 De Kooy airport in Netherlands opens
- Oct 17 Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic
- Oct 18 Czechoslovakia declares independence from Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Oct 18 NHL's Quebec Bulldogs sold to a Toronto businessman P. J. Quinn
- Oct 18 Russian 10th Army drives out White armies of Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad)
End of World War I
Oct 20 In order to secure an armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions
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- Oct 21 Margaret Owen sets world typing speed record of 170 wpm for 1 min
- Oct 25 Canadian steamship "Princess Sophia" hits a reef off Alaska, 398 die
- Oct 26 Cecil Chubb gives prehistoric monument Stonehenge to the British nation
- Oct 26 Soldiers revolt at Harskamp, Veluwe
- Oct 26 Germany's supreme commander General Eric Ludendorff resigns, protesting the terms to which the German Government has agreed in negotiating an armistice
- Oct 28 Czechoslovakia gains independence as Austria-Hungary breaks up
Event of Interest
Oct 28 Tomáš G. Massaryk claims independence for Czechoslovakia
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
- Oct 29 German sailors refuse to obey orders to fight British naval forces and lead a revolt in the naval ports of Wilhelmshaven, beginning the German Revolution
- Oct 30 Slovakia asks for creation of Czechoslovakian state
- Oct 30 WWI: Turkey signs an armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon on 31 October
- Oct 31 Spanish flu-virus kills 21,000 in US in 1 week
- Oct 31 Short-lived Banat Republic founded in territory where Romania, Hungary and Serbia meet
Famous Birthdays
- Oct 1 Antonio Iglesias Alvares, composer
- Oct 4 Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
- Oct 6 André Pilette, Belgian racing driver (d. 1993)
- Oct 7 Helmut Dantine, Austrian-American actor (Shadow of the Cloak), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1982)
- Oct 7 Guido Aristarco, film critic
- Oct 7 Marcus Klingburg, Israeli soviet spy and epidemiologist
- Oct 8 Jens Christian Skou, Danish scientist (Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1997), born in Lemvig, Denmark (d. 2018)
- Oct 8 Ron Randell, Australian actor (Loves of Carmen, I am a Camera), born in Sydney, New South Wales (d. 2005)
- Oct 9 E. Howard Hunt, American intelligence officer involved in Watergate break-in, born in Hamburg, New York (d. 2007)
- Oct 9 Lila Kedrova, Russian-born actress (Zorba the Greek (1964), Sword of the Valiant, The Tenant), born in Petrograd, Russia (d. 2000)
- Oct 10 Bobby Byrne, American orchestra leader (Club Seven), born in Columbus, Ohio (d. 2006)
- Oct 10 Jean Gimpel, French author and medievalist, born in Paris (d. 1996)
- Oct 10 Yigal Allon, Israeli politician, born in Kfar Tavor, Palestine (d. 1980)
- Oct 11 Jerome Robbins, American choreographer (Tony-West Side Story), born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1998)
- Oct 12 Emil Cossetto, Croatian composer, born in Trieste, Italy (d. 2006)
- Oct 13 Jack MacGowran, Irish actor (King Lear, The Quiet Man, The Exorcist), born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1973)
- Oct 13 Robert Walker, American actor and writer (Strangers on a Train, Bataan, Madame Curie), born in Salt Lake City, Utah (d. 1951)
- Oct 14 Doug Ring, Australian cricketer (Australian leggie of the late 40's early 50's), born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia (d. 2003)
- Oct 14 Marcel Chaput, French Canadian politician, born in Hull, Quebec (d. 1991)
- Oct 16 Bill Nichols, (Rep-D-AL, 1967- )
- Oct 17 Rita Hayworth [Margarita Cansino], American actress (Gilda, Cover Girl, The Lady from Shanghai), born in NYC, New York (d. 1987)
- Oct 18 Robert "Bobby" Troup, American jazz pianist and actor (Emergency, Acapulco), born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (d. 1999)
- Oct 18 James Cameron Tudor, politician
- Oct 18 Konstantinos Mitsottakis, premier of Greece (1990- )
- Oct 18 Willem J "Molly" Geertsema, Dutch liberal/interior minister)
- Oct 18 Constantine Mitsotakis [Konstantinos Mitsotakis], Prime Minister of Greece (1990 –1993), born in Halepa, Crete (d. 2017)
- Oct 19 Louis Althusser, French philosopher (For Marx, Strangled His Wife)
- Oct 19 Robert Charles Evans, mountaineer/doctor
- Oct 20 Anton Diffring [Alfred Pollack], German character actor (Assignment Vienna), born in Koblenz, Germany (d. 1989)
- Oct 20 Robert Lochner, German journalist (d. 2003)
- Oct 22 Lou Klein, American baseball player (d. 1976)
- Oct 23 James Daly, American actor (Medical Center, Planet of the Apes), born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin (d. 1978)
- Oct 23 Mary Jeanette "Peggy" Moran, American actress (Double Date, Horror Island), born in Clinton, Iowa (d. 2002)
- Oct 27 Paul Dixon, Ohio talk show host (Paul Dixon Show), born in Albia, Iowa (d. 1974)
- Oct 27 Teresa Wright, American actress (Eleanor Gehrig-Pride of the Yankees), born in NYC, New York (d. 2005)
- Oct 28 Harold Shepherdson, British soccer trainer, born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire (d. 1955)
- Oct 29 Bernard Gordon, American writer and producer (d. 2007)
- Oct 30 Bob Feller, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (AL Triple Crown 1940), born in Van Meter, Iowa (d.2010)
- Oct 31 Ian Stevenson, Canadian-American parapsychologist and reincarnation expert, born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (d. 2007)
Famous Weddings
Wedding of Interest
Oct 23 Actor Charlie Chaplin (29) weds Mildred Harris (17)
Charlie Chaplin
Famous Deaths
- Oct 5 Roland Garros, French stunt flyer, dies
- Oct 6 Arthur O'Hara Wood, Australian tennis player (Australasian C'ship 1914), dies in action WWI at 28
- Oct 7 Hubert Parry, English musicologist and composer (Jerusalem), dies at 70
- Oct 9 Michail V Alekseyev, Russian general (WWI), murdered at 60
- Oct 13 Gerrit Engelke, German writer (Briefer der Liebe), dies
- Oct 15 Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian saint (b. circa 1838)
- Oct 16 Felix Arndt, American composer, dies during the Spanish Flu pandemic at 29
- Oct 17 Gordon White, cricketer (WW I Superb South African batsman 1905-12), dies
- Oct 19 Joseph Lesage, French painter/etcher (WWI), dies at 34
- Oct 19 Harold Lockwood, American actor (Tess of the Storm Country), dies from the flu at 31
- Oct 22 Myrtle Gonzalez, American actress regarded as Hollywood's first Latin and Hispanic movie star actress (Missy, Her Great Part), dies from influenza and heart ailment at 27
- Oct 24 Alexander Charles Lecocq, composer, dies at 86
- Oct 28 Ulisse Dini, Italian mathematician and politician (Fondamenti per la teorica delle funzioni di variabili reali), dies at 72
- Oct 28 Edward Bouchet, American Physicist, 1st African American to receive US Ph.D, dies at 66
- Oct 31 Egon Schiele, Austrian painter and graphic artist, dies at 28
- Oct 31 Stephen Tisza, Hungarian PM (-1917), assassinated by soldiers