- 409 Vandals and Alans crossed the Pyrenees and appear in Hispania
- 1213 Battle of Steppes: Hugh Pierrepont, Bishop of Liège & Louis II, Count of Loon defeat Henry I, Duke of Brabant
- 1282 Nichiren Daishonin, founder of the Nichiren School of Buddhism, dies, his ashes are interred at Taisekiji Temple.
- 1307 French King Philip IV has Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Knights Templar arrested and charged of idolatry and corruption
- 1483 Rabbi Issac Abarbanel starts his exegesis on Bible
- 1492 English admiral Sir Edward Poynings' fleet occupies Lock
- 1501 Maximilian of Austria & Louis XII sign Treaty of Trente
- 1534 Alessandro Farnese elected as Pope Paul III
Event of Interest
1536 Pilgrimage of Grace begins in Northern England, protest against King Henry VIII's break with the Pope
Henry VIII
- 1629 Dutch West Indies Co grants religious freedom in West Indies
- 1652 Prince of Condé flees Paris
- 1659 Major general John Lambert drives out English Rump government
- 1660 Absolute monarchy instituted by decree in Denmark by King Frederik III
- 1702 Dutch and English troops occupy Liège
- 1710 English troops occupy Acadia (Nova Scotia)
- 1716 Hungarian Emperor Karel VI's troops occupy Temesvar
Historic Publication
1724 Jonathan Swift publishes last of Drapier's letters
Jonathan Swift
- 1760 Russian and Austrian army evacuates Berlin
- 1773 The Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered by Charles Messier
- 1775 First US Navy forms when Continental Congress orders construction of a naval fleet
- 1792 "Old Farmer's Almanac" is 1st published and edited by Robert Thomas
- 1792 Cornerstone laid for the Executive Mansion (White House) in Washington
- 1812 Battle of Queenstown Heights: British forces defeat United States forces attempting to invade Canada
- 1843 B'nai B'rith founded (NY)
- 1845 Texas ratifies a state constitution
- 1860 1st aerial photo taken in US (from a balloon), Boston
- 1863 Skirmish at Blountsville, Tennessee (50 casualties)
- 1864 Battle at Darbytown Road Virginia (337 casualties)
- 1864 Battle of Dalton, GA - surrendered
John Singleton Mosby
- 1864 Maryland voters adopt new constitution, including abolition of slavery
- 1870 Gustav Mahler (10) gives his 1st public piano concert
- 1871 The Delphic Fraternity is founded as the Delphic Society at the State Normal School in Geneseo, New York.
- 1881 Revival of Hebrew language as Eliezer Ben-Yehuda & friends agree to use Hebrew exclusively in their conversations
- 1884 Greenwich in London established as the universal time meridian of longitude
- 1885 The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1890 The Delta Chi fraternity is founded by 11 law students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
- 1893 Vigilant (US) beats Valkyrie II (UK) in 9th America's Cup, in New York
- 1896 First public screening of a motion picture in New Zealand
- 1899 7,000 laid-off black mine workers of South Africa reach Natal
Agreement of Interest
1902 US President Theodore Roosevelt threatens to start using army troops to work coal mines struck since 12 may; this brings the owners to agree to abide by a Commission of Arbitration
Theodore Roosevelt
- 1903 Boston Americans win the inaugural Baseball World Series; beat Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 in Game 8 at Huntington Avenue for a 5-3 series victory; winning pitcher Bill Dinneen
- 1903 Victor Herbert's "Babes in Toyland" premieres in NYC
- 1914 The Belgian government in exile installed at St Adresse at Le Havre
- 1914 Boston Braves sweep Philadelphia A's, 1st sweep in World Series history
- 1914 Garrett Morgan patents his safety hood device, which would later be refined into the gas mask
- 1914 Pro-German Boers begin opposition to British authority in South Africa
- 1915 Boston Red Sox beat Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 1 in 12th World Series
- 1917 Soviets accept establishment of Petrograd Military
- 1920 World Series celebration in Wade Park brings out 50,000+ Clevelanders
- 1921 NY Giants beat NY Yankees, 5 games to 3 in 18th World Series
- 1923 Angora (Ankara) becomes Turkey's capital
- 1930 New German Reichstag opens with 107 NSDAP members in uniform
- 1931 Musical "Everybody's Welcome" with T/J Dorsey premieres in NYC
- 1931 Noel Coward's "Cavalcade" premieres in London
- 1933 JDJ Boularan's "Tovarich" premieres in Paris
- 1933 Soccer team STEVO forms in Geesteren
- 1934 Western Open Women's Golf, Portland G & CC: Marian McDougall outclassed Mrs Guy Riegel, 9 & 7 to win golf's only major title
- 1936 Explosion caused by leaking gas rips out section 12 of Cleve Stadium
- 1937 A recorded trace of snow in Central Park, NYC
- 1941 Nazis kill 11,000 Jewish children and old people
- 1943 Italy declares war on former Axis partner Germany
- 1944 Riga, capital of Latvia, freed
- 1944 US 1st army begins battle of Aachen, first German city captured during WWII
- 1947 "Kukla, Fran & Ollie" premieres
- 1947 1st NHL All-Star Game, Maple Leaf Gardens: All-Stars beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3
- 1949 "Touch & Go" opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 176 performances
Film Premier
1950 "All About Eve" directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter premieres (Academy Awards Best Picture 1951)
Bette Davis
- 1953 Burglar alarm-ultrasonic or radio waves patented by Samuel Bagno
- 1954 Robert Paul Smith and Max Shulman's "Tender Trap" premieres in NYC
- 1955 1st edition of L'express publishes in Paris
- 1956 WAGM TV channel 8 in Presque Isle, ME (CBS/NBC/ABC) begins
- 1957 German Democratic Republic recalls OstMark & issues new currency
- 1958 Burial of Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII on the 41st anniversary of the "Miracle of the Sun".
- 1960 Third presidential debate with Nixon in Hollywood & Kennedy in NY
Execution
1960 Opponents of Fidel Castro executed in Cuba
Fidel Castro
- 1960 Pirate's Mazeroski's bottom of 9th lead off HR beats NY Yankees 10-9 in game 7 of 57th World Series
Theater Premiere
1962 Edward Albee's play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opens on Broadway featuring actress Uta Hagen
Edward Albee
Golf Major
1963 LPGA Championship, Stardust CC: Mickey Wright wins 4th LPGA title by 2 shots from Mary Mills, Louise Suggs & Mary Lena Faulk
- 1964 At Plesman airport, Curacao, 125.5 mm rainfalls (record)
- 1964 Voskhod 1 crew returns
- 1964 Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser wins her third consecutive Olympic 100m freestyle gold medal at the Tokyo Games; Olympic record 59.05s
- 1964 US sweeps medals in the men's 200m backstroke at the Tokyo Olympics; Jed Graef swims world record 2:10.3 to win gold ahead of team mates Gary Dilley and Bob Bennett
- 1966 173 US aircraft bomb North Vietnam
- 1966 Vice Admiral Rufus L Taylor, USN, becomes deputy director of CIA
- 1967 CBS radio cancels "House Party"
- 1967 Seattle SuperSonics (now OKC Thunder) lose NBA debut game, 144-116 to the San Francisco Warriors at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum
- 1967 First American Basketball Association (ABA) game is played with Oakland Oaks beating Anaheim Amigos, 132-129; red, white & blue ball and 3-point field goal introduced
- 1968 Tinker Creek Gorge of Cleveland Metroparks is dedicated
- 1969 1st time 7 people in space
- 1969 Billy Martin (97-65) is fired as manager of AL West-winning Twins
- 1969 Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 8 is launched
- 1970 Angela Davis arrested in NYC
- 1970 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
- 1970 A man dies in a premature bomb explosion in Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Event of Interest
1970 2 future Basketball Hall of Famers debut; guard Calvin Murphy for San Diego Rockets in 111-96 loss in Chicago; forward Dave Cowens for Boston Celtics in 114-107 loss in New York
Dave Cowens
- 1971 1st World Series night game (Pittsburgh 4-Baltimore 3)
- 1971 WTZH TV channel 24 in Meridian, MS (CBS) suspends broadcasting
- 1972 "Hurry, Harry" closes at Ritz Theater NYC after 2 performances
- 1972 Aeroflot Il-62 crashes in large pond outside Moscow, 176 die
- 1972 Commish Bowie Kuhn allows Bert Campaneris to play in World Series
- 1972 Uruguay to Chile plane crashes in Andes Mountains, (passengers eat crash victims to survive, 16 of 45 rescued 2 months later)
- 1973 Jordan enters Yom Kippur war
TV Show Appearance
1973 Teri Garr appears on "The Bob Newhart Show" in "Emily in for Carol"
Bob Newhart
Film Premier
1973 "Badlands" directed by Terrence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek premieres at the New York Film Festival
Martin Sheen
Sissy Spacek
Music Awards
1975 9th Country Music Association Award: John Denver wins
John Denver
Event of Interest
1975 Rock vocal Neil Young undergoes throat surgery
Neil Young
Event of Interest
1978 US President Jimmy Carter answers callers' questions on National Public Radio
Jimmy Carter
Album Release
1978 "52nd Street" 6th studio album by Billy Joel is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1979)
Billy Joel
Election of Interest
1981 Vice President Hosni Mubarak elected President of Egypt
Hosni Mubarak
Event of Interest
1982 IOC Executive Committee approves the reinstatement of Jim Thorpe's gold medals from the 1912 Olympics
Jim Thorpe
- 1983 Ameritech Mobile Communications (now Cingular) launched the first US cellular network in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1984 Blackhawk Bill Gardner scores on 10th penalty shot against Islanders
- 1984 John Henry becomes 1st thoroughbred to win $6 million
- 1984 STS 41-G mission; lands at Kennedy Space Center
- 1985 "Sunday in the Park with George" closes at Booth NYC after 604 performances
- 1985 Belgium premier Martens CVP wins parliamentary election
- 1985 During NLCS, Cards rookie Vince Coleman is injured stretching before game as his left leg is caught in Busch Stadium's automated tarpaulin
- 1986 20th Country Music Association Award: Reba McEntire wins
- 1986 25th NY, NL appearance in World Series (Mets vs A's)
- 1986 IOC announces baseball will become a medal sport in 1992
- 1987 1st military use of trained dolphins (US Navy in Persian Gulf)
- 1987 Costa Rican President Oscar Arias wins Nobel Peace Prize
- 1987 West Indies score 4-360 in 50 overs in Cricket World Cup v Sri Lanka
- 1988 Concert at Masada ends Israel's 40th-anniversary festival
- 1988 Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as Christ's burial cloth, is shown by carbon-dating tests to be a fake from the Middle Ages
- 1988 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1989 Bob Quinn resigns as NY Yankee VP/GM & replaced by Harding Peterson
- 1989 Dow Jones down 190.58 points
- 1990 First Russian Orthodox service in over 70 years held in St Basil's Cathedral, in Red Square, Moscow
- 1990 Target Center, a multi-purpose arena in Minneapolis officially opens
- 1991 Blue Jay Cito Gaston is 1st manager ejected in a playoff game
- 1991 Minnesota Twins win AL pennant beating Toronto in 5 games
- 1991 MLB American League Championship: Minnesota Twins beat Toronto Blue Jays, 4 games to 1
- 1993 Greek government of Papandreou forms
- 1993 Mighty Ducks win their 1st NHL game
- 1993 Nobel prize for chemistry awarded to Kary Mullis & Michael Smith
- 1993 Nobel prize for physics awarded to Russel Hulse & Joseph Taylor
- 1993 Captured American Pilot Mike Durant is filmed in an interview in captivity by a CNN camera crew.
- 1993 MLB National League Championship: Philadelphia Phillies beat Atlanta Braves, 4 games to 2
- 1994 Earliest start of Sheffield Shield season (Queensland v Tasmania)
- 1994 Nobel prize for literature awarded to Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe
- 1995 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to Polish physicist Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, for their work to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons
- 1995 Pamela Anderson Lee rushed to hospital with flu like symptoms
- 1996 "Big" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 193 performances
- 1996 NY Jet Nick Lowrey breaks Jan Stenerud NFL field goal record at 374
- 1996 Yanks (3) & Orioles (3) combine to tie play off record of 6 HRs
- 1996 British Williams driver Damon Hill wins season ending Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka; becomes first son of a F1 World Drivers Champion (Graham Hill 1962, 68) to win title himself; wins by 19 points from Jacques Villeneuve
- 1996 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Baltimore Orioles, 4 games to 1
- 1997 Andy Green's Jet-powered car reaches record 749.69 MPH
- 1998 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Cleveland Indians, 4 games to 2
- 1999 The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Event of Interest
2002 Michael Schumacher wins season ending Japanese F1 Grand Prix for his record 11th victory of the year & 3rd straight World Drivers Championship; title margin: 67 points from Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello
Michael Schumacher
- 2002 MLB American League Championship: Anaheim Angels beat Minnesota Twins, 4 games to 1
- 2006 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to banker Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their microlending practises
- 2008 HM Treasury infused £37 billion ($64 billion, 47 billion euros) of new capital-bailout into Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Lloyds TSB and HBOS Plc, to avert a financial sector collapse.
Copiapó Mine Rescue
2010 Copiapó mining accident in Chile comes to a happy end as all 33 miners arrive at the surface after surviving a record 69 days underground
More >>
- 2012 15 people are killed by a market suicide bombing in Darra Adam Khel, Pakistan
- 2012 Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild sells for $34 million, the highest sold artwork by a living artist
- 2013 109 people are killed in a stampede on a bridge in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India
- 2015 Basketball player Lamar Odom is hospitalised after being found unconscious in a brothel in Nevada
- 2015 Marlon James becomes first Jamaican to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel "A Brief History of Seven Killings"
- 2015 First Democratic presidential candidates debate, broadcast by CNN and held in Las Vegas, Nevada
Nobel Prize
Event of Interest
2017 Actress Rose McGowan alleges that Harvey Weinstein raped her in 1997
Rose McGowan
Harvey Weinstein
- 2018 Oldest known human remains from Poland at 115,000 years from revealed to be Neanderthal child from Ciemna Cave eaten by a large bird
Event of Interest
2018 Pope Francis defrocks two Chilean bishops for alleged sexual abuse of minors
Pope Francis
October in History
Jazz Singer Sounds Death Knell for Silent Movies
The Jazz Singer was premiered on this day and audiences were thrilled to hear Al Jolson talking. The pioneer film spelled the end for the silent-movie industry.
October 6, 1927
The Great Stand on the Ugra River
On one side of the Ugra River stood the Mongol Golden Horde, on the other, Ivan III, Grand Prince of the rising Muscovy Principality. At stake, everything.
October 8, 1480
Grim History of London's Speakers' Corner
Nowhere in England is the principal of free speech embodied more than at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park. But this right was won through death and protest.
October 14, 1855
Hurricane on the Way? Don't Worry
A cosy assurance from a BBC weather forecaster for viewers not to worry about an impending storm has gone down as the most spectacular mis-forecast in history.
October 15, 1987