- 533 Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals
Event of Interest
1520 King Henry VIII of England orders bowling lanes at Whitehall
Appointment of Interest
1522 Emperor Karel I names Hernán Cortés governor of Mexico
- 1552 Khanate of Kazan is conquered by troops of Ivan Grozny
Event of Interest
1581 Commissioned by Catherine de' Medici, the 1st ballet "Ballet Comique de la Reine" is staged in Paris
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
1582 Gregorian calendar introduced in Spain, Portugal and pontifical states, after skipping 10 days after Oct 4 to sync the calendar
Appointment of Interest
1654 Prince William of Orange appointed viceroy of Overijssel
- 1655 Jews of Lublin are massacred
- 1660 Asser Levy granted butcher's license (kosher meat) in New Amsterdam
- 1674 Torsåker witch trials begin, largest witch trials in Sweden, 71 beheaded and burned
- 1705 English fleet under Lord Peterborough occupies Barcelona
- 1724 Cornelis Steenoven is 1st archbishop of Old Catholic church in Utrecht, The Netherlands
- 1756 Saxon army surrenders to Prussia
Roman Empire
1764 Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Event of Interest
1789 1st US presidential tour by George Washington in New England
Wicked or Sinless? The Life of Lucrezia Borgia
1816 Lord Byron views the love letters of Lucrezia Borgia and poet Pietro Bembo in Milan and declares them "the prettiest love letters in the world"
Event of Interest
1827 Charles Darwin admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge
- 1846 American Dr William Thomas Green Morton's 1st public use of ether
Abraham Lincoln, the Presidential Icon
1860 11-year-old Grace Bedell writes to Abraham Lincoln telling him to grow a beard
- 1863 Cliff House opens in San Francisco, 1st of many on the site
- 1864 Confederate troops occupy Glasgow, Missouri
- 1866 Great fire in Quebec destroys 2,500 houses
- 1877 First session of the US 45th Congress (1877-79) convenes in Washington D.C.
- 1878 Edison Electric Light Company incorporated
- 1880 Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists
- 1881 1st American fishing magazine, "American Angler" published
- 1883 US Supreme Court declares Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional
- 1884 Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn pitches his 60th win of season for MLB Providence Grays in 8-0 win over Quakers at Philadelphia
Music Premiere
1886 Modest Mussorgsky's musical fantasy "Night on Bald Mountain" premieres at Kononov Hall, in St. Petersburg, Russia
Event of Interest
1888 German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche decides to write his autobiography "Ecce Homo" on his 44th birthday
Event of Interest
1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus arrested and accused of espionage in France
Event of Interest
1897 King Leopold II takes Belgian crown
Music Premiere
1905 Claude Debussy's symphonic sketch "La Mer" premieres in Paris
- 1905 Union workers at NVV rejects safety demands
Sports History
1912 Red Sox Tris Speaker's makes only world series unassisted double play, from the outfield
- 1913 Train crash at St. James' Station, Liverpool during "Black Week" kills six and injures 63
- 1914 Battle of Warsaw, begins (ends Oct 21)
- 1914 US Clayton Anti-trust Act passed (union & strike rights)
- 1917 Baseball World Series: Chicago White Sox beat NY Giants, 4-2 at Brush Stadium to clinch series, 4-2 for their second WS triumph
Surrealist Manifesto
1924 André Breton publishes his "Surrealist Manifesto" with Éditions du Sagittaire in Paris
Statue of Liberty
1924 US President Calvin Coolidge declares Statue of Liberty a national monument
- 1925 Baseball World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates beat Washington Senators, 9-7 in Game 7 at Forbes Field for 4-3 series victory; Pirates first team to recover from 3–1 deficit in a 7-game series
- 1925 Willem Landré's opera "Beatrice" premieres in The Hague
- 1926 Austria government of Seipel, forms
- 1926 Philip Barry's play "White Wings!" premieres in NYC
The Age of Zeppelins
1928 German dirigible "Graf Zeppelin" lands in Lakehurst, New Jersey
Contract of Interest
1928 Walter Johnson signs a 3-year contract to manage the Senators
To Have and Have Not
1937 Ernest Hemingway's novel "To Have and Have Not" published
Sports History
1937 Rather than accept any trade offers, the Yanks release Tony Lazzeri
The Great Dictator
1940 "The Great Dictator", a satiric social commentary film by and starring Charlie Chaplin released
- 1940 -16] Heavy German air raid on London, 400 killed
- 1940 London's Waterloo Station bombed by German luftwaffe
- 1941 1st mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe
Appointment of Interest
1941 Hideki Tojo appointed Prime Minister of Imperial Japan
- 1941 Jews caught outside Nazi Ghetto walls in occupied Poland could be put to death
- 1942 German 6th Army occupies Tractorenfabriek, 3,000 Germans die
- 1944 The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary
- 1945 Baseball Attendance hits record 10.28 million (Tigers 1.28 is highest)
- 1946 Baseball World Series: St Louis Cardinals beat Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park to clinch series, 4 games to 3; Cards 6th championship
- 1948 China's Red army occupies Chinchou in Guangdong
- 1949 Administration of territory of Manipur taken over by Indian government
- 1949 Tripura accedes to Indian union
I Love Lucy
1951 "I Love Lucy", starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, debuts on CBS
Event of Interest
1951 First synthesis of an oral contraceptive (norethindrone) made by Luis E. Miramontes under direction of Carl Djerassi and George Rosenkranz at Mexican drug company Syntex
Charlotte's Web
1952 "Charlotte's Web" by E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams is published by Harper & Brothers
- 1952 Arthur Laurent's "Time of the Cuckoo" premieres in NYC
Photography
1952 Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's influential photography book "The Decisive Moment" is first published in the US and France
- 1953 John Patrick's play "Teahouse of the August Moon" premieres in New York
- 1953 KOIN TV channel 6 in Portland, OR (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1953 WJNL (now WFAT) TV channel 19 in Johnstown, PA (IND) begins
- 1954 Hurricane Hazel makes landfall in the US in North Carolina as a category 4 hurricane, 195 die in US and Canada
- 1954 KLTV TV channel 7 in Tyler-Longview, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
Contract of Interest
1955 Buddy Holley opens for Bill Haley & His Comets in Lubbock, Texas, and impresses Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, leading to a recording contract with a misspelling that creates "Buddy Holly"
- 1956 First plane to land safely on water - Pan Am Flight 6 San Francisco to Honolulu, all 24 passengers and 7 crew survive
- 1956 Pyotr Bolotnikov runs world record 10k (28:42.8)
- 1956 William J. Brennan, Jr. is appointed to US Supreme Court
- 1957 Giants trade Minneapolis franchise to Red Sox for SF Seals-franchises only, not the players
- 1958 Tunisia drops diplomatic relations with Egypt
- 1958 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, USSR
- 1959 KNDO TV channel 23 in Yakima, WA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1959 TV series "The Untouchables" starring Robert Stack premieres in the US
- 1960 "Laughs & Other Events" closes at Barrymore Theater, NYC, after 8 performances
LPGA Championship
1961 LPGA Championship Women's Golf, Stardust CC: Mickey Wright convincingly wins her 3rd LPGA title by 9 strokes from Louise Suggs
- 1962 Byron R. White appointed to the US Supreme Court
- 1962 WLOX TV channel 13 in Biloxi-Gulfport, MS (ABC) begins broadcasting
Event of Interest
1963 Ludwig Erhard succeeds Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of West Germany
- 1964 American Don Schollander swims a world record 4:12.2 to win the 400m freestyle gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics; second of Schollander's 4 gold medals at the Games
- 1964 American sprinter Bob Hayes equals world record 10.0s to beat Cuba's Enrique Figuerola by 0.2s and win the men's 100m gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
- 1964 Australian swimmer Ian O'Brien sets world record 2:27.8 to beat Soviet Georgy Prokopenko by 0.4s and win men's 200m breaststroke gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
- 1964 Baseball World Series: St Louis Cardinals win 7th title; beat NY Yankees, 7-5 at Busch Stadium to clinch series, 4-3; MVP: St Louis pitcher Bob Gibson
Sports History
1964 Craig Breedlove sets auto speed record of 846.97 kph
- 1964 Soviet rower Vyacheslav Ivanov wins his third consecutive Olympic men's single sculls gold medal at the Tokyo Games; also the reigning World and European champion
- 1964 US women's 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Sharon Stouder, Donna de Varona, Lillian Watson & Kathy Ellis swims world record 4:03.8 to beat Australia by 3.1s and win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
- 1965 WEMT (now WVII) TV channel 7 in Bangor, ME (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1966 Australia bans Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" as "terribly obscene"
Event of Interest
1966 Black Panther Party created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California
The Motherland Calls
1967 The Motherland Calls, a monumental statue commemorating the battle of Stalingrad completed in Volgograd, Russia, then the World's tallest statue designed by Yevgeny Vuchetich
- 1968 AL expansion draft, KC pick Roger Nelson & Pilots pick Don Mincher 1st
- 1968 Al Oerter of the US wins the men's discus in Olympic record 64.78m at the Mexico City Games; Oerter's unprecedented 4th consecutive Olympic discus title
- 1968 American sprinter Wyomia Tyus wins her second consecutive Olympic 100m title with a world record 11.08s; beats teammate Barbara Ferrell by 0.08s for the gold medal at the Mexico City Games
- 1968 Australian Ralph Doubell runs a world record 1:44.40 to beat Kenyan Wilson Kiprugut and win the men's 800m at the Mexico City Olympics
- 1968 British athlete David Hemery sets a world record 48.12s to beat Gerhard Hennige of West Germany and take the gold medal in the men's 400m hurdles at the Mexico City Olympics
- 1968 The Nationalist Party of Northern Ireland (NPNI) withdraws from its role as 'official' opposition within the Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont
Country Music Association Awards
1969 3rd Country Music Association Award: Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette win
Sports History
1969 Baltimore's Earl Weaver becomes first manager since 1935 to be ejected World Series game as his Orioles slump to a 2-1 Game 4 defeat to NY Mets at Shea Stadium
- 1969 Bank of America World Headquarters (555 California) dedicated
- 1969 Madison Square Garden TV Network begins (Rangers vs North Stars)
- 1969 Vietnam Moratorium Day; millions nationwide protest the war
Election of Interest
1970 Anwar Sadat elected 3rd President of Egypt, succeeding the late Gamal Abdel Nasser
Sports History
1970 Baseball World Series: Baltimore Orioles beat Cincinnati Reds, 9-3 at Memorial Stadium to claim series, 4-1; MVP: Orioles 3B Brooks Robinson
- 1970 Bridge over Yarra River in Melbourne crashes; killing 35
- 1970 Russian passenger flight hijacked to Turkey
- 1971 The start of the 2,500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia
- 1971 World's first arcade video game Computer Space developed by Syzygy first demonstrated at the MOA Show in the US
Sports History
1972 17 year old American tennis prodigy Chris Evert wins inaugural WTA Tour Championship at Boca Raton, Florida; beats Australian Kerry Melville Reid 7-5, 6-4; Evert not eligible for prize money
- 1972 61st Davis Cup: USA beats Romania in Bucharest (3-2)
- 1972 Omni in Atlanta opens - Hawks beat NY Knicks 109-101
- 1973 7th Country Music Association Award: Roy Clark wins
Jolene
1973 Country music artist Dolly Parton releases her single "Jolene"
- 1973 Tanks attack Thailand demonstrating students, 300 killed
- 1974 National Guard mobilizes to restore order in Boston school busing
- 1974 Nobel prize for chemistry awarded to Paul J. Flory for work on macro molecules
- 1974 Washington Capitals 1st NHL tie, playing LA Kings to 1-1 tie
- 1975 Iceland moves intl boundary from 50 to 200 miles
Event of Interest
1976 1st debate of major-ticket US Vice President nominees, Walter Mondale (D) vs Bob Dole (R)
A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll
1976 Ringo Starr releases single "A Dose of Rock 'n' Roll"; peaks at 26 in US, fails to chart in UK
- 1977 "Serpentine Fire" single released by Earth, Wind & Fire (Billboard Song of the Year 1978)
- 1977 Arkansas' Steve Little kicks a record tying 67 yard field goal
- 1977 Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" goes #1 & stays #1 for 10 weeks
- 1977 Don Ritchie runs world record 100 mile (11:30:51)
- 1978 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1979 1st Monday night game from NYC, Jets beat Vikings 14-7 (Shea Stad)
- 1979 Chinese premier Hwa Kwofeng visits Paris
- 1979 Military coup in El Salvador: President Carlos Romero flees
Sports History
1979 NY Knicks retire 2nd number, # 10, Walt Frazier
- 1980 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Lawrence Klein
- 1981 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Oakland Athletics, 3 games to 0
- 1981 Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.
- 1983 Columbia beats Yale 21-18 in football, will lose next 44 games
F1 World Champion
1983 Nelson Piquet of Brazil finishes 3rd in the season ending South African Grand Prix at Kyalami to clinch his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins by 2 points from Alain Prost
- 1983 NHL Chicago Black Hawks & Toronto Maple Leafs combine for fastest 5 goals (84 seconds), in a 10-8 Leaf win in Toronto
- 1983 US Marine sharpshooters kill 5 snipers at Beirut International Airport
- 1984 Central Intelligence Agency Information Act passes
- 1984 Centrum party expels 2nd Member of parliament Janmaat due to fraud
- 1985 Nobel prize for economics awarded to Franco Modigliani
- 1985 Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
- 1985 Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit
- 1986 Longest post season game, Mets beat Astros 7-6 in 16 & win NL pennant
- 1986 MLB American League Championship: Boston Red Sox beat California Angels, 4 games to 3
- 1986 MLB National League Championship: New York Mets beat Houston Astros, 4 games to 2
- 1987 6th Belgium government of Martens falls
- 1987 Allan Knee and Brian Gari's musical "Late Nite Comic" opens at Ritz Theater, NYC; runs for 4 performances
- 1987 Coup in Burkina Faso, president Sankara dies
- 1987 Lanford Wilson's "Burn This" premieres in NYC
- 1987 NFL Players Association orders an end to 24 day strike; union fails to achieve demands short-term with no collective bargaining agreement in place
- 1987 The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England
- 1988 Amnesty International's "Human Rights Now!" Concert Tour ends in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 1988 NCAA record rushing yardage (768 yards-Oklahoma)
- 1988 With 2 outs in bottom of 9th, an injured Kirk Gibson hits dramatic 2 run HR to give Dodgers a 5-4 win in 1st game of World Series
Radio Premiere
1989 American radio and television evangelist Billy Graham is given the 1,900th star on Hollywood Boulevard, the first clergyman to be granted a star
Event of Interest
1989 South African President F. W. de Klerk frees ANC Founder Walter Sisulu and four other political prisoners
Sports History
1989 Wayne Gretzky passes Gordie Howe as NHL's all time top scorer
Nobel Prize
1990 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev wins the Nobel Peace Prize
Appointment of Interest
1991 Clarence Thomas is confirmed as a US Supreme Court Justice (52-48)
Battle of Interest
1992 Charles Taylor launches an offensive against Monrovia Liberia
- 1992 Howard Stern radio show begins broadcasting on WLUP-AM, Chicago
- 1992 NYC Subway motorman Robert Ray convicted of manslaughter in death of 5 riders, when he fell asleep drunk while in control of train
- 1993 Amstel brewery on Curacao produces 1,000,000,000th bottle
- 1993 Late night talk show "The Chevy Chase Show" final episode airs on FOX tv; cancelled after 6 weeks
Nobel Prize
1993 Nelson Mandela and South African President F. W. de Klerk awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1994 Botswana President Ketumile Masires BDP wins parliamentary election
- 1994 Philip Glass' Symphony No. 2, for string orchestra, premieres with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NYC
- 1994 President Jean-Baptiste Aristide returns to Haiti
- 1995 Carolina Panthers win 1st game ever beating NY Jets 26-15
