- 707 John VII ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock
- 1016 Danes defeat Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon)
- 1081 Battle of Dyrrhachium: Southern Italian Normans under Robert Guiscard defeat Byzantine Empire
- 1267 Battle at Marienholz: Henry III, Otto II van Gelre beat Keuls archbishop Engelbert III
- 1356 Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys Basel in Switzerland.
- 1386 Opening of the University of Heidelberg
- 1534 New pursuit of French protestants
- 1561 Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflict
- 1564 John Hawkins begins 2nd trip to America
- 1572 Spanish troops attack Maastricht
- 1622 French King Louis XIII & Huguenots sign Treaty of Montpellier
- 1648 1st labor organization forms in North American colonies (Boston Shoemakers)
- 1667 English fleet plunders Suriname plantations
- 1672 Poland & Turkey sign Peace of Buczacz
Event of Interest
1775 African-American poet Phillis Wheatley freed from slavery
Phillis Wheatley
Event of Interest
1790 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling is granted permission to enroll at the Tübinger Stift at an earlier age than usually permitted
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Music Premiere
1855 Franz Liszt's symphonic poem "Prometheus" premieres
Franz Liszt
Alaska Purchase
1867 Alaska Purchase: US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, having paid $7.2 million
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- 1869 Henrik Ibsen's "De Unges Forbund" premieres in Christiania (Oslo), Norway
- 1873 1st football game between Toronto Argonauts & Hamilton Tigers
- 1873 Columbia Princeton Rutgers & Yale set rules for collegiate football
- 1878 Edison makes electricity available for household use
- 1878 Anti-socialist laws are ratified in Germany
- 1889 1st all NYC World Series NY Giants (NL) play Bkln (AA)
- 1892 1st commercial long-distance phone line opens (Chicago-NY)
- 1898 American flag raised in Puerto Rico
- 1900 Count Bernard von Bulow becomes Chancellor of Germany, famous for first referring to Germany's need for 'place in the sun' and global empire
- 1901 Belgium's Louise of den Plas begins activities towards women rights
- 1904 Gustav Mahler's 5th symphony premieres in Cologne
- 1908 Belgium annexes Congo Free State
- 1909 Comte de Lambert of France sets airplane altitude record of 300 m
Historic Publication
1910 E. M. Forster publishes novel "Howards End"
E. M. Forster
Italo-Turkish War
1912 The Treaty of Lausanne ends the Italo-Turkish War; Italy annexes Libya
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- 1912 The First Balkan War breaks out, with Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece opposed to Turkey
- 1914 Schoenstatt Movement is founded in Germany
- 1915 3rd Italian offensive at Isonzo
- 1918 Czechoslovakia declares independence from Austro-Hungarian Empire
- 1918 NHL's Quebec Bulldogs sold to a Toronto businessman P. J. Quinn
- 1918 Russian 10th Army drives out White armies of Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad)
Event of Interest
1919 David Beatty is created 1st Earl Beatty, Viscount Borodale, and Baron Beatty of the North Sea and Brooksby
David Beatty
Event of Interest
1924 Harold "Red" Grange, finest collegiate football game (4 long TD runs)
Red Grange
Vladimir Lenin
Adolf Hitler
- 1943 US bombing of Bougainville, Solomon Island
Event of Interest
1944 Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery confer in Brussels, Belgium
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Omar Bradley
Bernard Montgomery
Music Premiere
1946 Aaron Copland's 3rd Symphony premieres
Aaron Copland
- 1948 Operation 10 Plagues - Israeli offensive against Egyptian army
Event of Interest
1950 Connie Mack retires as manager of Philadelphia Athletics after 50 years, longest serving manager in MLB history
Connie Mack
- 1951 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1952 Date of the first Mad Magazine issue
- 1952 "Buttrio Square" closes at New Century Theater NYC after 7 performances
- 1952 Vinoo Mankad takes 13 Pakistan wkts to win 1st India-Pak clash
- 1953 WLJT TV channel 11 in Lexington, TN (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1953 WTVK TV channel 26 in Knoxville, TN (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 Willie Thrower becomes 1st black NFL quarterback in modern times
- 1954 Hurricane Hazel becomes most severe to ever hit the US, killing 195 in US and Canada
- 1954 WBTW TV channel 13 in Florence, SC (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1954 WNBC radio changes call letters to WRCA (NYC)
- 1954 Texas Instruments Inc. announces the first transistor radio.
Event of Interest
1955 Track & Field names Jesse Owens all-time track athelete
Jesse Owens
- 1955 University of California discovers anti-proton
- 1955 Buganda Agreement between Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda Protectorate, and Mutesa II, Kabaka of Buganda
- 1960 Casey Stengel retired by NY Yankees (won 10 pennants in 12 years)
- 1960 In Britain, News Chronicle & Daily Mail merge and London Evening Star merges with Evening News
- 1961 Emergency crisis proclaimed in South Vietnam due to communist attack
Film Release
1961 "West Side Story", directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, the film adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical, starring Natalie Wood, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1962)
Rita Moreno
John F. Kennedy
Music Recording
1962 Tony Sheridan & Beat Brothers record "Let's Dance"
Tony Sheridan
Nobel Prize
1962 James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA
Francis Crick
James Watson
Film Release
1966 "Persona", Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann, is released
Ingmar Bergman
- 1967 Nobel prize for physics awarded to Hans A Bethe
- 1967 Soviet Venera 4 becomes 1st probe to send data back from Venus
- 1967 Walt Disney's "Jungle Book" film is released
- 1967 AL votes to allow Athletics to move from KC to Oakland & expand league to 12 teams in 1971 with KC & Seattle teams
- 1968 American long jumper Bob Beamon sets an incredible world record (8.90m, 29' 2½") in high altitude at the Mexico City Olympics; 0.55m (22") improvement over previous world record
- 1968 Circus Circus hotel opens in Las Vegas, largest permanent big top in the world
- 1968 Lee Evans sets world record of 43.8 seconds in 400 meter dash
Event of Interest
1968 Police find 219 grains of cannabis resin in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's apartment, they are fined £150 for marijuana possession
John Lennon
Yoko Ono
- 1968 US Olympic Committee suspends Tommie Smith & John Carlos for giving "black power" salute as a protest during victory ceremony
- 1968 American swimmer Don Schollander anchors US 4 × 200m freestyle relay team to world record 7:52.1 and the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo; Schollander's 4th gold of the Games
- 1968 American athletes sweep the medals in the men's 400m at the Mexico City Olympics; Lee Evans wins gold in world record 43.86s ahead of Larry James and Ron Freeman
- 1968 Polish sprinter Irena Szewińska runs a world record 22.58s to beat Australian Raelene Boyle by 0.16s and win the 200m gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
- 1968 A rare Australian 1-2 in track & field; Maureen Caird in Olympic record 10.39s beats team mate Pam Kilborn by 0.07s to win the 80m hurdles at the Mexico City Games
- 1969 Federal government bans use of cyclamates artificial sweeteners
- 1969 Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kanter arrested for marijuana possession
Event of Interest
1969 Rod Stewart joins Small Faces
Rod Stewart
- 1969 Soyuz 8 returns to Earth
- 1970 Sachio Kinugasa begins 2,215 cons game streak for Hiroshima Carp
- 1973 "Raisin" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 847 performances
- 1973 Congress authorizes bi-centennial quarter, half-dollar & dollar coin
- 1973 Judd Woldon & Robert Brittens musical "Raisin," premieres in NYC
- 1973 Nobel prize for Economic Sciences awarded to American Wassily Leontief
- 1974 1st NBA game at Market Square Arena - Pacers beat Spurs 129-121
- 1974 Andre van de Louw appointed Mayor of Rotterdam
- 1974 Wings (Country Hams) release "Walking in the Park with Eloise"
Event of Interest
1974 Chicago Bull Nate Thurmond becomes 1st in NBA to complete a quadruple double-22 pts, 14 rebounds, 13 assists & 12 blocks
Nate Thurmond
Event of Interest
1975 Simon & Garfunkel reunite on "Saturday Night Live", sing "My Little Town"
Lorne Michaels
- 1975 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1976 Nobel prize for chemistry awarded to American William Lipscomb
- 1977 1st Islander 0-0 tie-Kings at Nassau-25th time shutout-Resch's 15th
- 1977 NY Yankees win their 21st World Championship, 4 games
- 1977 West German commandos liberate Boeing 737 with 86 hostages at Mogadishu
Baseball Record
1977 Reggie Jackson hits 3 consecutive homers tying Ruth's series record
Reggie Jackson
Event of Interest
1979 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini orders mass executions to stop
Ayatollah Khomeini
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1980 Brooke Alexander, 18, of Hawaii, crowned Miss World USA
- 1980 Detroit blocks 21 Atlanta shots setting NBA record (double OT)
- 1981 Andreas Papandreous' PASOK wins Greek elections
- 1981 NY Giant Joe Danelo ties NFL record of 6 field goals in a game
- 1981 Poland General Jaruzelski elected party leader
- 1984 Discovery moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS 51A mission
- 1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1988 Israel's supreme court uphold's ban on Kahane`s Kach Party as racist
- 1988 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Television Premiere
1988 "Roseanne" TV comedy starring Roseanne Barr, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf premieres in the US on ABC
Roseanne Barr
John Goodman
- 1989 East German state/party leader Erich Honecker, resigns
- 1989 Hungary revises its constitution after the fall of its Communist regime
- 1989 US 62nd manned space mission STS 34 (Atlantis 5) launches into orbit
- 1990 "Once on this Island" opens at Booth Theater NYC for 469 performances
- 1991 "Most Happy Fella" closes at NY State Theater NYC
- 1991 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Film Release
1991 "My Own Private Idaho" directed and written by Gus van Sant starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves is released
River Phoenix
Keanu Reeves
- 1992 "Oba Oba '93" closes at Marquis Theater NYC after 22 performances
- 1992 1st non-US team to win a World Series Game; Toronto 5, Atlanta 4
- 1992 6.6 earthquake hits Colombia with no fatalities
- 1992 Philadelphia Eagle Randall Cunningham sets NFL quarterback scramble record of 3,683
- 1992 Start of Zimbabwe's 1st Test match, v India at Harare
- 1993 STS-58 (Columbia) launches into orbit
- 1995 NHL Winnipeg Jets sold to Americans who plan to move them to Phoenix
- 1999 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 1
Event of Interest
2000 Zack de la Rocha announces he is leaving rock band Rage Against the Machine
Tom Morello
Event of Interest
2007 After 8 years in exile, Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan. The same night, suicide attackers blow themselves up near Bhutto's convoy, killing over 100, including 20 police officers. Bhutto escapes uninjured.
Benazir Bhutto
- 2009 British Mercedes driver Jenson Button finishes 5th in Brazilian Grand Prix at Autódromo José Carlos Pace to clinch his first F1 World Drivers Championship
- 2011 Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released by Hamas
- 2012 Syrian military airstrikes kill 40 people in Maaret al-Numan
- 2012 Google stock trading suspended after premature release of a quarterly report indicating a 20% drop in profits and a 9% fall in share price
- 2012 MLB American League Championship: Detroit Tigers beat New York Yankees, 4 games to 0
Event of Interest
2012 Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen are honoured for their work with fashion label The Row at the WSJ Magazine's Innovator Of The Year Awards in New York City
Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen
- 2013 Saudi Arabia becomes the first country to turn down a seat on the UN Security Council in protest over Syria
- 2013 MLB National League Championship: St. Louis Cardinals beat Los Angeles Dodgers, 4 games to 2
- 2016 US White Houses says it is "confident" Russia behind recent email hacking and attemps to influence US election
Event of Interest
2017 US congresswoman Frederica Wilson says President Donald Trump said to bereaved army family of Sgt. La David Johnson "He knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway"
Donald Trump
Conference of Interest
2017 19th Chinese Communist Party congress opens in Beijing with President Xi Jinping delivering 3hr 23min speech heralding “new era”
Xi Jinping
- 2019 1st all-female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir outside the International Space Station
October in History
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, 1987Lenient Lion Remembered for 375 Years
A lion spared a businessman who prayed on his knees on this day and the event is still being celebrated in an ancient London church three centuries later.
October 16, 1643Chopin: The Day the Music Died
The brief life of Chopin, one of music’s earliest superstars, ended on this day when the sickly composer fell victim to tuberculosis. He was just 39.
October 17, 1849Prince of Wales Gallops Out of Horseracing After Scandal
Once regarded as the ‘first gentleman of Europe’, the lifestyle of a former Prince of Wales caused revulsion, starting with a horseracing scandal on this day.
October 20, 1791
