Historic Event
1492 Christopher Columbus misses Florida when he changes course
Historic Discovery
1542 Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo discovers Catalina Island off the coast of California
Lepanto – The Battle That Saved Europe
1571 Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of southern European nations formed by Pope Pius V destroy an Ottoman fleet in a significant loss off Western Greece
Historic Event
1637 Prince Frederick Henry occupies Breda
Historic Event
1763 George III of Great Britain issues Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlement
- 1765 Stamp Act Congress (First Congress of the American Colonies) convenes in New York City to devise a unified protest against new British taxation
- 1777 Americans beat British in Second Battle of Saratoga & Battle of Bemis Heights
- 1780 British defeated by American militia near Kings Mountain, SC
- 1806 Carbon paper patented in London by inventor Ralph Wedgwood
- 1816 1st double decked steamboat, Washington, arrives in New Orleans
- 1825 Miramichi Fire - forest fire disaster in New Brunswick
- 1826 Granite Railway (1st chartered railway in US) begins operations
- 1828 The Greek city of Patras is liberated by the French expeditionary force in Peloponnese under General Maison.
- 1830 The Black Line begins; a leveé of colonists in Tasmania, Australia, attempts to round up Aborigines onto the Tasman Peninsula [1]
- 1840 Willem I resigns as king of Netherlands
- 1856 Cyrus Chambers Jr patents folding machine that folds book & newspapers
- 1864 -Oct 13th) Battle of Darbytown Road, Virginia
- 1864 Naval Engagement at Bahia Harbor, Brazil - CSS Florida vs USS Wachusett
- 1868 Cornell University (Ithaca NY) opens
- 1870 Leon Gambetta flees Paris in balloon
- 1871 16-hour fire injures 30 of Chicago's 185 firefighters
- 1879 Germany & Austrian-Hungary sign Twofold Covenant
- 1882 1st World Series Baseball Game 2: Chicago White Stockings (NL) beats Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA), 2-0 at Bank Street Grounds, Cincinnati
- 1886 Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba
- 1891 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Hugh Kirkaldy wins by 2 strokes from brother Andrew Kirkaldy and Willie Fernie; last Open contested in a single day over 36 holes
- 1900 The term "orienteering" is first used for an event
- 1904 NY Highlanders beat Boston Americans, 3-2 at Hilltop Park, NYC for pitcher Jack Chesbro's MLB record 41st win of the season (41-12)
Historic Event
1915 English nurse Edith Cavell sentenced to death along with 34 others by German court martial for running underground network to free Allied soldiers
Sports History
1916 Georgia Tech, coached by John Heisman, defeats Cumberland, 222-0; most lopsided score in the history of US college football
- 1916 The German submarine U-53 arrives off Newport, Rhode Island, and sinks 9 British merchant ships in international waters
- 1919 First London-Amsterdam airline service (British Aerial Transport & KLM)
- 1919 Fritz Kreisler & F Jacobi's "Apple Blossoms" premieres in NYC
- 1919 KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, established (oldest existing airline)
- 1922 First radio link, WNJ (Newark) & WGY (Senectady) link for World Series
Sports History
1922 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis insists Game 4 of World Series be played despite heavy rain
- 1922 Oud-burgem of Rotterdam Zimmerman becomes High Comm's of Austria
- 1923 Yankees Everett Scott runs his consecutive-game streak to 1,138
- 1924 Greek government of Dikalekopoulis forms
- 1926 Actress Theo Mann-Master resigns from stage
- 1926 Italian Great Fascist Council forms
- 1927 Yank Herb Pennock retires 1st 22 Pirates in World Series game
World Record
1928 Paavo Nurmi runs world record 10 miles (50:15.0)
- 1928 Race Tafari Makonnen crowned king of Abyssinia
Historic Event
1929 Ramsay MacDonald is first British Prime Minister to address US Congress
- 1931 1st infra-red photograph, Rochester, NY
- 1933 Baseball World Series: NY Giants beat Washington Senators, 4-3 at Griffith Stadium to clinch 4 games to 1 series victory
- 1935 Baseball World Series: Detroit Tigers beat Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Navin Field for 4 games to 2 series win; Tigers win first championship in 5 WS appearances
Sports History
1936 7th-place Brooklyn Dodgers fire manager Casey Stengel
- 1937 Johan Wagenaar's "Feestmars" premieres in Amsterdam
- 1938 Germany requires all Jewish passports be stamped with letter J
- 1940 World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the U.S. into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
- 1941 German army occupies Viarma, USSR
- 1942 1 salvo Katjoesja-rocket destroys Nazi battalion in Stalingrad
- 1942 Last camouflaged German raider Komet leaves Flushing (Netherlands)
Historic Event
1942 Maxwell Anderson's "Eve of St Mark" premieres in NYC
Historic Event
1944 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ordered to return to Berlin
- 1944 Riots in Amersfoort/Utrecht/Strugle
- 1945 Dutch author A M de Jong's murderer Ton van Gog escapes
- 1946 Charles Ives' 2nd string quartet premieres
- 1947 Larry MacPhail resigns as NY Yankees GM after final game of 4-3 World Series win over Brooklyn Dodgers
- 1949 German Democratic Republic formed from Russian occupation zone (National Day). Wilhelm Pieck becomes 1st president, Otto Greatwohl 1st premier
- 1950 US forces invade North Korea by crossing 38th parallel
- 1950 Walter Bedell Smith replaces Roscoe H Hillenkoetter as 4th CIA head
- 1950 William H Jackson becomes deputy director of CIA
Historic Event
1951 David Ben-Gurion forms 3rd Israeli government
- 1952 Baseball World Series: NY Yankees beat Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2 at Ebbets Field in Game 7 to tie own record 4th straight WS; MVP: NY 1B Johnny Mize
Film & TV History
1952 First "Bandstand" broadcast in Philadelphia on WFIL-TV (Dick Clark joins in 1955 as a substitute-host)
Sports History
1953 Bill Veeck tells Browns stockholders he faces bankruptcy unless they drop their suit to block his move to Baltimore, they comply
- 1954 Hassan el Hodeiby, leader of the Muslim Brothership, arrested in Egypt
- 1955 Aircraft carrier USS Saratoga launched at Brooklyn
Historic Event
1955 Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reads his poem "Howl" for the first time at a poetry reading in San Francisco.
Film Release
1959 "Pillow Talk" film directed by Michael Gordon and starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson is first released
Far Side of the Moon Revealed
1959 Far side of Moon seen for the 1st time, courtesy of USSR's Luna 3 space probe
Historic Event
1960 JFK and Richard Nixon's second presidential debate
- 1960 TV series "Route 66" premieres on CBS
- 1961 15th NHL All-Star Game, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: All-Stars beat Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1
Musical Finale
1961 Charles Strouse and Lee Adams' musical "Bye Bye Birdie", starring Dick Van Dyke, Chita Rivera, and Dick Gautier, closes at Martin Beck Theater, NYC, after 607 performances and 4 Tony Awards
- 1962 LPGA Championship Women's Golf, Stardust CC, LV: Judy Kimball wins her only major title by 4 strokes ahead of runner-up Shirley Spork
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 Bobby Baker resigns as Senate Democratic secretary
- 1963 Hurricane Flora hits Haiti & Dominican Republic, kills 7,190
- 1963 JFK signs ratification for nuclear test ban treaty
Music History
1963 The Rolling Stones record the Lennon-McCartney song "I Wanna Be Your Man" at Kingsway Sound Studio in London
- 1964 The Beatles appear on episode of "Shindig" (ABC-TV) in the US
- 1965 50 mph gust helps Robert Mitera ace 447-yd 10th hole at Miracle Hills, Omaha, Nebr to score world's longest straight hole-in-one
- 1965 Charles Linster does 6,006 consecutive push-ups
- 1966 Rolling Stones record four songs for their 1st live LP "Got Live If You Want It!" at a concert at Colston Hall in Bristol
- 1967 Beatles turn down $1 million offer by Sid Berstein for a return performance at Shea Stadium in NYC
- 1967 Rolf Hochhuth's play "Soldaten" premieres in West Berlin
- 1968 Motion Picture Association of America adopts film rating system
- 1968 Rioting continues in Derry, Northern Ireland after Royal Ulster Constabulary put down civil rights march two days earlier
- 1969 WJMN TV channel 3 in Escanaba, MI (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
Film Premiere
1971 "The French Connection" directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider and Fernando Rey premieres in the US (Academy Awards Best Picture 1972)
Meeting of Interest
1971 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Brian Faulkner meets with British Prime Minister Edward Heath; they agree to send an additional 1,500 British Army troops to Northern Ireland
Sports History
1973 Scotsman Jackie Stewart wins his 3rd Formula 1 World Drivers Championship despite withdrawing from the season ending US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen; wins title by 16 points from Emerson Fittipaldi
- 1974 German Democratic Republic amends constitution
- 1975 MLB American League Championship: Boston Red Sox beat Oakland Athletics, 3 games to 0
- 1975 MLB National League Championship: Cincinnati Reds beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 3 games to 0
- 1975 Players' Association files a suit on behalf of Dodgers' Andy Messersmith
Music History
1975 US decides John Lennon won't be deported due to UK pot conviction
Historic Event
1976 Hua Guofeng succeeds Mao as Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
- 1977 USSR adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
- 1978 LA Dodgers win the pennant
- 1978 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Kansas City Royals, 3 games to 1
- 1978 MLB National League Championship: Los Angeles Dodgers beat Philadelphia Phillies, 3 games to 1
- 1978 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1979 "1940s Radio Hour" opens at St James Theater NYC for 105 performances
- 1979 Cleveland Browns' Dino Hall sets club records with 9 kickoff returns
- 1979 Ferrari driver Jody Scheckter retires with tyre trouble in US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen; becomes first South African to claim Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; wins by 4 points from race winner Gilles Villeneuve
Sports History
1979 Frank Mahovlich formally retires from the NHL after a failed comeback attempt with the Detroit Red Wings
- 1979 Musical review "Eubie!", based on the songs of composer Eubie Blake, closes at Ambassador Theater, NYC, after 439 performances
- 1979 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1980 Belgium 3rd government of Martens resigns
Historic Event
1981 Hosni Mubarak becomes acting-president of Egypt
- 1981 In 1st Eastern Division championship Yanks beat Brewers 5-3
- 1982 Musical "Cats" opens at Winter Garden Theater on Broadway, NYC; runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000, wins 7 Tony and 1 Grammy Award
Historic Event
1982 Olof Palme forms Swedish government
- 1984 MLB National League Championship: San Diego Padres beat Chicago Cubs, 3 games to 2
- 1984 Striking umps return for Game 5 of NLCS, San Diego Padres win pennant
Sports History
1984 Walter Payton passes Jim Brown as NFL's career rushing leader
- 1985 21st NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-J): Atlantis 1 lands at Edwards AFB
- 1985 KHQ-AM in Spokane Wash's final transmission
- 1985 Lynette Woodward chosen as 1st woman in Harlem Globetrotters
- 1985 PLO terrorists seize Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro
- 1986 First edition of new British newspaper "Independent" published
Sports History
1986 Steve Yzerman is named captain of the Detroit Red Wings, a title he would hold for over 1,300 games
- 1988 Jim Fregosi is fired as manager of White Sox
- 1988 Latvian flag raised in Riga for first time since annexation by USSR
- 1988 Lou Piniella is fired as manager of Yankees for 2nd time
- 1988 WNBC 660 final transmission, WFAN moves from 1050 to 660 & WUKQ begins on 1050 at 5:30 PM (NYC radio)
Sports History
1989 Howard Stern's "US Open Sores" tennis match against his producer Gary Dell'Abate. at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York
Baseball Record
1989 Oakland A's Rickey Henderson steals a record 8 bases in a playoff series (5 games) against Toronto Blue Jays
Historic Event
1991 Law Professor Anita Hill accuses Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments to her
- 1991 Scorecard Harry, Space Appeal & Cafe Lex in 9th race at Belmont, creating 2nd triple dead heat in NY thoroughbred racing history
- 1992 Tampa Bay Lightning become 1st NHL expansion team to win opener (7-2)
- 1993 Massive Muslim demonstration in Xining, China, 12 killed
- 1993 Musical "Les Miserables" opens at Meralco Theatre, Philippines
Nobel Prize
1993 Nobel prize for literature awarded to American writer Toni Morrison
- 1994 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- 1994 Faud Guliyev appointed premier of Azerbijan
- 1994 Ingvar Carlsson forms Swedish government
- 1994 Lu Bin swims female 200m medley world record (2:11.57)
- 1995 Boston's Fleet Center opens, NY Islanders & Boston Bruins tie at 4-4
- 1995 Mariners rally from 5-0 to force Game 5 of Division Series vs Yankees
Historic Event
1996 Rupert Murdoch launches Fox News with Roger Ailes as CEO
- 1998 Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
- 2000 Last ever competitive soccer match at Wembley Stadium, England defeated 1-0 by Germany, last goal scored by Liverpool's Dietmar Hammann. Match is Tony Adams' 60th at Wembley, the record for most appearances at the stadium.
- 2001 Crude oil resumes flowing through the trans-Alaska pipeline after workers welded shut a bullet hole that caused 260,000 US gallons of oil to spill out
- 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan starts with an air assault and covert operations on the ground
Election of Interest
2003 California holds gubernatorial recall election - Governor Gray Davis loses and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes governor
Historic Event
2004 King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates
Film & TV History
2006 Novaya Gazeta Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya shot and killed outside her apartment in Moscow
Sports History
2007 Senior Players Championship Men's Golf, Baltimore CC: Loren Roberts wins his third of 4 Champions Tour major titles by 6 strokes from Tom Watson
- 2008 Music, podcast, and video streaming service Spotify is launched by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon
Historic Publication
2009 A digital version of psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung's 'Red Book' is published 48 years after his death and contains personal notes on his subconscious during the period in which he developed his principal theories
Nobel Prize
2010 Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat" [1]
- 2012 13 people are killed after a Sudanese military aeroplane crashes near Khartoum
- 2012 ICC Women's Cricket T20 World Cup, Colombo: Jess Cameron's 45 from 34 balls leads Australia to 142/4; beat England 138/9 to win by 4 runs to retain WC
NFL Record
2012 New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees breaks Johnny Unitas' NFL record for consecutive games with a TD pass (48) when he connects with Devery Henderson in Saints 31-24 win over San Diego at the SuperDome
- 2012 Sébastien Loeb wins the World Rally Championship for the ninth consecutive year
- 2013 James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof win the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on transport systems in cells
- 2013 Mulatu Teshome becomes president of Ethiopia
- 2014 Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura win the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing blue light emitting diodes
- 2014 Spanish nurse diagnosed with Ebola, the first case outside west Africa
- 2015 Nobel prize in Chemistry awarded to Tomas Lindahl (Sweden), Paul Modrich (US) and Aziz Sancar (Turkey) for work on cells DNA repair
Historic Event
2015 US President Barack Obama apologises to Doctors without Borders President and the President of Afghanistan for the bombing of a hospital in Kunduz
- 2016 Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos wins the Nobel Peace Prize for attempts to end conflict with FARC
Historic Event
2016 Washington Post releases videotape of Donald Trump boasting of groping and kissing women without consent
- 2017 New Zealand clinch their 5th Rugby Championship with 25-24 win over South Africa at Cape Town; All Blacks undefeated in 6 games
- 2018 China confirms it has detained Interpol chief Meng Hongwei, who resigns from his position after being reported missing
