Events in History
Coup d'état
Oct 12 Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup
- Oct 12 The Day of Six Billion: the proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world is born
Nobel Prize
Oct 13 Canadian Robert Mundell is named the winner of the 1999 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
- Oct 13 The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
- Oct 22 Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
- Oct 26 Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
- Oct 27 Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and 6 other members.
- Oct 29 Deadliest Indian Ocean tropical super cyclone hits Odisha, India, death toll 9,885, wind speed of 300 mph
- Oct 31 EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board.
- Oct 31 Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
Deaths in History
- Oct 2 Heinz G. Konsalik, German novelist (b. 1921)
Akio Morita (1921-1999)
Oct 3 Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony, dies at 78
- Oct 4 Bernard Buffet, French painter (Expressionism), dies at 71
- Oct 6 Francis Turner, American civil engineer (oversaw the Interstate Highway System), dies at 90
- Oct 6 Patrick Reilly, British diplomat (ambassador to Paris and Moscow, stopped Kim Philby becoming head of UK Secret Service), dies at 90 [1]
- Oct 7 David A. Huffman, American computer scientist, creator of Huffman coding, dies at 74
- Oct 7 Rev. Bruce Ritter, American Catholic priest and controversial founder of charity New York City based Covenant House, dies of cancer at 72
- Oct 9 Akhtar Hameed Khan, pioneer of Microcredit in developing countries (b. 1914)
- Oct 9 Morris West, Australian novelist (Shoes of the Fisherman), dies at 83
- Oct 10 John Hadfield, British author and publisher (Love on a Branch Line), dies at 92
- Oct 12 Robert Marsden Hope, Australian Justice and Royal Commissioner, dies at 80
- Oct 14 Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian politician and 1st President of Tanzania (1964-1985), dies at 77
- Oct 17 Nicholas Metropolis, Greek-American mathematician, physicist and computer scientist, dies at 84
- Oct 17 Ralph Grey, Baron Grey of Naunton, Governor of Northern Ireland (1968-73), dies at 89
- Oct 18 Herbert Heckmann, German writer, dies at 69
- Oct 19 James C. Murray, American politician (b. 1917)
- Oct 19 Nathalie Sarraute [Tcherniak], French writer (Childhood; Portrait of a Man Unknown; The Golden Fruits), dies at 99
Jack Lynch (1917-1999)
Oct 20 Irish politician and Taoiseach (1966-73 and 1977-79), dies at 82
- Oct 20 Ron Smith, English trade union leader (British Postal Workers), dies at 84
- Oct 21 Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Turkish politician, journalist, and educator, assassinated at 60
- Oct 27 Charlotte Perriand, French architect and furniture designer (Unité d'habitation), dies at 96
- Oct 27 Robert Mills, American physicist (quantum field theory), dies at 72
- Oct 28 Rafael Alberti, Spanish poet (El hombre deshabitado, one of the Generation of 27), dies at 96 [1]
- Oct 29 Greg [Michel Régnier], Belgian comic-book writer and artist (Achille Talon), dies at 68
- Oct 30 Nise da Silveira, Brazilian psychiatrist (made advances in occupational therapy), dies at 94
Authors
Civil Rights Activists
Inventors
Kings
Revolutionaries
Scientists