October 2010 in History

Events in History

Oct 3 19th Commonwealth Games open in Delhi, India

Event of Interest

Oct 6 Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launch social media app Instagram

Nobel Prize

Oct 7 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]

Oct 10 The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved

Copiapó Mine Rescue

Oct 13 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

A miner kneels to pray after being rescued from the San Jose mine in Copiapó

Election of Interest

Oct 14 Mark Rutte sworn in as Prime Minister of the Netherlands after his People's Party for Freedom and Democracy party became the largest party in the House of Representatives in the 2010 elections

Oct 17 The Teshima Art Museum by architect Ryue Nishizawa and artist Rei Naito opens on the island of Teshima, Japan [1]
Oct 31 Belgium leaves the recession with 0.5% growth in the third quarter

Deaths in History

Oct 1 Audouin Dollfus, French Astronomer (discovered Janus, a moon of Saturn), dies at 85
Oct 2 Kwa Geok Choo, wife of Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew (b. 1920)
Oct 3 Abraham Sarmiento, Sr., Filipino Supreme Court jurist (1987-91), dies at 88
Oct 5 Bernard Clavel, French novelist (b. 1923)
Oct 6 David Rowbotham, Australian poet and journalist, dies at 86
Oct 7 Milka Planinc, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (1982-86), dies at 85
Oct 8 Frank Bourgholtzer, American television correspondent (b. 1919)
Oct 12 Belva Plain, American novelist (b. 1919)
Oct 13 Khoisan X [Benny Alexander], South African activist (Secretary-General for the Pan-Africanist Movement), dies of a stroke at 55
Oct 13 Vernon Biever, American photographer (b. 1923)
Oct 14 Benoît Mandelbrot, Polish-French-American mathematician (proved Zipf's law, discovered the Mandelbrot set), dies at 85
Oct 15 Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and pro-life activist (b. 1926)
Oct 15 Richard C. Miller, American photographer (b. 1912)

Bob Guccione (1930-2010)

Oct 20 American publisher (Penthouse, Omni), dies of lung cancer at 79

Oct 20 Farooq Leghari, 8th President of Pakistan (1993-97), dies at 70
Oct 23 Leo Cullum, American cartoonist (The New Yorker), dies at 68
Oct 24 Joseph Stein, American playwright (Fiddler on the Roof), dies at 98
Oct 24 Lamont Johnson, American television director (b. 1922)
Oct 25 Vesna Parun, Croatian poet (b. 1922)
Oct 26 Glen "Frosty" Little, American circus clown (Ringling Brothers, 1968-91), and instructor (Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, 1980-87), dies at 84
Oct 26 Mbah Maridjan, Mount Merapi gatekeeper (b. 1927)
Oct 26 Romeu Tuma, Brazilian politician (b. 1931)
Oct 27 Néstor Kirchner, Argentine politician, President of Argentina (2003-2007), dies of heart failure at 60
Oct 27 Owen B Pickett, American politician (Rep-D-Virginia 1987-2001), dies at 80
Oct 28 Ehud Netzer, Israeli archaeologist (b. 1934)
Oct 28 Jonathan Motzfeldt, Greenlander statesman (b. 1938)
Oct 28 Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist (b. 1932)
Oct 30 Harry Mulisch, Dutch writer (Message to King Rat), dies at 83
Oct 31 Theodore Sorenson, American presidential advisor to JFK and author (Kennedy), dies at 82