Historical Events
Edgar Allan Poe's Mysterious Demise
Oct 3 American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death.
Famous Birthdays
- Oct 6 Basil Zaharoff, Greek arms dealer (merchant of death), born in Muğla, Turkey (d. 1936)
- Oct 7 James Whitcomb Riley, American author and poet (The Raggedy Man), born in Greenfield, Indiana (d. 1916)
- Oct 16 Arnold Krug, German composer, born in Hamburg, German Confederation (now Germany) (d. 1904)
- Oct 16 Charles Harford Lloyd, British organist and composer, born in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England (d. 1919)
- Oct 26 Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician (Frobenius–Stickelberger formulae), born in Charlotteburg, Berlin, Germany (d. 1917)
- Oct 30 Johan Willem van Reinhartshausen, Dutch illegitimate son of Princess Marianne of Orange-Nassau and her coachman, Johannes van Rossum, born in Cefalù, Sicily (d. 1861)
Famous Deaths
- Oct 6 Lajos, Count Batthyany, 1st Prime Minister of Hungary, executed by firing squad at 42
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Oct 7 American writer, poet and critic (The Pit and the Pendulum) considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre (Murders in the Rue Morgue), dies in Baltimore at 40
- Oct 16 George Washington Williams, 1st major African American historian, dies
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Oct 17 Polish pianist and composer (Concerto in F Minor), dies of tuberculosis at 39