- Oct 3 Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the shows tigers, canceling the show for good.
- Oct 4 Jockey Jerry Bailey surpasses his own single season record for North American purse earnings ($19,271,814) set in 2002; wins aboard Sightseek in Beldame Stakes & Birdstone in Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park
- Oct 4 Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel: 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, are killed, and 51 others wounded.
- Oct 4 Red Raiders' quarterback B.J. Symons sets a Big 12 Conference record with 8 touchdown passes, leading Texas Tech to a convincing 59-28 win over Texas A & M
- Oct 4 Ten thousand people participate in "Rites of Ancestral Return" the reinternment of African American ancestral remains at the African Burial Ground in Manhattan [1]
- Oct 4 Trainer Bobby Frankel saddles Sightseek to victory in the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park; Frankel's 23rd Grade I stakes winner of the year, breaking D. Wayne Lukas' 1987 record of 22
- Oct 5 Chicago Cubs win their first MLB postseason series since the 1908 World Series with 5-1 win v Atlanta Braves in Game 5 NLDS at Turner Field
- Oct 5 Kansas City wide receiver Dante Hall scores on game winning 93-yard punt return in Chiefs 24-23 victory v Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium; returns for score in an NFL-record 4th straight game
Election of Interest
Oct 7 California holds gubernatorial recall election - Governor Gray Davis loses and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes governor
Nobel Prize for Economics
Oct 8 Clive Granger and Robert F. Engle awarded Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH)”
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Oct 8 Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon win the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes
Nobel Peace Prize
Oct 10 Shirin Ebadi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, making her the 1st Iranian Muslim women to receive the prize
- Oct 12 FIFA Women's World Cup Final, Home Depot Center, Carson, CA: Nia Künzer scores winner in sudden death extra time as Germany beats Sweden, 2-1
F1 World Champion
Oct 12 German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher finishes 8th at the season-ending Japanese F1 Grand Prix at Suzuka; clinches 4th consecutive World Drivers Championship by 2 points from Kimi Räikkönen
Sports History
Oct 14 Fan Steve Bartman deflects the ball away from Chicago Cubs outfielder Moises Alou. Cubs give up eight runs in the inning and lose to the Marlins 8-3, and the Bartman incident is seen as the turning point in the series
- Oct 15 China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission
- Oct 15 MLB National League Championship: Florida Marlins beat Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 3
- Oct 15 The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi collides with a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
- Oct 16 MLB American League Championship: New York Yankees beat Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3
- Oct 17 Eunuchs in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh float the political party Jiti Jitayi Politics.
- Oct 17 Pinnacle fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) to become World's tallest high-rise
- Oct 18 Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia
Beatification
Oct 19 Mother Teresa of Calcutta is beatified by Pope John Paul II
Music Concert
Oct 24 Walt Disney Concert Hall, new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, designed by Frank Gehry, opens in downtown Los Angeles, California
- Oct 25 15th College Football Holy War: Boston College beats Notre Dame 27-25 in Chestnut Hill
- Oct 25 Baseball World Series: Florida beats New York Yankees, 2-0 in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium for Marlins second title; MVP: Florida pitcher Josh Beckett
- Oct 25 Breeders' Cup Horse Racing, Santa Anita Racetrack; winners: Pleasantly Perfect, Action This Day, Adoration, Johar, High Chaparral, Islington, Halfbridled, Six Perfections, Cajun Beat
- Oct 26 The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in Californian history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km²), destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego
Wicked
Oct 30 Stephen Schwartz's musical "Wicked", a re-telling of the "Wizard of Oz" from the Wicked Witch of the West's' point of view, starring Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, opens at the Gershwin Theatre, NYC; run is ongoing, wins 2 Tony Awards, 7 Drama Desk Awards, and a Grammy
- Oct 31 A bankruptcy court approves MCI's reorganization plans, essentially clearing the telecommunications company to exit bankruptcy
Sports History
Oct 31 Bethany Hamilton, aged 13, has her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing in Hawaii
Appointment of Interest
Oct 31 Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia and is replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marking an end to Mahathir's 22 years in power
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists