Defender of the Faith
1521 Pope Leo X titles King Henry VIII of England "Defender of the Faith"
- 1531 Battle of Kappel: Swiss Roman Catholic cantons beat protestant forces of Zurich; Huldrych Zwingli Swiss reformation leader is killed
- 1540 Emperor Karel names his son Philip, Duke of Milan
- 1573 Battle of South Seas - Dutch rebels beat Spanish navy
- 1614 Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
- 1634 Burchardi flood - "the second Grote Mandrenke" kills about 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany
Surena
1674 Pierre Corneille's tragedy "Surena" premieres in Paris
Franklin Returns to America
1726 Benjamin Franklin returns to Philadelphia from England
- 1737 Earthquake reported to have killed 300,000 and destroyed half of Calcutta in India. Now thought to have been an exaggerated account of a hurricane which claimed 3,000 of the city's estimated 20,000 residents. [1]
- 1746 Battle of Rocoux: French defeat British, Austrian and Dutch armies
- 1776 Brigadier-General Arnold's Lake Champlain fleet defeated by British during the Battle of Valcour Island (American Revolutionary War)
- 1797 Battle of Camperdown (Kamperduin): British navy defeats Dutch fleet
- 1811 The Juliana, 1st steam-powered ferryboat, begins operation
- 1852 The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
- 1861 Battle of Dumfries, VA (Quantico Creek)
- 1863 Skirmish at Rheatown/Henderson's Mill, Tennessee
- 1864 Campina Grande, Brazil was established as a city
- 1864 Slavery abolished in Maryland
- 1865 Paul Bogle led hundreds of black men and women in a march in Jamaica, starting the Morant Bay rebellion
Stephens Paroled
1865 US President Andrew Johnson paroles Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens
- 1873 Toronto Argonaut Football Club 1st game losing to U of Toronto
- 1881 David Houston patents roll film for cameras
- 1883 US and Canadian railroads agree to use of five time-zone system for North America, based on the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1887 A Miles patents elevator
- 1890 Daughters of American Revolution founded
- 1890 First 100 yard dash under 10 seconds run by John Owen in 9.8 sec at Analostan Island, Washington, D.C.
Menelik II Rejects Treaty
1895 Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia rejects a treaty with Italy
- 1914 German troops occupy Ghent
- 1915 Bulgarian anti-Serbian offensive begins
- 1918 Major tsumani shakes Caribbean
- 1922 First woman FBI "special investigator", Alaska Davidson, appointed
- 1922 Turkey & Greece sign cease fire
- 1923 German Mark falls to 10 billion per £, 4 billion per $
- 1924 Bureau of Surrealist Research opens in Paris, directed by Antonin Artaud, resource centre for surrealist writers
- 1925 Belgian episcopelian speaks against Flemish activism
- 1925 NY Giants play 1st NFL game, lose to Providence 14-0
Lou Gehrig AL MVP
1927 New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig is named American League MVP; despite hitting MLB record 60 HR's Babe Ruth as a former winner is not eligible
- 1929 Sean O'Casey's "Silver Tassle" premieres in London
- 1930 Collingwood Football Club in Melbourne, Australia, won the VFL premiership for the fourth consecutive year.
- 1931 100,000 extreme-right Germans form "Harzburger Front"
- 1932 1st political telecast (Democratic National Committee) at CBS, NYC
- 1936 "Professor Quiz" first radio quiz show premieres
Bucky Harris
1939 Bucky Harris signs to manage Washington again
Einstein's Letter
1939 FDR and advisor Alexander Sachs meet to discuss Albert Einstein's letter warning of the possibilities of an atomic bomb [1]
- 1939 NAACP organized Legal Defense & Education Fund
Skylark
1939 Samson Raphaelson's play "Skylark" starring Gertrude Lawrence premieres in NYC
- 1942 -Oct 12] Naval battle at Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal
Laura
1944 "Laura" directed by Otto Preminger starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews is released in NYC, New York
- 1944 Allies bomb sea wall at Veere
- 1944 Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva was annexed by the U.S.S.R
Chinese Civil War Begins
1945 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong's Communist Party
- 1945 First man-made object to escape the atmosphere (WAC Corporal) is fired from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, reaching 235,000 feet
- 1946 New York Yankees trade infielder Joe Gordon to Cleveland Indians for pitcher Allie Reynolds
- 1947 Brazil & Chile break diplomatic relations with USSR
- 1949 Costa Rica abolishes its army (decree 249)
- 1950 The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS
Argentine History
1955 All Peron feast days disposed of in Argentina
- 1955 Persia signs Pact of Baghdad
- 1956 1st Pakistan v Australia Test 95 runs scored on 1st day
- 1956 AL President Will Harridge bars Washington Senators move to West Coast, unless unanimously approved by the other AL owners
- 1956 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
- 1958 2nd US Moon probe, Pioneer 1, reaches 113,810 km, falls back
- 1959 KTHI TV channel 11 in Fargo-Grand Forks, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1960 Hurricane ravages East-Pakistan (6,000 die)
- 1960 Radio/TV executive John Fetzer buys a controlling interest of Detroit Tigers
- 1961 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 66,100m
- 1961 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1962 1st appearance of a Gabor sister on Merv Griffin Show
Second Vatican Council
1962 Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) convened by Pope John XXIII
The Twilight Zone
1963 William Shatner stars in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of CBS anthology series "The Twilight Zone"
Yoko Plus Me
1967 "Yoko Plus Me" art exhibition by Yoko Ono opens in London (the "Me" is John Lennon)
- 1968 Apollo 7 (Schirra, Eisele & Cunningham) made 163 orbits in 260 hours
- 1968 Coup d'état in Panama against President Arnulfo Arias
Twins Appoint Martin
1968 MLB star Billy Martin named manager of the Minnesota Twins
- 1969 -28] Rome: 2nd bishop synod
Music History
1969 American blues musician Muddy Waters involved in a car crash that kills 3
- 1969 Three people shot dead during street violence in the loyalist Shankill area of Belfast
- 1971 Frank McGee becomes news anchor of Today Show
- 1971 Switzerland recognizes North Vietnam
- 1972 Panama adopts constitution
- 1972 Prison uprising at Washington, D.C. jail
- 1972 World Hockey Association officially debuts as the Alberta Oilers defeat the Ottawa Nationals, 7-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre
- 1973 Héctor José Cámpora is elected President of Argentina
- 1973 Oakland beats Baltimore 3 games to 2 to win AL pennant
Streetlife Serenade
1974 Columbia Records releases "Streetlife Serenade", singer-songwriter Billy Joel's third studio album
Saturday Night Live
1975 "Saturday Night Live" created by Lorne Michaels premieres on NBC with George Carlin as host
NHL Record
1975 Islander's Bryan Trottier's 1st career hat trick
Event of Interest
1976 Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing and the "Gang of Four" are arrested and charged with plotting a coup
Historic Invention
1977 American inventor Gordon Gould issued his first US patent for a optically pumped laser amplifier, 20 years after first claiming to have invented the laser
- 1977 Soyuz 25 returns to Earth
- 1978 Aristides Royo elected president of Panama
- 1978 Belgium government of Tindemans resigns
- 1978 Columbia Records releases "52nd Street", singer-songwriter Billy Joel's sixth studio album; it becomes his 1st chart-topper, and wins 3 Grammy Awards
Baseball Record
1978 Dodgers Bob Welch dramatically strikes out Reggie Jackson in 9th
- 1979 Allan McLeod Cormack & Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield win Nobel Prize for medicine for developing CAT scan
- 1979 German DR frees dissidents Rudolf Bahro & Nico Hubner
- 1980 Cosmonauts Popov & Ryumin set space endurance record of 184 days
- 1980 Dallas Mavericks open debut NBA season with a 103-92 victory against interstate rival San Antonio Spurs at Reunion Arena
- 1980 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1981 LeRoy Irvin sets yards gained on punt returns record (207 yds)
Music History
1981 Then unknown musician Prince Rogers Nelson opens for The Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Coliseum
- 1981 Yanks beat Brewers 7-3 & win only Eastern Championship Series
- 1982 English ship Mary Rose, which sank during an engagement with France in 1545, raised at Portsmouth, England
- 1982 Riot in Amsterdam as tram catches fire
Can't Slow Down
1983 "Can't Slow Down" second studio album by Lionel Richie is released
- 1983 Last hand-cranked telephones US went out of service as 440 telephone customers in Bryant Pond, Maine, were switched over to direct-dial
- 1984 1st space walk by US woman (Dr Kathryn D Sullivan)
Event of Interest
1984 August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" premieres in NYC
- 1984 NASA launches space vehicle S-208
Event of Interest
1984 US Vice Presidential candidates' debate - Geraldine Ferraro (D) and George H. W. Bush (R), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1985 Atlantis (51-J) returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
Event of Interest
1985 President Reagan bans import of South African Krugerrands to the USA
- 1985 US intercepts Egyptian Boeing with Achille Lauro terrorists
Reagan and Gorbachev
1986 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland
- 1987 200,000 march for gay and lesbian civil rights in Washington, D.C.
- 1990 Center for Urban archaeology opens in NYC South Street Seaport Museum
- 1990 Libya's Qadhafi says Israel must be eliminated
- 1990 Mexican writer Octavio Paz is awarded the Nobel Prize for literature
- 1990 Oil hits a record $40.42 per barrel
- 1990 UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd says force would be used if Iraq does not withdraw from Kuwait
- 1991 Chip Beck ties PGA record lowest 18 hole score of 59 during 3rd round of the Las Vegas Invitational at the Sunrise GC
Event of Interest
1991 Law Professor Anita Hill testifies Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her
- 1991 Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart seen soliciting a prostitute
Event of Interest
1992 1st three-way US presidential debate (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot)
Sports History
1992 Deion Sanders, plays for Atlanta Falcons (NFL) & Braves (Baseball)
- 1992 Toronto down 6-1 in 7th beats A's 7-6 in 11th in AL playoff
- 1993 Norwegian Rushdie publisher William Nygaard injured in attack
- 1993 US warship Harlan County anchors off Port-au-Prince Haiti
- 1994 Russian ruble decreases to 3,926 rubles per dollar
- 1994 Space shuttle STS-68 (Endeavour 7), lands
- 1995 John Bobbitt has plastic surgery to increase his penis 3 inches
TV Show Appearance
1995 O.J. Simpson cancels a TV appearance on Dateline
- 1996 Ford buys rights to name Detroit domed stadium for $40 million
Sports History
1997 Dennis Rodman returns from second longest NBA suspension (11 games)
- 1998 Congo Airlines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people
Sports History
1999 Pedro Martínez throws six hitless innings in relief to win and clinch the ALDS in Game 5
Cricket History
2000 South African Cricket Board issues former captain Hansie Cronje with a life ban as a result of match-fixing allegations
- 2000 The 100th Space Shuttle mission (STS-92) is flown
Nobel Prize for Economics
2001 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences jointly awarded to George Akerlof, Joseph E. Stiglitz and A. Michael Spence for "their analyses of markets with asymmetric information"
- 2001 The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
- 2002 A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
Nobel Peace Prize
2002 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to former US President Jimmy Carter [1]
30 Rock
2006 US sitcom "30 Rock" created by and starring Tina Fey alongside Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan first premieres on NBC in the US
- 2012 A further 83 people are killed throughout Syria by the Syrian army
- 2012 A US appeal court overturns a district court ruling banning the sale of Samsung
- 2013 10 people are killed and a hospital fire in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan
- 2013 27 people are killed after a migrant boat sinks in the Channel of Sicily
- 2013 The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons wins the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize
- 2015 Nepal's parliament elects Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, leader of the Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist party, as Prime Minister
- 2016 South Korean firm Samsung announces it will permanently stop production of Note 7 phones after complaints devices caught fire
- 2017 TripAdvisor customer poll names The Black Swan in Oldstead, North Yorkshire, world's best restaurant
- 2018 Russian Soyuz spacecraft makes emergency landing when rocket fails two minutes after liftoff, with American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut aboard
- 2018 Swedish dramatic soprano Nina Stemme is awarded the fourth $1 million Birgit Nilsson Prize
Appointment of Interest
2018 Thierry Henry is appointed head football coach at Monaco
- 2018 World's new longest flight flies from Singapore to Newark Airport, New Jersey takes 17 hours 52 mins
Cricket History
2019 Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli scores career-best 254 not out to move past 7,000 Test runs on day 2 of the 2nd Test against South Africa in Mumbai; India wins by an innings and 137 runs
AI YoungBoy 2
2019 NBA YoungBoy releases the album mixtape "AI YoungBoy 2" which debuts at #1 on the US Billboard 200
Nobel Peace Prize
2019 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for the peace deal with Eritrea
Sports History
2020 British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton wins Eifel Grand Prix at Germany's Nürburgring to equal Michael Schumacher's record of 91 Formula 1 victories
- 2020 India records more than 7 million cases of COVID-19
- 2021 Australia's largest city Sydney ends its 107-day lockdown, with restrictions easing for fully vaccinated people
- 2021 Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden steps down after The NY Times details emails in which he made homophobic and misogynistic remarks; earlier reports alleged racist statements about a union leader
- 2021 Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for their work on "natural experiments" [1]
Music History
2022 Ringo Starr resumes his All-Starr Band tour with a show in Seattle, Washington after his testing positive for COVID-19
