- 202 BC Battle of Zama: Hannibal Barca and the Carthaginian army are defeated by Roman legions under Scipio Africanus, ending 2nd Punic War
- 439 The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa
- 615 Pope Deusdedit [Adeodatus I] elected to succeed Boniface IV as Catholic Pope
- 1031 Abbot Humbertus van Echternach opens grave of Saint Willibrord
- 1298 Rindfleisch Persecutions -140 Jews of Heilbron, Germany are murdered
Capture of Roger Mortimer
1330 17-year-old English King Edward III captures his mother's lover and the country's de facto ruler Roger Mortimer at Nottingham Castle (later has him hanged)
Columbus Sights Isabela
1492 Christopher Columbus sights "Isabela", now Fortune Island/Long Cay, Bahamas
Luther's Doctorate
1512 Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia)
- 1576 Dutch provinces begin consultation about Spanish existence
26 Martyrs of Japan Executed
1596 Spanish galleon San Felipe is shipwrecked in Urado on the Japanese island of Shikoku en route from Manila to Acapulco. Incident leads to the crucifixion of 26 Christians who become known as the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan.
- 1630 In Boston the 1st general court is held
- 1634 Beach Island in North Sea destroyed by a heavy storm flood
- 1682 English Lord Shaftesbury flees to Holland
- 1722 French C. Hopffer patents the automatic fire extinguisher in England
- 1739 England declares war on Spain [OS=Oct 30]
- 1765 Stamp Act Congress meets in New York City, writes the Declaration of Rights and Grievances
Surrender at Yorktown
1781 British forces under General Charles Cornwallis sign terms of surrender to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown at 2 pm, ending the US Revolutionary War
- 1781 Edict of Toleration issued by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, providing limited freedom of worship for non-Roman Catholic Christians
Tannhäuser
1845 Richard Wagner's opera "Tannhäuser" premieres in Dresden
- 1853 First flour mill in Hawaii begins operations
- 1856 James Kelly and Jack Smith fight bareknuckle for 6h15m in Melbourne
- 1859 Wilhelm Tempel discovers diffuse nebula around Pleid star Merope
- 1863 Battle of Buckland Mills, Virginia
- 1864 Approx 25 Confederates make surprise attack on St Albans, Vermont
- 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia, Union beats back Confederate attackers
- 1864 US Brigadier General Emory Upton (25) promoted to Major General
- 1870 1st African Americans (4) elected to US House of Representatives
- 1870 British steamship SS Cambria wrecked off the north-west of Ireland with the loss of 178 lives
- 1879 Afghan's emir Mohammed Yakub forced to resign
Kruger Departs
1900 South African President of Transvaal Paul Kruger departs for Europe
- 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont proves airships are maneuverable by circling the Eiffel Tower in his airship No. 6, winning the Deutsch Prize and 100,000 francs
Pomp & Circumstance March
1901 Edward Elgar's "Pomp & Circumstance March" premieres in Liverpool, England
- 1904 Polytechnic University of the Philippines founded as Manila Business School through superintendence of American C.A. O'Reilley
Taylor Honored
1906 Frederick Winslow Taylor is awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Pennsylvania
Natal Indian Congress
1913 At a meeting of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in Durban, NIC secretaries, M. C. Anglia and Dada Osman, severely criticise Mahatma Gandhi and tender their resignations
- 1915 Russia and Italy declare war on Bulgaria
- 1915 US bankers arrange a $500 million loan to the British and French
Crete Government Recognized
1916 France extends formal recognition of the Provisional Government in Crete proclaimed Eleftherios Venizelos
AL Prohibits Boxing
1923 Ban Johnson persuades AL owners to prohibit boxing in their parks
Expulsion of Trotsky
1926 Russian Politburo throws out Leon Trotsky and his followers
Henry Ford on the Radio
1932 Henry Ford gives his 1st radio speech
Baseball History
1932 Jimmie Foxx wins AL MVP and Chuck Klein wins NL MVP
- 1933 Berlin Olympic Committee vote to introduce basketball in 1936
Red Army in Shanxi
1935 Mao Zedong's Red Army reaches Shanxi in Northern China
- 1936 HR Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" beats 2 other reporters in a race around the world on commercial flights, by 18½ days
Goering Begins Plunder
1939 Hermann Goering begins plunder through Nazi's occupied areas
- 1941 1st woman jockey in North America, Anna Lee Wiley in Mexico
- 1943 Conference of foreign ministers in Moscow
- 1943 New York Yankee 2nd baseman Joe Gordon announces his retirement
- 1943 Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University in Pistcaway, New Jersey
- 1944 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flies back to London from Moscow
- 1944 Canadian troops liberate Aardensburg, Netherlands
- 1944 US forces land in the Philippines
- 1944 US Navy says Black women can join WAVES
- 1947 De Gaulles RPF wins French municipal elections
- 1949 A's trade 2nd baseman Nellie Fox to White Sox for Joe Tipton
- 1950 Bird Building at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is dedicated (Cleveland, Ohio)
- 1950 UN forces enter Pyongyang, capital of North Korea
- 1951 US President Harry Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
- 1952 Alain Bombard departs from the Canary Islands on his solitary journey across the Atlantic ocean with almost no provisions and only a sextant for navigation to test his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive
- 1953 1st jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service
- 1953 Dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury is published in the US
Music History
1953 Singer Julius LaRosa is fired on TV by Arthur Godfrey
- 1954 Egypt and Great Britain sign treaty; British troops depart
- 1954 First ascent of Cho Oyu, sixth highest mountain in the world at 8,201 metres
- 1954 KAKE TV channel 10 in Wichita, KS (ABC) begins broadcasting
Sports History
1957 Montreal Canadien Maurice "Rocket" Richard, becomes the 1st NHLer to score 500 goals
F1 World Champion
1958 Stirling Moss wins season ending Moroccan Grand Prix at Ain-Diab but fellow Brit Mike Hawthorn takes World Drivers Championship from Moss by just 1 point by finishing second; first British world champion
Event of Interest
1960 Martin Luther King Jr. arrested in Atlanta sit-in
- 1960 US imposes embargo on exports to Cuba
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1964 American sprinter Edith McGuire runs an Olympic record 23.0 to win the women's 200m gold medal in Tokyo; minor place medallists Irena Szewińska of Poland and Australian Marilyn Black both record 23.1
- 1964 In a blanket finish in the 80m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics, Germany's Karin Balzer and Teresa Cieply of Poland both record 10.5s with Pam Kilborn of Australia 10.6; Balzer is awarded the gold medal
- 1964 Tamara Press of the Soviet Union wins the women's discus with an Olympic record throw 57.27m in Tokyo; first of 2 gold medals at the Games (shot put)
- 1966 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1967 Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27' 4 3/4"
- 1967 Mariner 5 makes fly-by of Venus
- 1968 American swimmer Jan Henne in 1:00.0 leads American sweep of the women's 100m freestyle medals at the Mexico City Olympics; teammates Susan Pedersen & Linda Gustavson both swim 1:00.3 for minor medals
- 1968 Australian swimmer Michael Wendon sets world record 52.2s to win the blue ribband men's 100m freestyle gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
- 1968 Derry Citizen's Action Committee, formed Oct 9, stages illegal sit-down at Guildhall Square as part of large civil disobedience campaign
- 1968 Golden Gate Bridge charges tolls only for southbound cars
- 1968 New Zealand scores an upset victory in the men's coxed four rowing final at the Mexico City Olympics; beats favoured East German crew by 2.58s; first ever rowing gold medal for the Kiwis
- 1968 The West German crew beats Australia by just 0.9s to win the men's eights rowing gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
- 1969 Oakland Darryle Lamonica passes for 6 touchdowns vs Buffalo (50-21)
F1 World Champion
1969 Scottish Matra-Ford driver Jackie Stewart finishes 4th in season ending Mexican Grand Prix to win his first F1 World Drivers Championship by 26 points from Jacky Ickx of Belgium
- 1970 Amdahl Corp forms at Sunnyvale, California
- 1970 John Frazier kills Ohta's declares WW 3 has begun
- 1971 A group of Northern Ireland Members of Parliament begin a 48 hour hunger strike against the policy of Internment
- 1971 Last issue of "Look" magazine is published
- 1972 Ulster Vanguard leader William Craig speaks at a meeting of right-wing Members of Parliament at Westminster: "We are prepared to come out and shoot and kill"
- 1973 OPEC oil embargo on the United States begins as participating nations cease oil exports to the US and begin a series of production cuts [1]
Photograph
1973 Ringo Starr releases music single "Photograph" in the UK
- 1973 Saudi Arabia, Libya, and other Arab states proclaim an embargo on oil exports to the United States
Sports History
1974 Australian tennis star Evonne Goolagong wins her first WTA Tour Championship; beats Chris Evert 6-3, 6-4 in the final at the Los Angeles Sports Arena
- 1974 Detroit Pistons beat Trailblazers in Portland (next win 6-1-90)
- 1974 NHL Detroit Red Wing Mickey Redmond scores 1st hat trick against Washington Capitals
- 1974 Niue becomes self-govering, in association with New Zealand
- 1975 Cleveland Browns' Don Cockroft kicks club record 5 field goals
- 1976 Battle of Aishiya, Lebanon during Lebanese Civil War.
Event of Interest
1976 US President Gerald Ford signs 1st major revision of copyright law since 1909
- 1977 Corpse of kidnapped West German business executive Hanns Martin Schleyer is found
- 1977 Supersonic jet Concorde makes its 1st landing in NYC, a passengerless test flight by Air France, two days after US Supreme Court overrules local authority's ban [1]
- 1980 Steve McPeak rides 101'9" unicycle
- 1981 LA Dodgers beat Montreal Expos for NL pennant
- 1982 Automaker John DeLorean arrested on cocaine charges (Not guilty)
- 1983 Grenada army General Hudson Austin forms "revolutionary council"
- 1983 NHL Philadelphia Flyers begin 13-game winning streak
- 1983 Space Shuttle Columbia moves to Orbiter Processing Facility
- 1983 US Senate establishes Martin Luther King Jr. Day as federal holiday, observed on the 3rd Monday in January (on or near his 1/15 birthday)
Cricket History
1986 Allan Border scores the 1,000,000th run in all test cricket (vs India in Bombay)
- 1986 USSR expels five US diplomats
- 1987 Black Monday: Stock markets around the world crash, including the Dow Jones stock index, which falls 508.32 points (22%), 4½ times the previous daily record
- 1987 US warships destroy 2 Iranian oil platforms in Persian Gulf
Sports History
1987 Woody Woodward resigns as NY Yankee GM, Lou Piniella is named GM and Billy Martin is named NY Yankee manager for 5th & final time
- 1988 3 Americans win Nobel in physics; 3 W Germans win chemistry Nobel
- 1988 Britain bans broadcast interviews with IRA members
- 1988 Car bomb kills 7 Israelis, wounds 11 near Lebanon border
- 1988 Roxette releases "Roxette Look Sharp!" album
- 1988 South African anti-apartheid leader Sisulu wins $100,000 Human Rights prize
- 1988 US Senate passes bill curbing ads during children's TV shows
- 1989 Astor Piazzolla and William Finn's musical "Dangerous Games" premieres at Nederlander Theater NYC
- 1989 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Dances with Wolves
1990 "Dances with Wolves" directed by Kevin Costner and starring Kevin Costner and Mary McDonnell premieres in Washington, D.C. (Academy Awards Best Picture 1991)
- 1990 HCA, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, forms in Prague
- 1991 Longest NCAA football game (3:52) as Rhode Island beats Maine, 52-30 (6 OT)
- 1991 Lonnie Glieberman purchased Ottawa Rough Riders from CFL
- 1993 UN authorizes arms, military and police supply embargo against Haiti
- 1994 160 killed in fighting in Tsjetsjenie (Chechnya)
- 1994 Palestinian bomb attack on bus in Tel Aviv, kills 22
- 1997 "Annie" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC
- 1998 The Earth Liberation Front sets fire to Vail Mountain ski resort in Colorado, causing $12 million in damage
- 2001 SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en-route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks killing 353
Beatification
2003 Mother Teresa of Calcutta is beatified by Pope John Paul II
Trial of Interest
2005 Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity
- 2007 Bomb explosion rocks Glorietta 2, a shopping mall in Makati, the Philippines killing 11, injuring more than 100 people
Sports History
2007 Patrick Kane scores his first NHL goal against José Théodore of the Colorado Avalanche
The Union
2010 Decca Records releases "The Union", a collaborative album between Elton John and Leon Russell, in the US; it becomes the highest charting album for both artists in over 30 years
- 2012 8 people are killed and 78 injured by a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon
- 2013 11 people are killed after a plane crashes in Namur, Belgium
- 2013 16 people are killed and 30 are wounded by a suicide bombing Beledweyne, Somalia
- 2014 A working human intestine is generated in a laboratory from stem cells in the United States
Election of Interest
2015 Canadian federal elections: Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party win a majority with 184 seats
- 2015 US scientists from University of California find evidence life on earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million earlier than previously thought
Election of Interest
2016 Third US Presidential debate: Donald Trump notably refuses to say if he will accept the result of election during debate with Hillary Clinton at Nevada University, Las Vegas
Election of Interest
2017 New Zealand Labour Party forms a coalition government led by Jacinda Ardern (37), youngest NZ leader in 161 years
- 2017 Outbreak of the Marburg virus declared by Uganda's Ministry of Health
- 2018 "Halloween" film reboot starring Jamie Curtis makes a record $77m for a horror film with a female lead, biggest debut any film with female lead over 55 in US
Event of Interest
2019 Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declares a 15 day state of emergency after widespread and violent protests over rise in public transport costs
- 2019 Sunnyside, Queens, New York City: Intersection of 46th Street and Skillman Avenue named "Ethel Plimack Way", in honor of a longtime resident [1]
Event of Interest
2019 UK parliament votes for the Letwin amendment in a special Saturday sitting, which forces Boris Johnson to ask the EU for an extension and delays vote on his Brexit deal
Event of Interest
2019 US Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorses Bernie Sanders for president
- 2020 Belgium officials say country facing a "tsunami" of COVID-19 cases amid new restrictions and figures it has third-highest number of Covid-related deaths per 100,000 people globally
- 2020 Irish government moves country to highest level of COVID-19 restrictions amid rising cases
- 2020 Ming handscroll painting “Ten Views of Lingbi Rock” by Wu Bin sells for 512.9 million yuan ($77 million) at auction in Beijing, a new world record for a classical Chinese work
- 2020 Peru announces rediscovered 37m figure of a cat, completed 500 BC to 200 AD, a geoglyph outline in the Nazca Desert
- 2020 US charges six Russian military officers with massive cyber-attack meant to disrupt 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2017 French presidential election, and Ukraine's power grid
- 2021 Moscow's mayor orders unvaccinated people over 60 years to stay home for four months amid a worsening COVID-19 crisis
- 2022 Massachusetts names Podokesaurus holyokensis ("swift-footed lizard of Holyoke") as official state dinosaur [1]
- 2022 Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola faces his brother San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola in first MLB playoff sibling pitcher-batter battle; Austin goes 1-2, with rally starting RBI in 8-5 win at Petco Park, San Diego
