Events
★
686 -
Conon becomes
Pope.
★
1512 -
Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg
★
1520 -
Ferdinand Magellan discovers a
strait now known as
Strait of Magellan
★
1600 -
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival
Japanese clans in the
Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the
Tokugawa shogunate, who in effect rule Japan until the mid-Nineteenth century.
★
1774 - First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in
Taunton,
Massachusetts and which was in defiance of British rule in
Colonial America.
★
1797 - In
Boston Harbor, the 44-gun
United States Navy frigate
USS ''Constitution'' is launched.
★
1805 -
Napoleonic Wars:
Battle of Trafalgar - a
British fleet led by Admiral
Lord Nelson defeats a combined
French and
Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under
Admiral Villeneuve. It signalled the virtual end of French maritime power and left Britain navally unchallenged until the twentieth century.
★ 1805 -
Napoleonic Wars: Austrian
General Mack surrenders his army to the
Grand Army of
Napoleon at
Ulm, reaping
Napoleon over 30,000 prisoners and inflicting 10,000 casualties on the losers. Ulm was considered to be one of Napoleon's finest hours.
★
1824 -
Joseph Aspdin patents
Portland cement.
★
1854 -
Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38
nurses were sent to the
Crimean War.
★
1861 -
American Civil War:
Battle of Ball's Bluff -
Union forces under Colonel
Edward Baker are defeated by
Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of
Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting.
★
1867 -
Manifest Destiny:
Medicine Lodge Treaty - Near
Medicine Lodge,
Kansas a landmark treaty is signed by southern
Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires
Native American Plains tribes to relocate a reservation in western
Oklahoma.
★
1879 - Using a filament of
carbonized thread,
Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric
incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).
★
1892 - Opening ceremonies for the
World's Columbian Exposition were held in
Chicago, though because construction was behind schedule, the exposition did not open until
May 1,
1893.
★
1895 - The
Republic of Formosa collapses as
Japanese forces invade.
★
1902 - In the
United States, a five month
strike by
United Mine Workers ends.
★
1921 - President
Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting President against lynching in the deep south.
★
1941 - 7000 Serbs was shot in
Kragujevac,
Serbia by Nazi Germans
★
1944 - The first
kamikaze attack:
HMAS ''Australia'' was hit by a
Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound)
bomb off
Leyte Island, as the
Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
★
1945 -
Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in
France for the first time.
★ 1945 -
Argentine military officer and
politician Juan Perón married
actress Evita.
★
1947 - 21 die as a fire destroys an
asylum in
Hoff, Germany.
★
1959 - In
New York City, the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright.
★ 1959 - US President
Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an
executive order transferring
Wernher von Braun and other
German scientists from the
United States Army to
NASA.
★
1965 -
Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers from the sun.
★
1966 -
Aberfan disaster: A coal tip falls on the village of
Aberfan in
Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren
★
1967 -
Vietnam War: More than 100,000
war protesters gather in
Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the
Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to
The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and
United States Marshals protecting the facility (event lasts until
October 23; 683 people were arrested). Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in
Japan and
Western Europe.
★
1969 - A coup d'état in
Somalia brings
Siad Barre to power.
★
1973 -
John Paul Getty III's ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in
Rome; it doesn't arrive until
November 8.
★
1976 -
Keith Moon plays his last public show with
The Who. He will die in 1978.
★
1977 - The
European Patent Institute is founded
★
1978 -
Australian civilian pilot
Frederick Valentich vanishes in a
Cessna 182 over the
Bass Strait south of
Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
★
1983 - The
metre is defined at the seventeenth
General Conference on Weights and Measures in terms of the
speed of light as the distance light travels in a
vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
★
1986 - In
Lebanon, pro-
Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted
American writer
Edward Tracy (he was released in August
1991).
★
1987 - Former
Miss America Bess Myerson is arrested on charges of bribery, conspiracy, and mail fraud, all involving an alimony-fixing scandal. She is later found not guilty.
★
1994 -
North Korea nuclear weapons program:
North Korea and the
United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its
nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
★ 1994 - In
Seoul, 32 people are killed when the
Seongsu Bridge collapses.
★
1995 -
Dayton Agreement The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina
★
2001 - "United We Stand" benefit concert for
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks victims, held at
RFK Stadium in
Washington, DC. Event organized and headlined by
Michael Jackson, also featuring pop stars
Aerosmith,
Mariah Carey,
The Backstreet Boys, and others.
★
2002 - Violence in
Badlapur, suburb of
Mumbai created a tension in the city resulted in a lot of property damage injuring 4 people.
★
2003 - Images of the
dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in its discovery by the team of
Michael E. Brown,
Chad Trujillo, and
David L. Rabinowitz.
Births
★
1449 -
George, Duke of Clarence, brother of
Edward IV and
Richard III (d.
1478)
★
1527 -
Louis I, Cardinal of Guise, French cardinal (d.
1578)
★
1581 -
Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (d.
1641)
★
1650 -
Jean Bart, French admiral (d.
1702)
★
1660 -
Georg Ernst Stahl, German scientist (d.
1734)
★
1675 -
Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (d.
1710)
★
1687 -
Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d.
1759)
★
1712 - Sir
James Steuart, British economist (d.
1780)
★
1725 -
Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (d.
1801)
★
1757 -
Pierre Augereau,
Marshal of France and duc de Castiglione (d.
1816)
★
1762 -
Herman Willem Daendels, Dutch statesman (d.
1818)
★
1772 -
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, British poet (d.
1834)
★
1775 -
Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (d.
1844)
★
1790 -
Alphonse de Lamartine, French writer (d.
1869)
★
1833 -
Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and founder of the
Nobel Prize (d.
1896)
★
1847 -
Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian writer (d.
1906)
★
1851 -
George Ulyett, English cricketer (d.
1898)
★
1881 -
Eduard Heine, German mathematician (b.
1821)
★
1895 -
Edna Purviance, American actress (d.
1958)
★
1904 -
Patrick Kavanagh, Irish poet (d.
1967)
★
1906 -
Lillian Asplund, last American
Titanic survivor (d.
2006)
★
1907 -
Nikos Engonopoulos, Greek painter and poet (d.
1985)
★ 1907 -
Jules Chevalier, French priest (b.
1824)
★
1912 - Sir
Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d.
1997)
★ 1912 -
Alfredo Pián, Argentine racing driver (d.
1990)
★
1914 -
Martin Gardner, American mathematician and writer
★
1917 -
Dizzy Gillespie, American musician (d.
1993)
★
1921 - Sir
Malcolm Arnold, British composer (d.
2006)
★
1922 -
Liliane de Bettencourt, heir to L'Oreal
★
1924 -
Celia Cruz, Cuban singer (d.
2003)
★
1925 -
Louis Robichaud, Canadian premier of
New Brunswick (d.
2005)
★
1928 -
Whitey Ford, American baseball player
★
1929 -
Ursula K. Le Guin, American author
★
1938 -
Carl Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player (d.
2001)
★
1940 -
Geoff Boycott, English cricketer
★ 1940 -
Manfred Mann, English musician
★
1941 -
Steve Cropper, American musician
★
1942 -
Elvin Bishop, American musician
★ 1942 -
Judy Sheindlin, American judge ("
Judge Judy")
★ 1942 -
Allan Grice, Australian racing driver
★
1943 -
Brian Piccolo, American football player (d.
1970)
★
1946 -
Jim Hill, American sportscaster
★
1948 -
Shaye Cohen, Historian and Professor at
Harvard University
★
1949 -
Michel Brière, Canadian ice hockey player (d.
1971)
★ 1949 -
Mike Keenan, Canadian ice hockey coach
★ 1949 -
Benjamin Netanyahu, 9th
Prime Minister of Israel
★
1950 -
Ronald McNair, American astronaut (d.
1986)
★
1952 -
Trevor Chappell, Australian cricketer
★ 1952 -
Allen Hoey, American poet and novelist
★ 1952 -
Brent Mydland, American keyboardist (
Grateful Dead) (d.
1990)
★
1953 -
Keith Green, American musician (d.
1982)
★ 1953 -
Peter Mandelson, British politician
★ 1953 -
Charlotte Caffey, American musician (
The Go-Go's)
★
1954 -
Brian Tobin, Canadian premier of
Newfoundland
★
1955 -
Rich Mullins, American musician (d.
1997)
★
1956 -
Carrie Fisher, American actress and writer
★
1957 -
Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laueate
★ 1957 -
Steve Lukather, American musician
★
1959 -
Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
★
1962 -
David Campese, Australian rugby union footballer
★
1964 -
Jon Carin, American musician (
Pink Floyd,
The Who)
★
1967 -
Paul Ince, English footballer
★
1968 -
Melora Walters, American actress
★
1969 -
Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, crown prince of
Bahrain
★ 1969 -
Derrick Carter, DJ and Producer
★
1971 -
Damien Martyn, Australian cricketer
★
1971 -
Jade Jagger, Socialite and Jewelery Designer
★ 1971 -
Nick Oliveri, American musician
★ 1971 -
Paul Telfer (footballer), Scottish footballer
★
1972 -
Felicity Andersen, Australian actress
★
1973 -
Lera Auerbach, Russian composer
★
1975 -
Toby Hall, American baseball player
★ 1975 -
Hilário, Portuguese footballer
★
1976 -
Jeremy Miller, American TV actor
★ 1976 -
Lavinia Miloşovici, Romanian gymnast
★
1978 -
Will Estes, American actor
★ 1978 -
Joey Harrington, American football player
★
1979 -
Khalil Greene, American baseball player
★
1979 -
Gabe Gross, American baseball player
★
1980 -
Brian Pittman, American musician (
Relient K)
★
1981 -
Nemanja Vidić, Serbian footballer
★
1982 -
James White, American basketball player
★
1982 -
Matt Dallas, American Actor
★
1983 -
Ninette Tayeb, Israeli singer
★
1984 -
Kieran Richardson, English footballer
★
1986 -
Alex Kew, British actor
★
1986 -
Christopher Uckermann, Mexican actor and singer in the Latin pop group
RBD
★
1990 -
Ricky Rubio, Spanish basketball player
Deaths
★
1125 -
Cosmas of Prague, Bohemian writer
★
1221 -
Alix of Thouars, Duchess of Brittany (b.
1201)
★
1266 -
Birger jarl, Swedish statesman and founder of Stockholm (b.
1210)
★
1422 - King
Charles VI of France (b.
1368)
★
1500 -
Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (b.
1442)
★
1505 -
Paul Scriptoris, German mathematician
★
1558 -
Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian humanist scholar (b.
1484)
★
1600 -
Toda Katsushige, Japanese warlord (b.
1557)
★
1623 -
William Wade, English statesman and diplomat (b.
1546)
★
1662 -
Henry Lawes, English composer (b.
1595)
★
1687 - Sir
Edmund Waller, English poet (b.
1606)
★
1765 -
Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (b.
1691)
★
1775 -
Peyton Randolph, American president of the Continental Congress (b.
1721)
★
1777 -
Samuel Foote, English dramatist and actor (b.
1720)
★
1805 -
Horatio Nelson, British admiral (mortally wounded in battle) (b.
1758)
★
1872 -
Jacques Babinet, French physicist (b.
1794)
★
1873 -
Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (b.
1807)
★
1896 -
James Henry Greathead, British engineer (b.
1844)
★
1904 -
Isabelle Eberhardt, explorer and writer who spent a lot of time in North Africa (b.
1877)
★
1931 -
Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian writer (b.
1862)
★
1940 -
William G. Conley, Governor of West Virginia (b.
1866)
★
1944 -
Alois Kayser, German missionary to Nauru (b.
1877)
★
1965 -
Bill Black, American musician (b.
1926)
★
1969 -
Jack Kerouac, American novelist (b.
1922)
★ 1969 -
Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b.
1882)
★
1973 -
Nasif Estéfano, Argentine racing driver (b.
1932)
★
1975 -
Charles Reidpath, American athlete (b.
1887)
★
1978 -
Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet politician (b.
1895)
★
1980 -
Hans Asperger, Austrian psychologist (b.
1906)
★
1984 -
François Truffaut, French film director (b.
1932)
★
1986 -
Lionel Murphy, Australian politician and judge (b.
1922)
★
1990 -
Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Indian spiritual teacher and social revolutionary (b.
1921)
★
1992 -
Jim Garrison, American attorney (b.
1921)
★
1995 -
Shannon Hoon, American singer (
Blind Melon) (b.
1967)
★ 1995 -
Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (b.
1919)
★ 1995 -
Maxene Andrews, American singer (
The Andrews Sisters) (b.
1916)
★
2003 -
Fred Berry, American actor (b.
1951)
★ 2003 -
Luis A. Ferré, Governor of Puerto Rico (b.
1940)
★ 2003 -
Louise Day Hicks, American politician (b.
1916)
★ 2003 -
Elliott Smith, American musician (b.
1969)
★
2005 -
Tara Correa-McMullen, American actress (b.
1989)
Holidays and observances
★
R.C. saints -
Saint Ursula; Saint
Hilarion;
John of Bridlington
★
Republic of China -
Overseas Chinese Day
★
Trafalgar Day — celebrated throughout much of the
British Empire in the
19th and early
20th Century.
★
Diwali in
Hinduism,
Jainism, and
Buddhism (
2006)
★
French Republican Calendar -
Tonneau (Barrel) Day, thirtieth day in the
Month of Vendémiaire
★
Police Day -
South Korea
External links
★
BBC: On This Day
★
★
On This Day in Canada
----