Mental Coffee

Events
1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
1911 – Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo concludes with the Serbian victory.
1914 – End of Battle of Langemarck: The first Battle of Ypres (Flanders) ends with two more to follow.
1917 – Battle of Caporetto starts on the Austro-Italian front of World War I
1917 – The day of the October revolution, The Red Revolution.
1926 – Harry Houdini’s last performance, which is at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.
1929 – “Black Thursday” stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange.
1930 – A bloodless coup d’état in Brazil ousts Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Dornelles Vargas is then installed as “provisional president.”
1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic.
1944 – World War II: The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku, and the battleship Musashi are sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
1945 – Founding of the United Nations
1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.
1947 – Walt Disney testifies to the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.
1954 – Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam
1957 – The USAF starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
1960 – Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union’s Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash
1964 – Northern Rhodesia gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes the Republic of Zambia (Southern Rhodesia remained a colony)
1973 – Yom Kippur War ends
1977 – Veterans Day is observed on the fourth Monday in October for the seventh and last time. (The holiday is once again observed on November 11 beginning the following year.)
1980 – Government of Poland legalizes Solidarity trade union
1986 – Nezar Hindawi is sentenced to 45 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down by a British court, for the attempted bombing on an El Al flight at Heathrow. After the verdict, the United Kingdom breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, claiming that Hindawi is helped by Syrian officials.
1990 – Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti reveals to the Italian parliament the existence of Gladio, the Italian “stay-behind” clandestine paramilitary NATO army.
1998 – Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission
2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, DC.
2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
2005 – Hurricane Wilma makes landfall in Florida resulting in 35 direct 26 indirect fatalities and causing $20.6B USD in damage.
2006 – Justice Rutherford of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down the “motive clause”, an important part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act.
2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experienced the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

Births
1901 – Gilda Gray, Polish-born American actress and dancer (d. 1959)
1903 – Melvin Purvis, American FBI agent (d. 1960)
1904 – Moss Hart, American dramatist (d. 1961)
1905 – Fran Zwitter, Slovenian historian (d. 1988)
1906 – Alexander Gelfond, Russian mathematician (d. 1968)
1909 – Bill Carr, American athlete (d. 1966)
1911 – Sonny Terry, American blues musician (d. 1986)
1911 – Paul Grégoire, French Canadian archbishop of Montreal (d. 1993)
1913 – Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984)
1915 – Bob Kane, American cartoonist (d. 1998)
1915 – Roger Milliken, American millionaire
1915 – Marghanita Laski, British Journalist and Novelist (d. 1988)
1919 – Frank Piasecki, American aeronautical engineer (d. 2008)
1920 – Marcel-Paul Schützenberger, French mathematician (d. 1996)
1923 – Denise Levertov, English-born poet (d. 1997)
1925 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (d. 2003)
1926 – Y. A. Tittle, American football player
1926 – Rafael Azcona, Spanish screenwriter (d. 2008)
1927 – Jean-Claude Pascal, French singer and actor (d. 1992)
1927 – Gilbert Bécaud, French composer and actor (d. 2001)
1929 – George Crumb, American composer
1929 – Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer (d. 2004)
1929 – Hubert Aquin, French-Canadian novelist and activist (d. 1977)
1930 – J.P. Richardson, The Big Bopper, American singer (d. 1959)
1930 – Johan Galtung, Norwegian peace researcher
1930 – Sultan Ahmad Shah, King of Malaysia
1931 – Sofia Gubaidulina, Russian composer
1932 – Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2007)
1932 – Robert Mundell, Canadian economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1933 – Norman Rush, American writer
1935 – Malcolm Bilson, American pianist and music professor
1936 – David Nelson, Actor/Television Personality
1936 – Bill Wyman, English musician (The Rolling Stones)
1937 – Santo Farina, American musician and composer (Santo & Johnny)
1939 – F. Murray Abraham, American actor
1940 – Martin Campbell, New Zealand film director
1941 – William H. Dobelle, American biomedical engineer
1943 – Bill Dundee, American professional wrestler
1944 – Ray Downs American author and musician
1944 – Viktor Prokopenko, Ukranian footballer and coach (d. 2007)
1945 – Anthony Christian, English artist
1945 – Gérald Larose, Quebec labour union executive
1945 – Alan Titus, American baritone
1946 – Jerry Edmonton, Canadian drummer (Steppenwolf) (d. 1993)
1947 – Kevin Kline, American actor
1948 – Paul and Barry Ryan, British composers-singers
1948 – Kweisi Mfume, American politician and activist
1949 – Robert Pickton, Canadian serial killer
1950 – Steven Greenberg, American composer
1950 – Rawly Eastwick, American baseball player
1954 – Brad Sherman, American politician
1954 – Malcolm Turnbull, Australian politician
1954 – Thomas J. Mulcair, Quebec politician
1954 – Mike Rounds, American politician, current governor of South Dakota
1954 – Jozef Ráž, Slovak musician
1956 – Dale Maharidge, American author
1956 – Jeff Merkley, American politician
1957 – Ron Gardenhire, German-born American baseball manager
1957 – John Kassir, American actor and comedian
1959 – Anthony Waller, Lebanese film director
1960 – Ian Baker-Finch, Australian golfer
1960 – B.D. Wong, American actor
1960 – Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and comedian (d. 1999)
1960 – Joachim “Jo” Winkelhock, German race car driver
1960 – Dennis Anderson, American monster truck driver (Grave Digger)
1961 – Mary Bono, American politician
1961 – Bruce L. Castor, Jr. American politician
1961 – Dave Meltzer, American wrestling journalist
1962 – Dave Blaney, American race car driver
1962 – Jay Novacek, American football player
1963 – John Hendrie, Scottish footballer
1965 – Kyriakos Velopoulos, Greek politician
1966 – Roman Abramovich, Russian oil magnate
1967 – Jacqueline McKenzie, Australian actress
1968 – Robert Wilonsky, American journalist
1969 – Adela Noriega, Mexican actress
1970 – Rob Leslie-Carter, British engineer and project manager
1971 – Dervla Kirwan, Irish actress
1971 – Caprice Bourret, American model and actress
1972 – Kim Ji-soo, South Korean actress
1972 – Scott Peterson, American murderer
1972 – Pat Williams, American football player
1973 – Levi Leipheimer, American cyclist
1973 – Madlib, American musician and rapper
1973 – Jackie McNamara, Scottish footballer
1973 – Jeff Wilson, New Zealand rugby player and cricketer
1974 – Wilton Guerrero, Dominican baseball player
1974 – Corey Dillon, American football player
1974 – Jamal Mayers, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – Juan Pablo Ángel, Colombian footballer
1976 – Petar Stoychev, Bulgarian swimmer
1977 – Iván Kaviedes, Ecuadoran footballer
1978 – Carlos Edwards, Trinidadian footballer
1978 – Justin Lee Brannan, American musician
1979 – Ben Gillies, Australian musician (Silverchair)
1980 – Monica, American singer and actress
1980 – Matthew Amoah, Ghanaian footballer
1980 – Zac Posen, American fashion designer
1980 – Casey Wilson, American comic actress (Saturday Night Live)
1981 – Mallika Sherawat, Indian actress
1981 – Tila Tequila, American model
1982 – Mohamed Fairuz Fauzy, Malaysian racing driver
1982 – Macay McBride, American baseball player
1983 – Brian Vickers, American race car driver
1983 – Adrienne Bailon, American actress and singer
1984 – Kaela Kimura, Japanese model and singer
1984 – Felicia Chin, Singaporean actress
1985 – Wayne Rooney, English footballer
1986 – Aubrey Graham, Canadian actor and rapper
1986 – John Ruddy, English footballer
1987 – Charlie White, American ice dancer
1987 – Anthony Vanden Borre, Belgian footballer
1987 – Lincoln Lewis, Australian actor
1989 – Shenae Grimes, Canadian actress
1989 – Eliza Taylor-Cotter, Australian actress

Deaths
1912 – Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (b. 1842)
1915 – Désiré Charnay, French archaeologist (b. 1828)
1922 – George Cadbury, British chocolate and cocoa manufacturer (b. 1839)
1935 – Dutch Schultz, American gangster (b. 1902)
1938 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor (b. 1870)
1943 – Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, French Canadian poet (b. 1912)
1944 – Louis Renault, French automobile manufacturer (b. 1877)
1945 – Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian soldier, politician and convicted traitor, by execution (b. 1887)
1948 – Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (b. 1870)
1964 – Toni Kinshofer, German mountaineer, first winter ascent of the Eiger North Face (b. 1931)
1966 – Sofya Yanovskaya, Russian mathematician (b. 1896)
1971 – Carl Ruggles, American composer (b. 1876)
1972 – Jackie Robinson, American baseball player, and the first black player in Major League Baseball (b. 1919)
1972 – Claire Windsor, American actress (b. 1897)
1974 – David Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1908)
1975 – Zdzisław Żygulski, Sr., Polish literary historian (b. 1888)
1985 – Richie Evans, American NASCAR driver (b. 1941)
1985 – Maurice Roy, Archbishop of Quebec, (b. 1905)
1989 – Jerzy Kukuczka, Polish mountaineer, second person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders (b. 1948)
1991 – Gene Roddenberry, American television producer (b. 1921)
1994 – Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1940)
1997 – Don Messick, American voice actor (b. 1926)
2001 – Wolf Rüdiger Hess, German neo-Nazi (b. 1937)
2002 – Herman Gaviria, Colombian football player (b. 1969)
2002 – Winton M. Blount, United States Postmaster General (b. 1921)
2002 – Harry Hay, American activist (b. 1912)
2003 – Rosie Nix Adams, Stepdaughter of Johnny Cash (b. 1958)
2004 – Randy Dorton, American race car crew member (b. 1954)
2004 – Ricky Hendrick, American race car team owner (b. 1980)
2004 – James Cardinal Hickey, American Catholic archbishop (b. 1920)
2005 – José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (b. 1926)
2005 – Joy Clements, American soprano (b. 1932)
2005 – Robert Sloman, writer (b. 1926)
2005 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (b. 1913)
2005 – Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, scholar of modern Chinese intellectual and diplomatic history (b. 1923)
2005 – Mokarrameh Ghanbari, Iranian painter (b. 1928)
2006 – Enolia McMillan, American civil rights activist (b. 1904)
2006 – William Montgomery Watt, Islamic studies scholar, orientalist and historian (b. 1909)
2007 – Petr Eben, Czech organ composer (b. 1929)
2007 – Alisher Saipov, Kyrgyz journalist (b. 1981)
2007 – Ian Middleton, New Zealand novelist (b. 1928)
2008 – Moshe Cotel, American composer and pianist (b. 1943)