Mental Coffee

Events
1759 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 – The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
1889 – Preston North End is declared winner of the original football league.
1896 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
1900 – Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
1909 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the Worlds second oldest and largest black fraternity is founded at Indiana University.
1912 – The Prague Party Conference takes place.
1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day’s labor.
1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1940 – FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time.
1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
1974 – An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
1974 – Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59°F (+15°C) recorded at Vanda Station
1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the last legal hanging in America).
1996 – Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.

Births
1950 – Chris Stein, American guitarist (Blondie)
1953 – Steve Archer, American singer (The Archers)
1953 – Pamela Sue Martin, American actress
1953 – George Tenet, American CIA director
1954 – Alex English, American basketball player
1959 – Clancy Brown, American actor
1962 – Danny Jackson, American baseball player
1963 – Jeff Fassero, American baseball player
1964 – Grant Young, American drummer (Soul Asylum)
1966 – Kate Schellenbach, American drummer (Luscious Jackson)
1967 – Joe Flanigan, American actor
1968 – Ricky Paull Goldin, American actor
1968 – Carrie Ann Inaba, American dancer and choreographer
1969 – Marilyn Manson, American singer
1975 – Bradley Cooper, American actor
1975 – Warrick Dunn, American football player
1975 – Mike Grier, American ice hockey player
1976 – Matt Wachter, American bassist (30 Seconds to Mars)
1978 – January Jones, American actress
1978 – Sabrina Harman, American military figure and accused torturer
1980 – Bennie Joppru, American football player
1981 – Brooklyn Sudano, American actress
1983 – Sean Dockery, American basketball player
1984 – Amanda Hearst, American heiress and model
1986 – J. P. Arencibia, American baseball player
1987 – Kristin Cavallari, American actress
1999 – Marc Yu, American musician

Deaths
1954 – Rabbit Maranville, American baseball player (b. 1891)
1963 – Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (b. 1896)
1970 – Max Born, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
1976 – Mal Evans, Beatles’ “roadie” (b. 1935)
1978 – Wyatt Cooper, American screenwriter (b. 1927)
1979 – Charles Mingus, American musician (b. 1922)
1981 – Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1893)
1982 – Hans Conried, American actor (b. 1917)
1982 – Harvey Lembeck, American actor (b. 1923)
1985 – Robert L. Surtees, American Oscar-winning cinematographer (Ben-Hur) (b. 1906)
1988 – Pete Maravich, American basketball player (b. 1947)
1990 – Arthur Kennedy, American actor (b. 1914)
1994 – Tip O’Neill, American politician (b. 1912)
1996 – Lincoln Kirstein, American writer, impresario, art connoisseur (b. 1907)
1997 – Burton Lane, American composer and lyricist (b. 1912)
1998 – Sonny Bono, American entertainer and politician (b. 1935)
1998 – Ken Forssi, American musician (Love) (b. 1943)
2001 – Nancy Parsons, American actress (b. 1942)
2003 – Jean Kerr, American author (b. 1923)
2004 – Tug McGraw, American baseball player, father of Tim McGraw (b. 1944)
2004 – Norman Heatley, member of the team of Oxford University scientists who developed penicillin (b. 1911)
2005 – Danny Sugerman, American music manager (The Doors) (b. 1954)
2007 – Chih Ree Sun, Chinese-American physicist and poet (b. 1923)
2009 – Ned Tanen, American movie executive (b. 1931)
2010 – Rory Markas, Angels baseball announcer (b.1955)

Events

1907 – A group of 239 coal miners die during a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
1909 – Football club Borussia Dortmund is founded.
1912 – William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Verdun – On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.
1920 – King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.
1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.
1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service
1941 – World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
1946 – Start of the First Indochina War.
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Events
1861 – American Civil War: The “Trent Affair” – The USS San Jacinto stops the United Kingdom mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.
1889 – Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state.
1892 – The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time.
1895 – While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray.
1901 – Bloody clashes take place in Athens following the translation of the Gospels into demotic Greek.
1917 – The People’s Commissars give authority to Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin.
1923 – Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government.
1932 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected the 32d President of the United States defeating Herbert Hoover.
1933 – Great Depression: New Deal – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.
1935 – A dozen labor leaders come together to announce the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), an organization charged with advancing industrial unionism.
1937 – The Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude (“The Eternal Jew”) opens in Munich.
1939 – Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
1939 – In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
1941 – The Albanian Communist Party is founded.
1942 – World War II: Operation Torch – United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
1942 – World War II: French resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyst generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.
1950 – Korean War: United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history.
1957 – Operation Grapple X, Round C1: Britain conducts its first successful hydrogen bomb test over Kiritimati in the Pacific.
1960 – John Fitzgerald Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States defeating Richard M. Nixon.
1965 – The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.
1965 – The Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965 is given Royal Assent, formally abolishing the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
1965 – The 173rd Airborne is ambushed by over 1,200 Viet Cong in Operation Hump during the Vietnam War.
1966 – Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League.
1973 – The right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay 2.9 million USD.
1976 – A series of earthquakes spreads panic in the city of Thessaloniki, which is evacuated.
1977 – Manolis Andronikos, a Greek archaeologist and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
1979 – The Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) is formed.
1987 – Remembrance Day Bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland during a ceremony honouring those who had died in wars involving British forces. Twelve people are killed and sixty-three wounded.
1989 – Hong Kong’s MTR Lam Tin Station comes into service.The Berlin Wall was Taken down.
2002 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face “serious consequences”.
2004 – War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
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Events
1905 – Czar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia’s first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.
1918 – The Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East.
1920 – The Communist Party of Australia is founded in Sydney.
1922 – Benito Mussolini is made Prime Minister of Italy.
1925 – John Logie Baird creates Britain’s first television transmitter.
1929 – The Stuttgart Cable Car is constructed in Stuttgart, Germany.
1938 – Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience in the United States.
1941 – World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves U.S. $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.
1941 – 1,500 Jews from Pidhaytsi (in western Ukraine) are sent by Nazis to Belzec extermination camp.
1944 – Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
1945 – Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.
1947 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is founded.
1950 – Pope Pius XII witnesses “The Miracle of the Sun” while at the Vatican.
1953 – Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States’ arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
1960 – Michael Woodruff performs the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
1961 – Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 58 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.
1961 – Because of “violations of Lenin’s precepts”, it is decreed that Joseph Stalin’s body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin’s tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead.
1965 – Vietnam War: Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions is found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
1970 – In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War.
1972 – A collision between two commuter trains in Chicago, Illinois kills 45 and injures 332.
1973 – The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time.
1974 – The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.
1975 – Prince Juan Carlos becomes Spain’s acting head of state, taking over for the country’s ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.
1975 – The New York Daily News runs the “Ford to City: Drop Dead” headline.
1980 – El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969′s Football War before the International Court of Justice.
1983 – The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.
1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS-61-A, its final successful mission.
1987 – In Japan, NEC releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the TurboGrafx-16, known as PC Engine.
1991 – The Madrid Conference for Middle East peace talks opens.
1993 – Greysteel massacre: The Ulster Freedom Fighters, a loyalist terrorist group, open fire on a crowded bar in Greysteel, Northern Ireland. Eight civilians are killed and thirteen wounded.
1995 – Quebec sovereignists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote is 50.6% to 49.4%).
1996 – Odwalla company officials withdrew their products from over 4,600 stores after an outbreak of E. Coli in their apple juice, which in the end sickened over 60 people and killed one.
2000 – The last Multics machine is shut down.
2002 – British Digital terrestrial television (DTT) Service Freeview begins transmitting in parts of the United Kingdom.
2005 – The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.

Births
1900 – Ragnar Granit Finnish neuroscientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1991)
1906 – Alexander Gode, German-American linguist (d. 1970)
1906 – Giuseppe Farina, Italian race car driver and one-time F1 world champion (d. 1966)
1907 – Sol Tax, American anthropologist (d. 1995)
1908 – U. Muthuramalingam Thevar, An Indian politician (d. 1963)
1908 – Patsy Montana, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 1996)
1909 – Homi J. Bhabha, Indian physicist (d. 1966)
1911 – Ruth Hussey, American actress (d. 2005)
1914 – Richard E Holz, American composer (d. 1986)
1914 – Anna Wing, English actress
1915 – Fred Friendly, American journalist (d. 1998)
1916 – Leon Day, American baseball player (d. 1995)
1917 – Bobby Bragan, American baseball player
1917 – Nikolai Vasilievich Ogarkov, Soviet field marshal (d. 1994)
1917 – Maurice Trintignant, French race car driver (d. 2005)
1922 – Jane White, American actress and singer
1926 – Jacques Swaters, Belgian racing driver
1927 – Joe Adcock, American baseball player (d. 1999)
1928 – Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1999)
1930 – Nestor Almendros, Spanish cinematographer (d. 1992)
1930 – Clifford Brown, American musician (d. 1956)
1931 – Vince Callahan, American politician
1932 – Louis Malle, French film director (d. 1995)
1932 – Barun De, Indian historian
1934 – Frans Brüggen, Dutch musician
1935 – Agota Kristof, Hungarian writer
1935 – Michael Winner, British film director
1935 – Jim Perry, American baseball player
1935 – Robert Caro, American biographer
1936 – Polina Astakhova, Ukrainian gymnast (d. 2005)
1937 – Claude Lelouch, French film director
1939 – Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist, Nobel laureate
1939 – Grace Slick, American singer (Jefferson Airplane)
1939 – Edward Holland, Jr., American singer
1940 – Ed Lauter, American actor
1941 – Theodor W. Hänsch, German physicist, Nobel laureate
1941 – Otis Williams, American singer
1943 – Joanna Shimkus, Canadian actress
1945 – Henry Winkler, American actor
1946 – Chris Slade, Welsh drummer (Asia)
1947 – Timothy B. Schmit, American musician (Eagles)
1948 – Rusty Goffe, British actor
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Events
1901 – In Amherst, Massachusetts nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine.
1901 – Capital punishment: Leon Czolgosz, the assassin of US President William McKinley, is executed by electrocution.
1918 – The German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny on the night of the 29th-30th, an action which would trigger the German revolution.
1921 – The Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Reclamation Project, is completed.
1921 – Second trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in USA.
1921 – The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College, ending a 25 game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football.
1922 – The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, appoints Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister.
1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
1929 – The New York Stock Exchange crashes in what will be called the Crash of ’29 or “Black Tuesday”, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.
1941 – Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the “Great Action”.
1942 – Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany’s persecution of Jews.
1944 – The city of Breda in the Netherlands is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division.
1945 – Getulio Vargas, president of Brazil, resigns.
1948 – Safsaf massacre
1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco, California. Pianist William Kapell is among the 19 killed.
1955 – The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.
1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.
1956 – Tangier Protocol is signed: The international city Tangier is reintegrated into Morocco.
1957 – Israel’s prime minister David Ben Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when a hand grenade is tossed into Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
1960 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.
1961 – Syria exits from the United Arab Republic.
1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite to form the Republic of Tanzania.
1964 – A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, is stolen by a group of thieves (among them is “Murph the surf”) from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
1966 – National Organization For Women is founded.
1967 – London criminal Jack McVitie is murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment and downfall.
1967 – Montreal’s World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors.
1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base’s Duke Field, Florida leading to cancellation of Operation Credible Sport.
1983 – Over 500,000 people demonstrate against cruise missiles in The Hague, The Netherlands.
1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia.
1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway.
1988 – Pakistan’s General Rahimuddin Khan resigns from his post as Governor of Sindh, following the efforts by President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan to limit the powers Rahimuddin had accumulated.
1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House (Duran is later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton).
1998 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.
1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of STS-95 space shuttle mission.
1998 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of 6 and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel.
1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras.
1998 – The Gothenburg nightclub fire in Sweden claims 63 lives and injures 200.
1999 – A large cyclone devastates Orissa, India.
2002 – Ho Chi Minh City ITC Inferno, a fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people shopping. Over 60 people died and over 100 are missing. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime.
2004 – The Arabic news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
2004 – In Rome, European heads of state sign the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.
2005 – 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings kill more than 60.
2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world’s largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to 5.

Births
1906 – Fredric Brown, American science fiction and mystery writer (d. 1972)
1907 – Edwige Feuillère, French film actress (d. 1998)
1910 – Alfred Ayer, British philosopher (d. 1989)
1915 – William Berenberg, American physician (d. 2005)
1917 – Eddie Constantine, American actor/singer (d. 1993)
1918 – Bernard Gordon, American writer and producer (d. 2007)
1920 – Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born immunologist, Nobel laureate
1920 – Catholicos Baselios Mar Thoma Didymos I Catholicos, Indian Orthodox Church
1921 – Bill Mauldin, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
1922 – Neal Hefti, American jazz musician (d. 2008)
1923 – Carl Djerassi, Austrian chemist
1923 – Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs, Dutch athlete
1925 – Dominick Dunne, American author (d. 2009)
1925 – Robert Hardy, English actor
1926 – Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor
1930 – Puck Brouwer, Dutch athlete (d. 2006)
1930 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor (d. 2002)
1930 – Natalie Sleeth, American composer (d. 1992)
1930 – Omara Portuondo, Cuban singer
1931 – Franco Interlenghi, Italian actor
1935 – Takahata Isao, Japanese animated film director
1936 – Akiko Kojima, Japanese model
1938 – Ralph Bakshi, Israeli cartoonist
1938 – Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia
1940 – Frida Boccara, French singer (d. 1996)
1940 – Connie Mack, U.S. Senator from Florida
1940 – José Ulises Macías Salcedo, Catholic bishop
1942 – Bob Ross, American artist and television host (d. 1995)
1943 – Don Simpson, American film producer (d. 1996)
1944 – Denny Laine, English musician (Moody Blues, Ginger Baker’s Air Force, Wings)
1944 – Otto Wiesheu, German minister
1944 – Claude Brochu, Major League Baseball executive (Montreal Expos)
1946 – Peter Green, English guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
1946 – Lynn Carey, American actress and singer (Mama Lion)
1947 – Richard Dreyfuss, American actor
1947 – Helen Coonan, Australian politician
1948 – Kate Jackson, American actress
1949 – James Williamson, American guitarist
1949 – Paul Orndorff, American professional wrestler
1949 – Kieron Baker, English footballer
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Events
1918 – World War I: Czechoslovakia is granted independence from Austria-Hungary marking the beginning of independent Czechoslovak state, after 300 years.
1918 – New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe) is established.
1919 – The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.
1922 – March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.
1929 – Black Monday, a day in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which also saw major stock market upheaval.
1936 – US President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.
1940 – World War II: Greece rejects Italy’s ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania, marking Greece’s entry into World War II.
1942 – The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.
1948 – Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.
1954 – The modern Kingdom of the Netherlands is re-founded as a federal monarchy.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. officials deny any involvement in bombing North Vietnam.
1965 – Nostra Aetate, the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions” of the Second Vatican Council, is promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III’s 760 year-old declaration.
1970 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
1971 – Britain launches its first (and as of 2007, only) satellite, Prospero, into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket.
1982 – Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) wins elections, leading to first Socialist government in Spain after death of Franco. Felipe Gonzalez becomes Prime Minister-elect.
1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and makes peace overtures to the United States; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.
1986 – The centenary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty is celebrated in New York Harbor.
1998 – An Air China jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan.
2005 – Plame affair: Lewis Libby, Vice-president Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns later that day.
2006 – Funeral service takes place for those executed at Bykivnia forest, outside Kiev, Ukraine. 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s – early 1940s are reburied.
2007 – Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner becomes the first woman elected President of Argentina.

Births
1901 – Eileen Shanahan, Irish Poet (d. 1979)
1902 – Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (d. 1986)
1903 – Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)
1907 – John Harold Hewitt, Northern Irish poet (d. 1987)
1908 – Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (d. 1995)
1909 – Francis Bacon, Anglo-Irish painter (d. 1992)
1912 – Richard Doll, English epidemiologist (d. 2005)
1914 – Glenn Robert Davis, U.S. Congressman (d. 1988)
1914 – Jonas Salk, American biologist and physician (d. 1995)
1914 – Richard Laurence Millington Synge, Nobel laureate (d. 1994)
1917 – Jack Soo, American actor (d. 1979)
1922 – Gershon Kingsley, German composer
1922 – Butch van Breda Kolff, American basketball coach (d. 2007)
1922 – Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwe politician (d. 2003)
1924 – Antonio Creus, Spanish racecar driver (d. 1996)
1925 – Ian Hamilton Finlay, Scottish poet, writer, artist and gardener (d. 2006)
1926 – Bowie Kuhn, American Commissioner of Baseball (d. 2007)
1927 – Dame Cleo Laine, British singer
1928 – Ion Mihai Pacepa, Romanian general
1928 – Iry LeJeune, Cajun musician (d. 1955)
1929 – Joan Plowright, British actress
1929 – Marcel Bozzuffi, French actor (d. 1988)
1929 – John Hollander, American poet
1930 – Bernie Ecclestone, English motorsports impresario (F1)
1932 – Suzy Parker, American actress (d. 2003)
1932 – Spyros Kyprianou, a President of Cyprus
1933 – Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (d. 1983)
1935 – Alan Clarke, British film director
1936 – Charlie Daniels, American musician
1936 – Carl Davis, American-born musical conductor and composer
1937 – Lenny Wilkens, American basketball player and coach
1938 – Dave Budd, American basketball player
1938 – David Dimbleby, English television commentator
1938 – Anne Perry, English-born novelist
1939 – Jane Alexander, American actress
1939 – Miroslav Cerar, Yugoslav gymnast
1940 – Susan Harris, American television writer and producer
1941 – John Hallam, Irish actor (d. 2006)
1941 – Hank Marvin, English guitarist
1941 – Curtis Lee, American singer
1942 – Kees Verkerk, Dutch speed skater
1943 – Conny Froboess, German singer
1943 – Charo López, Spanish actress
1944 – Dennis Franz, American actor
1944 – Anton Schlecker, German billionaire
1944 – Coluche, French comedian and actor (d. 1986)
1945 – Elton Dean, English musician (Soft Machine) (d. 2006)
1945 – Wayne Fontana, British singer (The Mindbenders)
1946 – Wim Jansen, Dutch footballer and coach
1946 – John Hewson, Australian politician
1948 – Telma Hopkins, American singer and actress (Tony Orlando and Dawn)
1949 – Bruce Jenner, American athlete
1949 – Tracy Reed, American actress
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Events
1904 – The first underground New York City Subway line opens; the system becomes the biggest in United States, and one of the biggest in world.
1916 – Battle of Segale: Negus Mikael, marching on the Ethiopian capital in support of his son Emperor Iyasus V, is defeated by Fitawrari abte Giyorgis, securing the throne for Empress Zauditu.
1922 – A referendum in Rhodesia rejects the country’s annexation to the South African Union.
1924 – The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.
1936 – Mrs Wallis Simpson files for divorce which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.
1948 – Léopold Sédar Senghor founds the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS).
1953 – British nuclear test Totem 2 is carried out at Emu Field, South Australia.
1954 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.
1958 – Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, is deposed in a bloodless coup d’état by General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier.
1961 – NASA launches the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down in Cuba by a Soviet-supplied SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile.
1962 – A plane carrying Enrico Mattei, post-war Italian administrator, crashes in mysterious circumstances.
1964 – Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launched his political career and came to be known as “A Time for Choosing”.
1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
1973 – The Cañon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite type meteorite, strikes in Fremont County, Colorado.
1981 – The Soviet submarine U 137 runs aground on the east coast of Sweden.
1986 – The British government suddenly deregulates financial markets, leading to a total restructuring of the way in which they operate in the country, in an event now referred to as Big Bang.
1990 – Supreme Soviet of Kirghiz SSR chooses Askar Akayev as republic’s first president.
1991 – Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.
1992 – United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is brutally murdered by shipmates for being gay, precipitating first military, then national, debate about gays in the military that resulted in the United States “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy.
1994 – The U.S. prison population tops 1 million for the first time in American history.
1994 – Gliese 229B is the first Substellar Mass Object to be unquestionably identified.
1995 – Latvia applies for membership in the European Union.
1995 – Former Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi is convicted in absentia of corruption.
1997 – October 27, 1997 mini-crash: Stock markets around the world crash because of fears of a global economic meltdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 554.26 points to 7,161.15. For the first time, the New York Stock Exchange activates its “circuit breakers” twice during the day eventually making the controversial move of closing the Exchange early.
1999 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and 6 other members.
2005 – Riots begin in Paris after the deaths of two Muslim teenagers.
2005 – The SSETI Express microsatellite is successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

Births
1904 – Erno Schwarz, Hungarian American soccer player (d. 1974)
1906 – Earle Cabell, American politician (d. 1975)
1908 – Lee Krasner, American painter (d. 1984)
1910 – Jack Carson, Canadian actor (d. 1963)
1911 – Leif Erickson, American actor and singer (d. 1986)
1913 – Joe Medicine Crow, American tribal historian and anthropologist
1914 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 1953)
1915 – Harry Saltzman, American film producer (d. 1994)
1917 – Augustine Harris, British Bishop of Middlesbrough (d. 2007)
1917 – Oliver Tambo, South African freedom fighter (d. 1993)
1918 – Teresa Wright, American actress (d. 2005)
1920 – Nanette Fabray, American actress
1920 – K. R. Narayanan, 10th President of India (d. 2005)
1921 – Warren Allen Smith, American encyclopedist
1922 – Poul Bundgaard, Danish actor and singer (d. 1998)
1922 – Michel Galabru, French actor
1922 – Ralph Kiner, American baseball player
1923 – Roy Lichtenstein, American artist (d. 1997)
1924 – Ruby Dee, American actress
1925 – Albert Medwin, American inventor
1925 – Warren Christopher, US Secretary of State (1993–1997)
1926 – H.R. Haldeman, American political personality (d. 1993)
1928 – Gilles Vigneault, Canadian poet, singer and songwriter
1929 – Maurice Robert Johnston, English Lieutenant-General
1931 – Nawal el-Saadawi, Egyptian writer
1932 – Sylvia Plath, American poet (d. 1963)
1932 – Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (d. 2007)
1933 – Floyd Cramer, American popular pianist (d. 1997)
1934 – Giorgos Konstadinou, Greek actor and director
1937 – Lara Parker, American actress
1939 – John Cleese, British actor and writer
1940 – John Gotti, American gangster (d. 2002)
1940 – Maxine Hong Kingston, American writer
1941 – Dick Trickle, American auto racer
1942 – Lee Greenwood, American singer
1943 – Carmen Argenziano, American actor
1943 – Jerry Rook, American basketball player
1945 – Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil
1945 – John Kane, actor/writer
1946 – Carrie Snodgress, American actress (d. 2004)
1946 – Ivan Reitman, Czechoslovakian-born Canadian film actor, producer and director
1949 – Garry Tallent, American bass player (E Street Band)
1949 – Clifford Antone, American businessman (d. 2006)
(more…)

Events:

1861 – The Pony Express officially ceased operations.
1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
1905 – Norway becomes independent from Sweden.
1912 – First Balkan War: The capital city of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, is unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron Saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.
1917 – World War I: Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany.
1917 – World War I: Brazil declared in state of war with Central Powers.
1918 – Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.
1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full operation.
1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.
1942 – World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, Hornet, is sunk and another aircraft carrier, Enterprise, is heavily damaged.
1943 – World War II: First flight of the Dornier Do 335 “Pfeil”.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends.
1947 – The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.
1948 – Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.
1951 – Boxer Joe Louis comes out of retirement to fight Rocky Marciano. However, Marciano would win the fight in eight rounds.
1955 – After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares permanent neutrality.
1955 – Ngô Đình Diệm declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.
1958 – Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.
1959 – The world sees the far side of the Moon for the first time.
1964 – Eric Edgar Cooke becomes last person in Western Australia to be executed.
1965 – The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).
1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran and then crowns his wife Farah Empress of Iran.
1977 – The last natural case of smallpox is discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.
1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.
1984 – “Baby Fae” receives a heart transplant from a baboon.
1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
1992 – The Charlottetown Accord fails to win majority support in a Canada wide referendum.
1992 – The London Ambulance Service is thrown into chaos after the implementation of a new CAD, or Computer Aided Despatch, system which failed.
1994 – Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty
1994 – The National Football League announced that the Carolina Panthers would become the league’s the 29th franchise.
1995 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.
1999 – Britain’s House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament.
2000 – Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d’Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï. Bret Hart retires.
2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
2002 – Moscow Theatre Siege: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.
2003 – The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km²), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.

Births:
1902 – Jack Sharkey, American boxer (d. 1994)
1905 – George Flahiff, Canadian Cardinal (d. 1989)
1906 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (d. 1967)
1911 – Sid Gilman, American football player (d. 2003)
1911 – Mahalia Jackson, American singer (d. 1972)
1911 – Sorley MacLean, Scottish poet (d. 1996)
1912 – Don Siegel, American director (d. 1991)
1913 – Charlie Barnet, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1991)
1914 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (d. 1984)
1915 – Joe Fry, British racing driver (d. 1950)
1916 – François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)
1916 – Boyd Wagner, First USAAF fighter ace of WWII (d. 1942)
1919 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
1919 – Edward Brooke, American politician
1921 – George Forrest, Northern Irish MP (d. 1968)
1925 – Jan Wolkers, Dutch author (d. 2007)
1928 – Francisco Solano López, Argentine comics artists
1929 – Neal Matthews, Jr., American singer (The Jordanaires) (d. 2000)
1933 – Takis Kanellopoulos, Greek film director and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1934 – Hans-Joachim Rödelius, German composer and musician (Cluster, Harmonia)
1936 – Shelley Morrison, American actress
1941 – Charlie Landsborough, Singer/Songwriter
1942 – Bob Hoskins, British actor
1945 – Pat Conroy, American writer
1945 – Demetris Th. Gotsis, Greek poet and author
1946 – Pat Sajak, American game show host
1946 – Holly Woodlawn, Puerto Rican actress
1946 – Keith Hopwood, British musician (Herman’s Hermits)
1947 – Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67th United States Secretary of State
1947 – Jaclyn Smith, American actress
1947 – Trevor Joyce, Irish poet
1947 – Ian Ashley, British racing driver
1947 – Ricardo Asch, Argentine physician and figure in University of California, Irvine fertility scandal
1948 – Toby Harrah, American baseball player
1949 – Steve Rogers, American baseball player
1949 – Antonio Carpio, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
1949 – Kevin Sullivan, American professional wrestler
(more…)

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)

Events
1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.
1911 – First use of aircraft in war: An Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian War.
1912 – First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
1915 – Woman’s suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.
1917 – Lenin calls for the October Revolution.
1929 – Great Depression: After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to show signs of panic.
1929 – The first North American transcontinental air service begins between New York City and Los Angeles, California.
1935 – Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard “Lulu” Rosencrantz are fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.
1941 – World War II: Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov takes command of Red Army operations to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow.
1942 – World War II: The Second Battle of El Alamein starts – At El Alamein in northern Egypt, the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal Montgomery begin a critical offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt, never to return.
1942 – All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner are killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims is award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger (“Thanks for the Memory”, “Love in Bloom”, “Blue Hawaii”).
1942 – The Battle for Henderson Field begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on October 26.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins – The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines; and also, the Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.
1946 – The United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.
1956 – Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
1958 – The Springhill Mine Bump – An underground earthquake traps 174 miners in the No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, the deepest coal mine in North America at the time. By November 1, rescuers from around the world had dug out 100 of the victims, marking the death toll at 74.
1958 – The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue dwarves later popularized in a Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon series appear for the first time, in the story Le flute à six schtroumpfs, a Johan and Peewit adventure by Peyo which is serialized in the weekly comics magazine Spirou
1965 – Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (United States) (Airmobile), in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launch a new operation, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).
1973 – The Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations about the scandal.
1973 – A United Nations sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria.
1983 – Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
1989 – The Hungarian Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös, replacing the communist Hungarian People’s Republic.
1989 – Phillips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas killed 23 and injured 314.
1992 – Emperor Akihito becomes the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.
1993 – Shankill Road bombing: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in the Shankill area of Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.
1998 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a “land for peace” agreement.
2001 – The Provisional IRA begins disarmament after peace talks.
2001 – Apple releases the iPod.
2002 – Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
2004 – A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
2007 – A powerful Cold front in the Bay of Campeche causes the Usumacinta Jackup rig to collide with Kab 101, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after they evacuated the rig.

Births
1900 – Douglas Jardine, English cricketer (d. 1958)
1904 – Harvey Penick, American golfer (d. 1995)
1905 – Felix Bloch, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
1905 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)
1908 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
1909 – Zellig Harris, American linguist (d. 1992)
1910 – Richard Mortensen, Danish painter (d. 1993)
1918 – James Daly, American actor (d. 1978)
1919 – Manolis Andronikos, Greek archaeologist, professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (d. 1992)
1920 – Ted Fujita, Japanese meteorologist (d. 1998)
1922 – Coleen Gray, American actress
1923 – Aslam Farrukhi, Pakistani scholar and poet
1923 – Ned Rorem, American composer
1923 – Frank Sutton, American actor (d. 1974)
1925 – Johnny Carson, American television host (d. 2005)
1925 – Manos Hadjidakis, Greek composer (d. 1994)
1925 – Fred Shero, Canadian hockey player and coach (d. 1990)
1928 – Harold P. Warren, American movie director (d. 1985)
1928 – Bella Darvi, Polish-born French actress (d. 1971)
1927 – Leszek Kołakowski, Polish philosopher (d. 2009)
1931 – Jim Bunning, American baseball player and politician
1931 – Diana Dors, British actress (d. 1984)
1931 – William P. Clark, United States Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan
1935 – Juan “Chi-Chi” Rodríguez, Puerto Rican golfer
1936 – Philip Kaufman, American film director
1940 – Ellie Greenwich, American singer (d. 2009)
1940 – Pelé, Brazilian footballer
1940 – Baby Jane Holzer, American art collector, film producer and Andy Warhol “superstar”
1941 – Igor Smirnov, Moldovan politician
1941 – Mel Winkler, American actor
1942 – Michael Crichton, American writer (d. 2008)
1942 – Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop (d. 2007)
1944 – Mike Harding, English singer and comedian
1945 – Kim Larsen, Danish singer
1946 – Mel Martinez, American politician
1948 – Hermann Hauser, Austrian-born entrepreneur
1948 – Brian Ross, American journalist
1948 – Tony Anselmo, American animator and cartoon voice actor, current voice of Donald Duck (1985-present)
1949 – Michael ‘Wurzel’ Burston, British musician (Motörhead)
1949 – Nick Tosches, American writer
(more…)

Events:
1907 – Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock sets events in motion that will lead to a depression.
1910 – Dr. Crippen is convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife and is subsequently hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.
1924 – Toastmasters International is founded.
1926 – J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal.
1928 – Phi Sigma Alpha fraternity is founded at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.
1934 – In East Liverpool, Ohio, notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd is shot and killed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.
1941 – French hero of the resistance Guy Môquet is executed by the Germans, along with 29 other hostages as a retaliation for a killed German officer.
1943 – World War II: Kassel: RAF conducts an air raid on the city of 236,000 people, killing 10,000, rendering 150,000 homeless. Second firestorm raid in Germany
1944 – World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.
1946 – Forty four British sailors die when two British warships hit mines off the coast of Albania.
1953 – Laos gains independence from France.
1956 – A concrete girder weighing 200 tons kills 48 in Karachi, Pakistan.
1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.
1960 – Independence of Mali from France.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval “quarantine” of the Communist nation.
1963 – BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner crashes on October 22 in UK with the loss of all on board.
1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor.
1964 – Canada: A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada.
1966 – The Supremes become the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A’ Go-Go).
1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 12.
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times.
1970 – Tunku Abdul Rahman resign from Prime Minister of Malaysia.
1972 – Vietnam War: In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris. Thieu rejects the proposal and accused the United States of conspiring to undermine his regime.
1975 – The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus.
1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.
1981 – The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.
1981 – The founding congress of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Organisation faction led by Hareram Sharma and D.P. Singh begins.
1981 – The TGV railway service Paris-Lyon is inaugurated.
1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspired the Supermax model of prisons.
1991 – Dimitrios Arhondonis, metropolitan of Chalcedon elected 270th Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch as Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Orthodox church.
1999 – Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
2005 – Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.
2006 – A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama.
2007 – Raid on Anuradhapura Air Force Base, is carried out by 21 Tamil Tiger commandos, all except one died in this attack, 8 Sri Lankan Air Force planes are destroyed and 10 damaged.
2008 – India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.

Births:
1903 – George Wells Beadle, American geneticist, Nobel laureate (d. 1989)
1903 – Curly Howard, American actor and comedian, member of the Three Stooges (d. 1952)
1904 – Constance Bennett, American actress (d. 1965)
1905 – Joseph Kosma, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1969)
1907 – Jimmie Foxx, American baseball player (d. 1967)
1908 – John Gould, American humorist, essayist, and columnist (d. 2003)
1912 – Frances Drake, American actress (d. 2000)
1913 – Bảo Đại, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1997)
1913 – Tamara Desni, German-born British actress (d. 2008)
1913 – Robert Capa, American war photographer (born in Hungary) (d. 1954)
1913 – Hans-Peter Tschudi, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 2002)
1917 – Joan Fontaine, American actress
1918 – Lou Klein, American baseball player (d. 1976)
1919 – Doris Lessing, British writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1919 – Kathleen Ankers, American scenic designer (d. 2001)
1920 – Timothy Leary, American writer (d. 1996)
1921 – Georges Brassens, French singer (d. 1981)
1921 – Alexander Kronrod, Russian mathematician (d. 1986)
1922 – Juan Carlos Lorenzo, Argentine footballer (d. 2001)
1923 – Bert Trautmann, German former footballer
1925 – Robert Rauschenberg, American painter and graphic artist (d. 2008)
1927 – Allan Hendrickse, South African politician (d. 2005)
1928 – Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Brazilian movie director
1929 – Lev Yashin, Soviet footballer (d. 1990)
1929 – Dory Previn, American songwriter
1933 – Helmut Senekowitsch, Austrian footballer (d. 2007)
1935 – Ann Rule, American true-crime writer
1936 – Bobby Seale, American civil rights activist
1937 – Manos Loïzos, Greek composer (d. 1982)
1938 – Derek Jacobi, English actor
1938 – Christopher Lloyd, American actor
1939 – George Cohen, English footballer
1939 – Tony Roberts, American actor
1939 – Joaquim Chissano, President of Mozambique
1942 – Annette Funicello, American actress
1942 – Bobby Fuller, American rock guitarist (d. 1966)
1943 – Jan de Bont, Dutch film director
1943 – Catherine Deneuve, French actress
1943 – Allen Coage, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
1945 – Leslie West, American musician
1945 – Sheila Sherwood, British long jumper
1945 – Yvan Ponton, Canadian actor and television host
1946 – Kelvin MacKenzie, British media tycoon
1946 – Deepak Chopra, Indian-American physician and writer
1946 – Claude Charron, French-Canadian politician and TV personality
1946 – Eddie Brigati, American singer (The Rascals)
1947 – Raymond Bachand, French-Canadian politician and businessman
1947 – Haley Barbour, American politician, governor of Mississippi
1948 – Lynette Fromme, American attempted assassin of Gerald Ford
1949 – Stiv Bators, American musician (The Dead Boys) (d. 1990)
1949 – Vasilios Magginas, Greek politician
1949 – Arsène Wenger, French football manager
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Events:
1902 – In the United States, a five month strike by United Mine Workers ends.
1912 – During the First Balkan War, Kardzhali is liberated by Bulgarian forces
1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting President against lynching in the deep south.
1921 – George Melford’s silent film, The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premiers.
1944 – The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia is 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.
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. 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.
1973 – Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
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.
1979 – Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.
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 is released in August 1991).
1987 – Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, Doctors & Nurses.
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.
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:
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)
1918 – Milton Himmelfarb, American sociographer (d. 2006)
1921 – Sir Malcolm Arnold, British composer (d. 2006)
1922 – Liliane de Bettencourt, heir to L’Oreal
1924 – Celia Cruz, Cuban singer, Queen of Salsa. (d. 2003)
1924 – Joyce Randolph, American actress
1925 – Louis J. Robichaud, Canadian premier of New Brunswick (d. 2005)
1927 – Fritz Wintersteller, Austrian mountaineer who made the first ascent of Broad Peak
1928 – Whitey Ford, American baseball player
1929 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American author
1930 – Ivan Stepanovich Silayev, Last prime minister of the Soviet Union
1931 – Vivian Pickles, English actress.
1938 – Carl Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2001)
1940 – Geoff Boycott, English cricketer
1940 – Manfred Mann, English musician
1940 – Frances FitzGerald, American journalist and author
1941 – Steve Cropper, American musician
1942 – Elvin Bishop, American musician
1942 – Judy Sheindlin, American judge (“Judge Judy”)
1942 – Allan Grice, Australian racing driver
1942 – Lou Lamoriello, New Jersey Devils General Manager
1943 – Tariq Ali, Pakistani author and historian
1945 – Everett McGill, American actor
1946 – Jim Hill, American sportscaster
1946 – Lux Interior, American singer (The Cramps)
1946 – Lee Loughnane, American musician
1948 – Shaye Cohen, Historian and Professor at Harvard University
1948 – Tom Everett, American actor
1949 – Michel Brière, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1971)
1949 – Mike Keenan, Canadian ice hockey coach
1949 – Benjamin Netanyahu, 9th Prime Minister of Israel
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Events

1740 – Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
1781 – Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg Monarchy.
1803 – The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.
1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.
1827 – Battle of Navarino – a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada is destroyed by an allied British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece.
1883 – Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru’s involvement in the War of the Pacific.
1905 – Turkish sport club Galatasaray founded.
1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1935 – The Long March ends
1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
1944 – The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
1944 – Liquid natural gas leaks from storage tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill 130.
1944 – General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
1947 – United States of America and Pakistan establish Diplomatic relations for the first time.
1951 – The “Johnny Bright Incident” occurred in Stillwater, Oklahoma
1952 – Governor Evelyn Baring declared a state of emergency in Kenya and began arresting hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the future first President of Kenya.
1967 – A purported bigfoot is filmed by Patterson and Gimlin.
1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
1970 – Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist state.
1971 – The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
1973 – Saturday Night Massacre: President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.
1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing the Mississippi River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew died; only 18 people aboard the ferry survived.
1977 – A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot.
1979 – The John F Kennedy library is opened in Boston, Massachusetts.
1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
1984 – The Monterey Bay Aquarium opens in Monterey Bay, California.
1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

Births

1900 – Wayne Morse, U.S. Senator from Oregon (d. 1974)
1904 – Anna Neagle, English actress (d. 1986)
1904 – Tommy Clement Douglas, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
1905 – Arnold Luhaäär, Estonian weightlifter and Olympic medalist (d. 1965)
1905 – Ellery Queen, pseudonym of two American writers (d. 1982)
1907 – Arlene Francis, American television personality (d. 2001)
1909 – Sugiyama Yasushi, Japanese painter (d. 1993)
1913 – Grandpa Jones, American banjo player and singer (d. 1998)
1914 – Fayard Nicholas, American dancer (d. 2006)
1917 – Jean-Pierre Melville, French director (d. 1973)
1918 – Robert Lochner, German journalist (d. 2003)
1919 – Tracy Hall, American inventor (d. 2008)
1922 – John Anderson, American actor (d. 1992)
1923 – Robert Craft, American conductor
1925 – Art Buchwald, American humorist (d. 2007)
1925 – Tom Dowd, American recording engineer (d. 2002)
1925 – Roger Hanin, French actor
1927 – Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, Indian poet (d.2007)
1927 – Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and advice columnist
1931 – Richard Caliguiri, American politician (d. 1988)
1931 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
1932 – Rosey Brown, American football player (d. 2004)
1932 – William Christopher, American actor (M*A*S*H)
1934 – Eddie Harris, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)
1934 – Michiko, empress of Japan
1935 – Jerry Orbach, American actor (d. 2004)
1937 – Juan Marichal, Dominican baseball player
1937 – Wanda Jackson, American rock and rockabilly singer
1938 – Iain Macmillan, Abbey Road photographer (d. 2006)
1940 – Kathy Kirby, British singer
1940 – Robert Pinsky, American poet and Poet Laureate of the United States
1942 – Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
1942 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1943 – Dunja Vejzovic, Croatian soprano
1944 – David Mancuso, American disc jockey
1944 – Nalin de Silva, Sri Lankan theoretical physicist, philosopher and a political analyst
1946 – Lewis Grizzard, American writer and humorist (d. 1994)
1946 – Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
1946 – Lucien Van Impe, Belgian cyclist
1948 – Melih Gökçek, Turkish politician
1949 – Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete
(more…)

October 18th in History

Events: