705 – Abd al-Malik, kalief of Damascus, dies
1480 – Great standing on the Ugra river, a standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, which resulted in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and eventual disintegration of the Horde.
1604 – Supernova “Kepler’s nova” first sighted
1769 – Captain James Cook is the first European to land in New Zealand (Poverty Bay)
1775 – Officers decide to bar slaves & free blacks from Continental Army
1793 – John Hancock, American merchant and politician, 1st Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1737) died.
1806 – Napoleonic Wars: Forces of the British Empire lay siege to the port of Boulogne in France by using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve.
1818 – Two English boxers are first to use padded gloves
1856 – The Second Opium War or second Anglo-Chinese War: begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
1860 – Telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco opens.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Perryville: Union forces under General Don Carlos Buell halt the Confederate invasion of Kentucky by defeating troops led by General Braxton Bragg at Perryville, Kentucky.
1869 – Franklin Pierce, American general, lawyer, and politician, 14th President of the United States (b. 1804) died.
1871 – Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan including the Great Chicago Fire, and the much deadlier Peshtigo Fire.
1904 – Edmonton, Alberta is incorporated as a city.
1917 – Walter Lord, American historian and author (d. 2002) was born.
1917 – Leon Trotsky named chairman of the Petrograd Soviet as Bolsheviks gain control
1918 – American soldier Sgt Alvin York single-handedly kills 25, captures 132 Germans
1921 – A 100 gallon capacity still, three barrels of mash and 50 gallons of whisky were found when prohibition agents raided a home in a fashionable neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio
1929 – A Man is Charged of Speaking Offensively in Front of a Lady and found guilty for using obscene language in front of a woman in Ohio.
1934 – Bruno Hauptmann is indicted for murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son
1939 – Lynne Stewart, Jailed American civil liberties lawyer – Born
1939 – World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.
1939 – Paul Hogan, Australian actor, producer, and screenwriter was born.
1941 – World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
1941 – Jesse Jackson, American minister and activist was birthed.
1943 – Chevy Chase, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter was born
1943 – R. L. Stine, American author, screenwriter, and producer was born
1945 – US President Harry Truman announced atomic bomb secret shared with Britain and Canada
1945 – Roy Royer, rock guitarist (Procol Harum)Born
1946 – Dennis Kucinich, American politician – Born
1948 – Johnny Ramone [Cummings], Long Island, New York, American rock guitarist (Ramones)Born
1948 – Benjamin Cheever, American novelist and editor born
1949 – Sigourney Weaver, American actress and producer was born.
1950 – Robert “Kool” Bell, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Kool & the Gang) was born.
1953 – Birmingham Alabama, bars Jackie Robinson’s Negro-White All-Stars from playing there Robinson gives in & drops white players from his group
1955 – Darrell Hammond, American comedian and actor was born.
1962 – Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes the article “Bedingt abwehrbereit” (“Conditionally prepared for defense”) about a NATO manoeuvre called “Fallex 62″, which uncovered the sorry state of the Bundeswehr (Germany’s army) facing the communist threat from the east at the time. The magazine is soon accused of treason.
1965 – Cee J Ramone, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Ramones, 22 Jacks, Los Gusanos, and The Ramainz) was born.
1967 – Guerrilla leader Che Guevara and his men are captured in Bolivia.
1968 – Leeroy Thornhill, English keyboard player (The Prodigy) was born.
1969 – The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago.
1970 – Soviet author Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn wins Nobel Prize for Literature
1970 – Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon’s October 7 peace proposal as “a manoeuvre to deceive world opinion”.
1971 – John Lennon releases iconic peace song “Imagine”
1973 – Yom Kippur War: Gabi Amir’s armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.
1974 – Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time it is the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
1976 – Sex Pistols sign with EMI
1980 – The Miz, American wrestler and actor was born.
1990 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount.
1980 – After playing two shows at the Madison Square Garden, Bob Marley collapsed in Central Park while jogging, brought to Sloan-Kettering Hospital
1981 – President Reagan greeted predecessors Jimmy Carter, Gerald R Ford & Richard Nixon before sending them to Egypt for Anwar Sadat’s funeral
1982 – Poland bans Solidarity & all labor unions
1985 – Little Richard seriously injured in a car accident
1985 – Leon Klinghoffer, hijackers of Achille Lauro, threw him off boat
1986 – RUN DMC calls for a day of peace among LA street gangs
1988 – Fire in Seattle’s Space Needle causes evacuation, $2,000 damage
1990 – B.J. Wilson, English musician (Procol Harum) (b. 1947)Dies
1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes to proceed toward impeaching President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in cases concerning Arkansas real estate deals .
1999 – New Coligny Calendar, NCC, The beginning of a new era of the Coligny calendar, the oldest material Celtic calendar.
2001 – A twin engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy killing 118.
2001 – (Anthrax Mailings) – Following the death of Robert Stevens on 5th October a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun who had worked from the offices of The Sun newspaper in the American Media building in Boca Raton, Florida. On the Oct. 8th 1,000 American Media employees or other long-term visitors to the building undergo nasal swab tests and begin taking antibiotics from the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile.
2001 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
2004 – Martha Stewart is sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement in addition to a $30,000 fine and was sent to the minimum-security facility in West Virginia—known as “Camp Cupcake”
2011 – Al Davis, American football executive, dies at 82
2012 – Mustafa A.G. Abushagur, the first elected Libyan Prime Minister, is voted out of office by the Libyan parliament
2013 – A new viral encephalitis outbreak has hit the Uttar Pradesh state in India. Over two hundred people were being treated for it in hospitals and another fifteen children recently died from the affliction.