Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/October

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October 1: National Day in China (1949); Unification Day in Cameroon (1961); Independence Day in Tuvalu (1978); Defenders Day in Ukraine (2015)

• 1891 – Stanford University (pictured), founded by railroad magnate and politician Leland Stanford and his wife Jane in Palo Alto, California, admitted its first students.
• 1906 – A deputation of Muslim leaders led by the Aga Khan III met Indian viceroy Lord Minto to secure greater political representation, eventually leading to the founding of the All-India Muslim League.
• 1946 – Mensa, the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world, was formed in the United Kingdom.
• 1991 – Croatian War of Independence: Yugoslav People's Army forces invaded the area surrounding Dubrovnik, Croatia, beginning a seven-month siege of the city.
• 2022 – After losing a league home match to local rivals Persebaya Surabaya, some 3,000 Arema supporters invaded the stadium's pitch and met with police resistance, causing a stampede that killed 135.

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October 2: International Day of Non-Violence; Gandhi Jayanti in India

• 1766 – As part of wider food riots, citizens in Nottingham, England, looted large quantities of cheese; one man was killed during attempts to restore order.
• 1879 – Qing China signed the Treaty of Livadia with the Russian Empire, but the terms were so unfavorable that the Chinese government refused to ratify the treaty.
• 1913 – The Shubert Theatre opened on Broadway with a production of Hamlet.
• 1971 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was re-elected unopposed as President of South Vietnam.
• 2006 – A gunman killed five Amish girls before committing suicide in a one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

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October 3

• 1792 – Spanish forces departed Valdivia to suppress the indigenous Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.
• 1953 – Vancouver's Holy Rosary Cathedral was dedicated by Archbishop William Mark Duke, fifty-three years after it first opened.
• 1963 – Oswaldo López Arellano replaced Honduran president Ramón Villeda Morales in a violent coup, initiating two decades of military rule.
• 1992 – Sinéad O'Connor tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on live television.
• 2003 – Roy Horn of the American entertainment duo Siegfried & Roy (both pictured) was mauled by a tiger during a performance at the Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip.

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October 4: Cinnamon Roll Day in Sweden and Finland

• 1448 – Skanderbeg and Gjergj Arianiti signed a peace treaty to end the Albanian–Venetian War.
• 1633 – Smolensk War: Forces from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth broke the Russian siege of Smolensk (depicted).
• 1862 – American Civil War: After a naval battle in Galveston Harbor, Texas, Confederate commanders negotiated the surrender of the city to Union forces.
• 1925 – Great Syrian Revolt: Rebels led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji captured the city of Hama from the French Mandate of Syria.
• 1927 – Gutzon Borglum and approximately 400 workers began sculpting Mount Rushmore.

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October 5: World Teachers' Day

• 1838 – A Cherokee band attacked settlers near Larissa, Texas, killing or abducting 18 people.
• 1903 – Samuel Griffith (pictured) became the first Chief Justice of Australia, while Edmund Barton and Richard O'Connor became the first Puisne Justices of the High Court of Australia.
• 1962 – Dr. No, the first James Bond film, was released.
• 2000 – Colour revolutions: During protests over irregularities in the Yugoslavian general election, a wheel-loader was driven into the Radio Television of Serbia building, giving the protests the nickname "Bulldozer Revolution".
• 2014 – Formula One racing driver Jules Bianchi sustained fatal head injuries in a crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, dying the following year.

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October 6: German-American Day in the United States, Mid-Autumn Festival (2025) in China, Taiwan, and Korea

• 1762 – Seven Years' War: The Battle of Manila concluded with a British victory over Spain, leading to a twenty-month occupation.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery were captured by British forces under Sir Henry Clinton, dismantling the Hudson River Chains.
• 1985 – Police constable Keith Blakelock was killed during rioting in the Broadwater Farm housing estate in Tottenham, London.
• 1995 – Astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz reported the discovery of a planet orbiting 51 Pegasi (depicted) as the first known exoplanet around a main-sequence star.
• 2000 – Denouncing corruption in Argentine president Fernando de la Rúa's administration and the Senate, Vice President Carlos Álvarez resigned.

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October 7: First day of Sukkot (Judaism, 2025)

• 1513 – War of the League of Cambrai: A Venetian army under Bartolomeo d'Alviano was decisively defeated by the Spanish army commanded by Ramón de Cardona and Fernando d'Ávalos.
• 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Patriots and Loyalist militias engaged each other at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina.
• 1868 – Ōdate, the last castle of the Satake clan in Japan's Tōhoku region, was captured during the Boshin War.
• 1985 – During severe floods in Puerto Rico, about 130 people died as a result of the deadliest single landslide (pictured) on record in North America.
• 2023 – The military wing of the Palestinian nationalist Islamist political organization Hamas massacred people attending an open-air music festival in southern Israel.

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October 8

• 1862 – In the American Civil War, the Battle of Perryville was fought west of Perryville, Kentucky.
• 1952 – Three trains collided (aftermath pictured) at Harrow & Wealdstone station in London, killing 112 people and injuring 340 others.
• 1969 – Demonstrations organized by the Weather Underground known as the Days of Rage began in Chicago, aimed at ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
• 1995 – The Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council launched Operation Southern Move, their last offensive in the Bosnian War.
• 2019 – Anti-government protests calling for free and fair elections began in Baku, Azerbaijan.

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October 9: Leif Erikson Day in the United States and parts of Canada, Independence Day (1962) in Uganda

• 1708 – Great Northern War: Russia defeated Sweden at the Battle of Lesnaya on the Russian–Polish border, in present-day Belarus.
• 1740 – European soldiers and Javanese collaborators started massacring Chinese Indonesians (depicted) in the port city of Batavia, modern-day Jakarta: at least 10,000 people were killed.
• 1793 – French Revolution: After a month-long siege, the leaders of Lyon surrendered, ending their revolt against the National Convention.
• 1912 – Following a reduction in pay, textile workers in Little Falls, New York, walked out of their mill, starting a three-month strike.
• 1952 – A footman shot and killed two colleagues and wounded the lady of the house at Knowsley Hall, England.

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October 10

• 680 – Husayn ibn Ali, a grandson of Muhammad, was killed at the Battle of Karbala (depicted) by the forces of Yazid I, whom Husayn had refused to recognize as caliph.
• 1760 – In a treaty with Dutch colonial authorities, the Ndyuka people of Suriname gained territorial autonomy.
• 1911 – The Xinhai Revolution began with the Wuchang Uprising, marking the beginning of the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.
• 1943 – World War II: The Kempeitai, the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army, arrested and tortured fifty-seven civilians and civilian internees on suspicion of their involvement in a raid on Singapore Harbour.
• 2004 – Eight-year-old Huang Na was abducted and murdered; her body was found three weeks later after a search across Singapore and Malaysia.

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October 11: Feast day of Saint James the Deacon (Anglicanism); National Coming Out Day

• 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Royal Navy captured eleven Dutch Navy ships without any losses at the Battle of Camperdown.
• 1840 – Bashir Shihab II (pictured) surrendered to the Ottoman Empire and was removed as Emir of Mount Lebanon after an imperial decree by Sultan Abdülmecid I.
• 1942 – World War II: At the Battle of Cape Esperance on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, American ships intercepted and defeated a Japanese fleet sent to attack Henderson Field.
• 1950 – A field-sequential color system developed by Hungarian-American engineer Peter Goldmark became the first color television system to be adopted for commercial use, only for it to be abandoned a year later.

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October 12

• 1406 – Chen Yanxiang, the only person from Indonesia known to have visited dynastic Korea, reached Seoul after having set out from Java four months before.
• 1798 – The Peasants' War began in Overmere, Southern Netherlands, with peasants taking up arms against the French occupiers.
• 1917 – First World War: New Zealand troops suffered more than 2,000 casualties, including more than 800 deaths, in the First Battle of Passchendaele, making it the nation's largest loss of life in one day.
• 1960 – Japan Socialist Party leader Inejirō Asanuma (pictured) was assassinated during a live television recording by a far-right ultra-nationalist using a short sword.
• 1979 – Typhoon Tip, the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded, reached a worldwide record-low sea-level pressure of 870 mbar (25.69 inHg) in the western Pacific Ocean.

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October 13: Thanksgiving in Canada (2025)

• 1710 – Queen Anne's War: French and Wabanaki forces surrendered to end the Siege of Port Royal, giving the British permanent possession of Nova Scotia.
• 1812 – War of 1812: British troops and Mohawk warriors repelled an American invasion from across the Niagara River at the Battle of Queenston Heights near Queenston, Ontario.
• 1908 – British suffragette Margaret Travers Symons became the first woman to speak in the House of Commons when she escaped from her escort into the chamber and shouted at the assembly.
• 1994 – The Troubles: In a meeting at Fernhill House, Belfast, loyalist leader Gusty Spence announced that the Combined Loyalist Military Command would observe a ceasefire.
• 2019 – At the Chicago Marathon, Kenyan runner Brigid Kosgei (pictured) set the current marathon world record for women running in a mixed-sex race.

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October 14: Shemini Atzeret (Judaism, 2025)

• 1066 – Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror's forces defeated the English army at Hastings and killed Harold Godwinson (depicted), the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.
• 1805 – War of the Third Coalition: French forces under Marshal Michel Ney defeated Austrian forces in Elchingen, present-day Germany.
• 1913 – The worst mining accident in the United Kingdom's history took place when an explosion resulted in 440 deaths at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, Wales.
• 1943 – The Second Philippine Republic, a Japanese puppet state, was established with Jose P. Laurel as its first president.
• 1964 – Members of the Politburo voted to remove Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and replace him with Leonid Brezhnev.

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October 15

• 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces captured Glasgow, Missouri, although it had little long-term benefit as Price's Missouri Expedition was defeated a week later.
• 1967 – The Motherland Calls (depicted in coat of arms), a colossal statue in Volgograd, Russia, which commemorates the casualties of the Battle of Stalingrad, was dedicated, becoming the then-tallest statue in the world.
• 1996: The Criminal Assets Bureau was established following the gangland murders of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe and investigative journalist Veronica Guerin.
• 2007 – New Zealand Police conducted several anti-terrorism raids in relation to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp in the Urewera mountain ranges, arresting 17 people and seizing four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition.
• 2011 – Global demonstrations against economic inequality, corporate influence on government, and other issues, were held in more than 950 cities in 82 countries.

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October 16

• 1384 – Jadwiga (pictured) was officially crowned as "King of Poland" instead of "Queen" to reflect the fact that she was a sovereign in her own right.
• 1875 – Brigham Young University, the largest religious university in the United States, was founded in Provo, Utah.
• 1905 – Authorities of the British Raj partitioned the Bengal Presidency, separating the largely Muslim eastern areas from the largely Hindu western areas.
• 1950 – The first novel of the The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was released in the United Kingdom.
• 2017 – The Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb attack in Bidnija.

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October 17

• 1660 – A series of executions of the commissioners who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England concluded; six were hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.
• 1771 – The Ascanio in Alba, an opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (pictured) at age 15, was premiered in Milan.
• 1860 – The Open Championship, the oldest of the four major championships in men's golf, was first played at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, Scotland.
• 1992 – Having gone to the wrong house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a Halloween party, Japanese exchange student Yoshihito Hattori was shot and killed by the homeowner.
• 2001 – Rehavam Ze'evi, the Israeli minister of tourism, was assassinated in revenge for the killing of PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa.

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October 18: Alaska Day (1867)

• 1356 – The most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central Europe in recorded history destroyed Basel, Switzerland.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: In an act of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the war, the Royal Navy destroyed what is now Portland, Maine.
• 1887 – Johannes Brahms (pictured) conducted the premiere of his Double Concerto, composed for violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann.
• 1963 – The first cat in space, later known as Félicette, launched aboard a French Véronique rocket.
• 2019 – Protests in Santiago that started 11 days prior escalated into open battle against the Chilean national police, forcing President Sebastián Piñera to declare a state of emergency.

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October 19

• 1864 – American Civil War: Despite incurring nearly twice as many casualties as the Confederates, the Union army emerged victorious at the Battle of Cedar Creek.
• 1943 – World War II: Allied aircraft sank the German cargo ship Sinfra, killing mostly Italian POWs.
• 1955 – At a meeting of its general assembly, the European Broadcasting Union approved the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: The Siege of Plei Me began with the first major confrontation between soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army and the U.S. Army.
• 2005 – Hurricane Wilma (pictured) became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 882 mbar (26.05 inHg).

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October 20

• 1936 – British woman Mabel Freer was refused entry to Australia after failing a dictation test given in Italian, leading to a debate over Australia's immigration policy.
• 1944 – World War II: Fulfilling a promise he made two years previously, General Douglas MacArthur landed on Leyte to begin the recapture of the Philippines.
• 1973 – Watergate scandal: Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus resigned after refusing to obey President Richard Nixon's order to have Archibald Cox fired.
• 2022 – Protests broke out across Chad after President Mahamat Déby (pictured) declared his intentions to extend his rule by another two years.
• 2024 – Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka were sworn in as president and vice president of Indonesia, becoming the oldest and the youngest person to assume respective offices.

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October 21

• 1345 – Hundred Years' War: The English victory at the Battle of Auberoche marked a change in the military balance of power in Aquitaine, with the subsequent collapse of the French position.
• 1858 – French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring the music most associated with the can-can (audio featured), was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris.
• 1910 – HMS Niobe arrived in Halifax Harbour to become the first large ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.
• 1978 – After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft, Australian pilot Frederick Valentich disappeared while piloting a Cessna 182L across the Bass Strait to King Island.
• 1983 – At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the length of a metre was redefined as the distance that light travels in vacuum in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second.

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October 22

• 1797 – Dropping from a hydrogen balloon at a height of approximately 3,000 feet (1,000 m), André-Jacques Garnerin carried out the first descent using a frameless parachute.
• 1883 – The old Metropolitan Opera House in New York City (pictured) was opened with a performance of Gounod's Faust.
• 1940 – After evading French and Spanish authorities, Belgian prime minister Hubert Pierlot arrived in London, marking the beginning of the Belgian government in exile.
• 1964 – The first volume of Ian Fleming's children's novel Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was published posthumously.
• 2005 – Bellview Airlines Flight 210 crashed in Nigeria, killing all 117 people on board.

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October 23: Mole Day

• 1641 – Irish Catholic gentry in Ulster tried to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, to force concessions to Catholics.
• 1934 – Jeannette Piccard piloted a hot-air balloon flight that reached 57,579 feet (17,550 m), becoming the first woman to fly in the stratosphere.
• 1995 – The runway show for Alexander McQueen's collection The Hunger was staged at London's Natural History Museum.
• 2011 – During the Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix, Marco Simoncelli (pictured) collided with two other riders, resulting in his death due to serious trauma to the head, neck, and chest.
• 2015 – Hurricane Patricia, the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere, peaked with maximum sustained winds of 215 mph (345 km/h) south of Mexico.

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October 24

• 1795 – As a result of the Third Partition of Poland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist as an independent state, with its territory divided between Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
• 1885 – The Russian ship Dmitry ran aground in Whitby, an incident that inspired the arrival of Count Dracula to England in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel (cover pictured).
• 1929 – On "Black Thursday", the New York Stock Exchange lost 11 percent of its value at the opening bell on very heavy trading, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
• 1960 – A prototype of the Soviet R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile exploded on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR.
• 2004 – English football club Manchester United defeated rivals Arsenal 2–0 in the Battle of the Buffet, ending the latter's record-breaking unbeaten run.

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October 25

• 1147 – Reconquista: Forces under Afonso I of Portugal captured Lisbon from the Moors after a four-month siege in one of the few Christian victories during the Second Crusade.
• 1924 – The Daily Mail published the Zinoviev letter, a hoax purported to be a directive from Moscow to increase communist agitation, pushing the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in the UK general election four days later.
• 1932 – George Lansbury (pictured) became the leader of the opposition British Labour Party.
• 1944 – USS Tang, the U.S. Navy submarine credited with sinking more ships than any other American submarine, sank when it was struck by its own torpedo.
• 2010 – Mount Merapi in Central Java, Indonesia, began an increasingly violent series of eruptions that lasted over a month.

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October 26

• 1597 – Japanese invasions of Korea: Thirteen Korean ships commanded by Admiral Yi Sun-sin defeated a far larger Japanese invading fleet at the Battle of Myeongnyang in the Myeongnyang Strait.
• 1813 – War of 1812: British forces and Mohawk allies under Charles de Salaberry repulsed an American attempt to invade Canada.
• 1902 – A group of Russian explorers led by Baron von Toll left their camp on Bennett Island and disappeared without a trace.
• 1905 – The Saint Petersburg Soviet held its first meeting, becoming the first elected body in Russia to represent workers.
• 2000 – Following protests against military leader Robert Guéï, Laurent Gbagbo (pictured) became the president of Ivory Coast.

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October 27

• 1942 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved a pyrrhic victory against the United States at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.
• 1964 – Actor Ronald Reagan delivered a speech on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, launching his own political career which culminated in him serving two full terms as U.S. president.
• 2004 – The Boston Red Sox completed a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series, breaking the so-called "Curse of the Bambino".
• 2018 – Thai businessman and Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was killed in a helicopter crash along with four others at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England.
• 2019 – Christ Mocked (pictured) by Cimabue sold at auction in France for €19.5 million, a record for a pre-1500 artwork.

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October 28

• 1640 – Treaty of Ripon is agreed, ending the Second Bishops' War and forcing Charles I to summon the Long Parliament, ultimately leading to the First English Civil War.
• 1891 – The Mino–Owari earthquake, the strongest known inland earthquake in Japan's history, caused widespread damage and 7,273 deaths.
• 1925 – The funerary mask of Tutankhamun, possibly originally made for Queen Neferneferuaten, was uncovered for the first time in approximately 3,250 years.
• 1965 – In St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., the 630-foot (190 m)-tall steel catenary Gateway Arch was completed.
• 1995 – A fire broke out on a Baku Metro train in Azerbaijan's capital, killing 289 people and injuring 270 others in the world's deadliest subway disaster.

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October 29: Double Ninth Festival in China (2025); Republic Day in Turkey

• 1883 – The San Francisco Mint signed a contract to produce the Kalākaua coinage (one dime coin pictured) for the Kingdom of Hawaii.
• 1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The Israel Defense Forces massacred at least 52 villagers while capturing the Palestinian Arab village of Safsaf.
• 1955 – An explosion, likely caused by a World War II–era naval mine, capsized the Soviet ship Novorossiysk in the harbor of Sevastopol, with the loss of 608 men.
• 1999 – About 10,000 people died when a tropical cyclone made landfall in the Indian state of Odisha near the city of Bhubaneswar.
• 2012 – Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, made landfall in New Jersey and caused nearly $75 billion in damages, becoming the second-most destructive storm in U.S. history.

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October 30

• 1888 – The Rudd Concession (pictured) was granted by Matabeleland to agents of Cecil Rhodes.
• 1965 – English model Jean Shrimpton wore a controversially short minidress to Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia – a pivotal moment of the introduction of the miniskirt to women's fashion.
• 1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off for mission STS-61-A, its final mission before breaking apart months later.
• 1995 – Quebec citizens narrowly voted in favour of remaining a province of Canada in their second referendum on national sovereignty.
• 2020 – A magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, triggering a tsunami.

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October 31: Halloween

• 475 – Romulus Augustulus took the throne as the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
• 1517 – Martin Luther (depicted) posted his Ninety-five Theses onto the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
• 1999 – Australian sailor Jesse Martin arrived in Melbourne, becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo, non-stop, and unassisted.
• 2000 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collided with construction equipment while attempting to take off from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan during heavy rain, killing 83 people aboard.
• 2017 – An Uzbek immigrant drove a rented truck into cyclists and runners in Lower Manhattan, New York City, killing eight people.

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