Events Pre-1600 690 – Empress Wu Zetian establishes the Zhou Dynasty of China. 1091 – London tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London. 1346 – The English capture King David II of Scotland at Neville's Cross and imprison him for eleven years. 1448 – An Ottoman army defeats a Hungarian army at the Second Battle of Kosovo. 1456 – The University of Greifswald is established as the second oldest university in northern Europe. 1534 – Anti-Catholic posters appear in Paris and other cities supporting Huldrych Zwingli's position on the Mass. 1558 – Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded.
1601–1900 1604 – Kepler's Supernova is observed in the constellation of Ophiuchus. 1610 – French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims Cathedral. 1660 – The nine regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England are hanged, drawn and quartered. 1662 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to Louis XIV of France for 40,000 pounds. 1713 – Great Northern War: Russia defeats Sweden in the Battle of Kostianvirta in Pälkäne. 1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Mozart at age 15. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army at Saratoga, New York. 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown. 1797 – Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria, ending the War of the First Coalition. 1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao. 1806 – Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I, is assassinated after an oppressive rule. 1811 – The silver deposits of Agua Amarga are discovered in Chile becoming in the following years instrumental for the Patriots to finance the Chilean War of Independence. 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood. 1850 – Riots start, which lead to a massacre in Aleppo. 1860 – First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open). 1861 – Aboriginal Australians kill nineteen Europeans in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre.
1901–present 1907 – Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service. 1912 – Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War. 1919 – Leeds United F.C. founded at Salem Chapel, Holbeck after the winding up of Leeds City F.C. for making illegal payments to players during World War I 1931 – Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion. 1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States. 1940 – The body of Communist propagandist Willi Münzenberg is found in South France, starting a never-resolved mystery. 1941 – World War II: The USS Kearny becomes the first U.S. Navy vessel to be torpedoed by a U-boat. 1943 – The Burma Railway (Burma–Thailand Railway) is completed. 1943 – Nazi Holocaust in Poland: Sobibór extermination camp is closed. 1945 – A large demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, demands Juan Perón's release. 1952 – Indonesian Army elements surrounded the Merdeka Palace demanding President Sukarno disband the Provisional People's Representative Council. 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield, England. 1961 – Directed by their chief Maurice Papon, Paris police massacre scores of Algerian protesters. 1961 – The first attempt of the apartheid analogy by Ahmad Shukeiri. 1965 – The 1964–65 New York World's Fair closes after two years and more than 51 million attendees. 1966 – The 23rd Street Fire in New York City kills 12 firefighters. 1969 – The Caravaggio painting Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence is stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo. 1970 – FLQ terrorists murder Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte. 1973 – OPEC imposes an oil embargo against countries they deem to have helped Israel in the Yom Kippur War. 1975 – 'Salem's Lot, an American vampire novel by Stephen King, is published. 1977 – The hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu. The remaining hostages are later rescued. 1979 – Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 1979 – The Department of Education Organization Act creates the U.S. Department of Education. 1980 – As part of the Holy See–United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican. 1988 – Uganda Airlines Flight 775 crashes at Rome–Fiumicino International Airport, in Rome, Italy, killing 33 people. 1989 – The 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast, killing 63. 1989 – The East German Politburo votes to remove Erich Honecker from his role as General Secretary. 1991 – Rudrapur bombings by Sikh separatists, who explode two bombs, during a Ramlila Hindu celebration in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, killing 41 people. 1992 – Having gone to the wrong house, Japanese student Yoshihiro Hattori is killed by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1994 – Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces. 2000 – The Hatfield rail crash leads to the collapse of Railtrack. 2001 – Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi is assassinated by Hamdi Quran, a member of the PFLP, thus becoming the highest-ranking Israeli to be killed by a Palestinian. 2004 – A fire that lasted over 15 hours destroyed almost one third of the East Tower of the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas, Venezuela. 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the last foothold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Raqqa, marking the end of the Battle of Raqqa. 2018 – The recreational use of cannabis is legalized in Canada. 2018 – A mass shooting and bombing at Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea kills 21 people including the attacker and injures 70 others. 2019 – Drug dealers in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico force the government to back down on an arrest. 2019 – The 17 October Revolution starts in Lebanon. 2023 – An explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza kills hundreds of Palestinians during the Gaza war.Taylor, Adam (18 October 2023). "Everything we know about the Gaza hospital strike". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
Births
Pre-1600 503 – Lý Nam Đế, first emperor of Vietnam (died 548) 1253 – Ivo of Kermartin, French priest and saint (died 1303) 1493 – Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor (died 1560) 1500 – Alonso de Orozco Mena, Spanish Roman Catholic priest (died 1591) 1538 – Irene di Spilimbergo, Italian Renaissance poet and painter (died 1559)Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Biographical Dictionary of Italians), Edited by Treccani, Vol. 93, 2018. 1577 – Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (died 1621) 1577 – Dmitry Pozharsky, Russian prince (died 1642) 1582 – Johann Gerhard, German theologian and academic (died 1637) 1587 – Nathan Field, English dramatist and actor (died 1620)
1601–1900 1623 – Francis Turretin, Swiss-Italian minister, theologian, and academic (died 1687) 1629 – Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias (died 1646) 1688 – Domenico Zipoli, Italian missionary and composer (died 1726) 1711 – Jupiter Hammon, American poet (died 1806) 1719 – Jacques Cazotte, French author and academic (died 1792) 1720 – Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, Italian harpsichord player and composer (died 1795) 1725 – John Wilkes, English journalist and politician (died 1797) 1729 – Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, French composer and academic (died 1817) 1735 – Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer the Younger, German Baroque artist (died 1803) 1759 – Andrey Voronikhin, Russian architect and painter (died 1814) 1760 – Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, French economist and philosopher (died 1825) 1768 – Sophie von Dönhoff, morganatic spouse by bigamy to King Frederick William II of Prussia (died 1838) 1779 – Louis Charles, French prince of the blood (died 1808) 1779 – José Andrés Pacheco de Melo, Argentine statesman and priest (died approx. 1820) 1780 – Richard Mentor Johnson, American politician, ninth Vice President of the United States (died 1850) 1781 – Johann Friedrich Meckel, German anatomist (died 1833) 1784 – Fructuoso Rivera, first president of Uruguay (died 1854) 1785 – Christen Smith, Norwegian scientist (died 1816) 1792 – John Bowring, English polyglot and governor of Hong Kong (died 1826) 1797 – Juan Lavalle, Argentine politician (died 1841) 1803 – Ferenc Deák, Hungarian politician (died 1876) 1810 – Adolphe-Félix Cals, French painter (died 1880) 1811 – Albertus van Raalte, Dutch-American pastor and educator (died 1876) 1813 – Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright (died 1837) 1814 – Yakiv Holovatsky, Ukrainian historian, scholar, and poet (died 1888) 1817 – Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian philosopher and scholar (died 1898) 1821 – Alexander Gardner, Scottish photographer (died 1882) 1828 – Aureliano Maestre de San Juan, Spanish scientist (died 1890) 1833 – José E. Días, Paraguayan general (died 1867) 1835 – Louis-Léon Cugnot, French sculptor (died 1894) 1835 – Paul Haenlein, German mechanical engineer (died 1905) 1840 – André Gill, French caricaturist (died 1885) 1844 – Gustave Schlumberger, French historian (died 1929) 1845 – John J. Gardner, American politician (died 1921) 1853 – Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (died 1920) 1859 – Childe Hassam, American painter and illustrator (died 1935) 1860 – Henry Campbell Black, founder of Black's Law Dictionary (died 1927) 1864 – Elinor Glyn, English author, screenwriter, and producer (died 1943) 1865 – James Rudolph Garfield, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1950) 1867 – Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Catalan architect who designed the Casa Martí (died 1956) 1869 – Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale, Hindustani classical vocalist V.H. Deshpande. Between Two Tanpuras. Popular Publication, 1989. B.R. Deodhar. Pillars of Hindustani Music. Popular Publication, 1995. 1871 – Segundo de Chomón, Spanish cinematographer, director, and screenwriter (died 1929) 1876 – Hippolyte Aucouturier, French road cyclist (died 1944) 1878 – Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, Spanish politician and 17th Duke of Alba (died 1953) 1880 – Jesús Reyes Ferreira, Mexican artist and art collector (died 1977) 1881 – Maria Dulęba, Polish actress (died 1959) 1882 – Haritina Korotkevich, Russian war heroine (died 1904) 1883 – Alexander Neill, Scottish educator (died 1973) 1883 – Thaddeus Shideler, American hurdler (died 1966) 1886 – Spring Byington, American actress (died 1971) 1889 – Mikha'il Na'ima, Lebanese author (died 1988) 1890 – Roy Kilner, English cricketer (died 1928) 1892 – Theodor Eicke, German SS general (died 1943) 1892 – Herbert Howells, English organist, composer, and educator (died 1983) 1893 – Raffaele Bendandi, Italian clockmaker and seismologist (died 1979) 1894 – Prince René, Italian Prince of Denmark (died 1962) 1894 – Pablo de Rokha, Chilean poet (died 1968) 1895 – Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, President of Guatemala (1958–1963) (died 1982) 1895 – Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer (died 1958) 1896 – Roman Petrovich, Russian prince (died 1978) 1898 – Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese violinist and educator (died 1998) 1898 – Eileen Sedgwick, American actress (died 1991) 1898 – Simon Vestdijk, Dutch author and poet (died 1971) 1900 – C. C. van Asch van Wijck, Dutch artist and sculptor (died 1932) 1900 – Jean Arthur, American actress (died 1991) 1900 – Yvor Winters, American critic and poet (died 1968)
1901–present 1901 – Emma Gamboa Alvarado, Costa Rican educator (died 1973) 1902 – Irene Ryan, American actress (died 1973) 1903 – Andrei Grechko, Soviet general (died 1976) 1903 – Nathanael West, American author and screenwriter (died 1940) 1905 – Leopoldo Benites, Ecuadorian diplomat 28th president of the United Nations General Assembly (died 1996)