History by month
October
31 days of history. Every date is an entry point to the events, births, and moments that shaped our world.
October 1
October 2
1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court, sh
October 3
1990 East Germans flooded through Hungary's newly opened border fence, toppling the G
October 4
1957 The Soviet Union hurled a polished metal sphere into orbit, and its steady radio
October 5
1905 The Wrights grounded their aircraft after a crash bruised Wilbur and wrecked the
October 6
1981 Islamic extremists assassinate Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat during a milita
October 7
1998 Two men beat Matthew Shepard and left him tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming, s
October 8
1871 A mistaken alarm sent firefighters to the wrong location while exhausted crews b
October 9
1936 Generators at Boulder Dam began pumping electricity from the Colorado River, bea
October 10
732 Charles Martel's Frankish forces crushed Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi's army nea
October 11
1975 NBC launches Saturday Night Live with George Carlin hosting and Andy Kaufman, Ja
October 12
1492 Rodrigo de Triana's shout on the Pinta triggered a chain of events that launched
October 13
1903 The Boston Americans crushed the Pittsburgh Pirates in a seven-game sweep to cla
October 14
1066 William the Conqueror's Norman forces crush the English army at Senlac Hill, kil
October 15
1990 Mikhail Gorbachev accepted the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, confirming international
October 16
1793 The execution of Marie Antoinette by guillotine on October 16, 1793, extinguishe
October 17
1973 OPEC slapped an oil embargo on nations that supported Israel during the Yom Kipp
October 18
1867 Russia sold Alaska to the United States to prevent British seizure during potent
October 19
1781 British General Charles Cornwallis surrenders his army at Yorktown to a combined
October 20
1973 President Richard Nixon orders the firing of Attorney General Elliot Richardson
October 21
1805 Vice Admiral Lord Nelson leads a British fleet to crush a combined French and Sp
October 22
1962 President Kennedy activated a naval quarantine and placed global forces on DEFCO
October 23
1983 A truck bomb detonates against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, slaughtering
October 24
1929 Panic selling on the New York Stock Exchange erased billions in wealth as invest
October 25
1917 Bolshevik Red Guards stormed the Winter Palace on November 7 to topple the provi
October 26
1977 The World Health Organization confirmed the final natural case of smallpox in So
October 27
1787 Alexander Hamilton published the first Federalist Paper under the pseudonym Publ
October 28
1962 Nikita Khrushchev announced the withdrawal of Soviet missile bases from Cuba, in
October 29
1929 Speculative mania fueled by massive margin loans drove stock prices to unsustain
October 30
1938 Orson Welles transformed H.G. Wells's novel into a simulated news broadcast that
October 31
1517 Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenb