Events

• 533 – Byzantine general Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals.

• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.

• 1764 – Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

• 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon marks the first human ascent, by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, (tethered balloon).

• 1793 - Queen Marie-Antoinette of France is tried and condemned in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.

• 1815 – Napoleon I of France begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

• 1863 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks during a test, killing its inventor, Horace L. Hunley.

• 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri, and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.

• 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.

• 1880 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.

• 1888 – The "From Hell" letter sent by Jack the Ripper is received by the investigators.

• 1894 – The Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.

• 1904 – The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.

• 1917 – World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.

• 1928 – The airship, the Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.

• 1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.

• 1934 – The Soviet Republic of China collapses when Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army successfully encircle Ruijin, forcing the fleeing Communists to begin the Long March.

• 1938 – The District of Columbia formally adopts a design for its flag.

• 1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.

• 1944 – The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes over the power in Hungary.

• 1945 – World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.

• 1946 – Nuremberg Trials: Hermann Göring poisons himself the night before his execution.

• 1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducted the very last step of the first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.

• 1953 – British nuclear test Totem 1 detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.

• 1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.

• 1965 – Vietnam War: The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States to result in arrest under a new law.

• 1966 – Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.

• 1970 – Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

• 1970 – The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.

• 1971 – The start of the 2500-year celebration of Iran, celebrating the birth of Persia.

• 1973 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Gabon are established.

• 1979 – Black Monday in Malta. The Building of the Times of Malta, the residence of the opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami and several PN clubs are ransacked and destroyed by the PL(Labour) supporters.

• 1981 – Professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson leads what is thought to be the first audience wave in Oakland, California.

• 1987 – The Great Storm of 1987 hits France and England.

• 1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.

• 1990 – Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.

• 1996 – Phish's eighth studio album Billy Breathes is released.

• 1997 – The first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (United Kingdom), exactly 50 years and 1 day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth's atmosphere.

• 1997 – The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.

• 2001 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.

• 2003 – China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.

• 2003 – The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi runs into a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.

• 2005 – Iraqi constitution ratification vote.

• 2005 – A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.

• 2007 – Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post 9/11 anti-terrorism raids.

Births

• 70 BC – Virgil, Roman poet (d. 19 BC)

• 1471 – Konrad Mutian, German humanist (d. 1526)

• 1542 – Akbar, Jellaladin Mahommed, Mughal Emperor (d. 1605)

• 1608 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist (d. 1647)

• 1686 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet (d. 1758)

• 1701 – Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, first native Canadian canonized (d. 1771)

• 1711 – Elisabeth Teresa of Lorraine, queen of Sardinia (d. 1741)

• 1784 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and duke of Isly (d. 1849)

• 1785 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean general and founding father (d. 1821)

• 1814 – Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author (d. 1841)

• 1825 – Queen Marie of Prussia, (d. 1889)

• 1829 – Asaph Hall, American astronomer (d. 1907)

• 1836 – James Tissot, French artist (d. 1902)

• 1840 – Honoré Mercier, politician and premier of Quebec (d. 1894)

• 1844 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (d. 1900)

• 1858 – John L. Sullivan, American boxer (d. 1918)

• 1872 – Wilhelm Miklas, Austrian president (d. 1956)

• 1874 – Prince Alfred of Edinburgh, (d. 1899)

• 1878 – Paul Reynaud, French politician (d. 1966)

• 1879 – Jane Darwell, Academy Award-winning American actress (d. 1967)

• 1881 – P. G. Wodehouse, British novelist (d. 1975)

• 1882 – Charley O'Leary, American baseball player (d. 1941)

• 1884 – Arch Hoxsey, pioneer aviator (d. 1910)

• 1893 – King Carol II of Romania, (d. 1953)

• 1894 – Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1965)

• 1898 – Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete (d. 1951)

• 1900 – Mervyn LeRoy, American film director (d. 1987)

• 1905 – C. P. Snow, British writer (d. 1980)

• 1906 – Hiram Leong Fong, American politician (d. 2004)

• 1907 – Varian Fry, American journalist (d. 1967)

• 1908 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-born US economist (d. 2006)

• 1909 – Robert Trout, American reporter (d. 2000)

• 1909 – Jesse Leonard Greenstein, American astronomer (d. 2002)

• 1915 – Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli politician

• 1917 – Jan Miner, American actress (d. 2004)

• 1917 – Arthur Schlesinger Jr., American historian and political commentator (d. 2007)

• 1919 – Malcolm Ross, American balloonist and atmospheric physicist (d. 1985)

• 1920 – Mario Puzo, American novelist (d. 1999)

• 1920 – Henri Verneuil, French film director (d. 2002)

• 1922 – Agustina Bessa-Luís, Portuguese writer

• 1923 – Italo Calvino. Italian writer (d. 1985)

• 1924 – Lee Iacocca, American industrialist

• 1924 – Mark Lenard, American actor (d. 1996)

• 1924 – Marguerite Andersen, German writer

• 1924 – Warren Miller, American director

• 1925 – Mickey Baker, American guitarist (Mickey & Sylvia)

• 1926 – Michel Foucault, French philosopher (d. 1984)

• 1926 – Evan Hunter, American author (d. 2005)

• 1926 – Jean Peters, American actress (d. 2000)

• 1926 – Karl Richter, German conductor (d. 1981)

• 1930 – Fereydun M. Esfandiary, Iranian philosopher (d. 2000)

• 1931 – Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Eleventh President of India

• 1934 – N. Ramani, Indian flutist

• 1935 – Bobby Joe Morrow, American sprinter

• 1935 – Barry McGuire, American singer

• 1935 – Willie O'Ree, Canadian Hockey Player

• 1937 – Linda Lavin, American actress

• 1938 – Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician (d. 1997)

• 1938 – Marv Johnson, American singer (d. 1993)

• 1940 – Tommy Bishop, English rugby league player

• 1940 – Peter Doherty, Australian immunologist, Nobel laureate

• 1942 – Penny Marshall, American actress and movie director

• 1944 – Sali Berisha, President of Albania

• 1944 – David Trimble, Irish politician, Nobel laureate

• 1944 – Haim Saban, Egyptian-born American media proprietor

• 1945 – Jere Burns, American actor

• 1945 – Jim Palmer, American baseball player

• 1946 – Richard Carpenter, American musician (The Carpenters)

• 1946 – Stewart Stevenson, Scottish politician

• 1948 – Chris de Burgh, Irish singer and songwriter

• 1949 – Laurie McBain, U.S.American novelist.

• 1949 – Prannoy Roy, Journalist, Psephologist, CEO – NDTV

• 1953 – Tito Jackson, American musician

• 1953 – Larry Miller, American actor and comedian

• 1953 – Betsy Clifford, Canadian alpine skier

• 1954 – Peter Bakowski, Australian poet

• 1954 – Princess Friederike of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

• 1955 – Kulbir Bhaura, British field hockey player

• 1955 – Tanya Roberts, American actress

• 1957 – Mira Nair, Indian director

• 1957 – Stacy Peralta, American director

• 1958 – Stephen Clarke, British author of A Year in the Merde

• 1959 – Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

• 1959 – Emeril Lagasse, American chef

• 1959 – Todd Solondz, American film director

• 1960 – Daniel Mazur, American mountaineer

• 1964 – Roberto Vittori, Italian astronaut

• 1966 – Jorge Campos, Mexican footballer

• 1968 – Jyrki 69, Finnish musician The 69 Eyes

• 1968 – Didier Deschamps, French footballer

• 1969 – Paige Davis, American television personality and Broadway actress

• 1969 – Vanessa Marcil, American actress

• 1969 – Dominic West, British actor

• 1969 – Vítor Baía, Portuguese footballer

• 1970 – Eric Benét, American singer

• 1971 – Andy Cole, British footballer

• 1971 – Jason Arhndt, American wrestler

• 1972 – Matt Keeslar, American actor

• 1972 – Sandra Kim, Belgian singer

• 1973 – Dax Riggs, American musician

• 1975 – Ginuwine, American singer

• 1975 – Glen Little, English footballer

• 1976 – Yoon Son-ha, South Korean actress and singer

• 1977 – Masato Kawabata, Japanese racing driver

• 1977 – Erin McKeown, American musician

• 1977 – David Trezeguet, French football player

• 1977 – Patricio Urrutia, Ecuadorian footballer

• 1978 – Devon Gummersall, American actor

• 1978 – Takeshi Morishima, Japanese professional wrestler

• 1979 – Paul Robinson, English footballer

• 1979 – Māris Verpakovskis, Latvian footballer

• 1979 – Blue Adams, American Football Player

• 1979 – Tomas Kalnoky, American Singer

• 1980 – Tom Boonen, Belgian cyclist

• 1980 – Siiri Nordin, Finnish singer (Killer)

• 1981 – Keyshia Cole, American R&B singer

• 1981 – Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player

• 1981 – Guo Jingjing, Chinese diver

• 1981 – Radoslav Židek, Slovak snowboarder

• 1982 – Paulini Curuenavuli, Fijian/Australian singer

• 1982 – Charline Labonté, Canadian ice hockey player

• 1983 – Stephy Tang, Hong Kong singer and actress

• 1985 – Walter López, Uruguayan footballer

• 1985 – Marcos Martínez, Spanish racing driver

• 1986 – Donghae, South Korean singer (Super Junior)

• 1987 – Jesse Levine, Canadian/American tennis player

• 2005 – Prince Christian of Denmark

Deaths

• 412 – Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria

• 898 – Lambert, Holy Roman Emperor

• 912 – Abdullah ibn Muhammad, Emir of Córdoba (b. 844)

• 1002 – Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (b. 946)

• 1080 – Rudolf of Rheinfeld, Duke of Swabia

• 1326 – Walter de Stapledon, English bishop (b. 1261)

• 1389 – Pope Urban VI

• 1564 – Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (b. 1514)

• 1715 – Humphry Ditton, English mathematician (b. 1675)

• 1730 – Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, French explorer (b. 1658)

• 1788 – Samuel Greig, Scottish-Russian admiral (b. 1735)

• 1810 – Alfred Moore, American judge (b. 1755)

• 1811 – Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter (b. 1735)

• 1817 – Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish and Lithuanian national hero (b. 1746)

• 1819 – Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (b. 1744)

• 1820 – Karl Philipp Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (b. 1771)

• 1837 – Ivan Dmitriev, Russian statesman and poet (b. 1760)

• 1880 – Victorio, Apache leader

• 1891 – Gilbert Arthur a Beckett, English writer (b. 1837)

• 1900 – Zdeněk Fibich, Czech composer (b. 1850)

• 1910 – Stanley Ketchel, boxer (murdered) (b. 1886)

• 1917 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (b. 1876)

• 1918 – Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian saint (b. c. 1838)

• 1930 – Herbert Henry Dow, American chemical industrialist (b. 1866)

• 1934 – Raymond Poincaré, French statesman (b. 1860)

• 1945 – Pierre Laval, Prime Minister of Vichy France (executed) (b. 1883)

• 1946 – Hermann Göring, German air force commander (suicide) (b. 1893)

• 1948 – Edythe Chapman, American actress (b. 1863)

• 1959 – Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1880)

• 1960 – Clara Kimball Young, American actress (b. 1890)

• 1963 – Horton Smith. American golfer (b. 1908)

• 1964 – Cole Porter, American composer (b. 1891)

• 1976 – Carlo Gambino, American gangster (b. 1902)

• 1980 – Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian physicist and mathematician (b. 1900)

• 1980 – Apostolos Nikolaidis, Greek footballer and volleyball player (b. 1896)

• 1981 – Philip Fotheringham-Parker, British racing driver (b. 1907)

• 1987 – Thomas Sankara, African revolutionary and leader of Burkina Faso (assassinated) (b. 1949)

• 1988 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English composer and pianist (b. 1892)

• 1994 – Sarah Kofman, French philosopher (b. 1934)

• 1995 – Marco Campos, Brazilian racing driver (b. 1976)

• 2000 – Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)

• 2001 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese ruler of Manchuria (b. 1901)

• 2003 – Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

• 2003 – Ben Metcalfe, Canadian environmental activist (b. 1919)

• 2005 – Jason Collier, American basketball player (b. 1977)

• 2005 – Matti Wuori, Finnish politician (b. 1945)

• 2008 – Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish poet (b. 1914)

• 2008 – Edie Adams, American singer and Broadway actress (b. 1927)

• 2008 – Jack Narz, American game show host (b. 1922)

Holidays and observances

• October 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Roman festivals – the Equirria or October equus: sacrifice of a horse to Mars

• R.C. Saints – Saint Teresa of Avila

• United States – White Cane Safety Day

• French Republican Calendar – Amaryllis (Amaryllis) Day, twenty-fourth day in the Month of Vendémiaire

• Teachers' Day in Brazil

• Global Handwashing Day for first time in 2008

• Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in Canada and the United States of America