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
1908 For $850 — roughly $28,000 today — a schoolteacher, a farmer, or a factory worke
October 2
1967 Twenty-nine victories in thirty-two Supreme Court arguments — including the case
October 3
1990 At midnight on October 3, 1990, a liberty bell replica rang outside the Reichsta
October 4
1957 A polished aluminum sphere the size of a beach ball began transmitting a steady
October 5
1905 Wilbur Wright circled a pasture outside Dayton, Ohio, for thirty-nine minutes an
October 6
1981 Soldiers jumped from a military truck during the annual October War parade, spri
October 7
1913 A rope, a winch, and 140 workers standing along a 150-foot line at Highland Park
October 8
1871 Flames leaped from a barn on DeKoven Street at roughly 9:00 p.m. on October 8, 1
October 9
1936 Turbines buried 600 feet inside the Black Canyon of the Colorado River began spi
October 10
680 Seventy-two men faced an army of thousands on the plains of Karbala, and their d
October 11
1975 Live from New York, a revolution in American comedy arrived with almost no fanfa
October 12
1492 After five weeks of open-ocean sailing with a crew on the edge of mutiny, a look
October 13
1307 At dawn on Friday, October 13, 1307, royal agents throughout France simultaneous
October 14
1066 An arrow struck King Harold II in the eye — or so the Bayeux Tapestry appears to
October 15
1917 Margaretha Zelle — the Dutch exotic dancer who performed under the stage name Ma
October 16
1793 Marie Antoinette rode to the guillotine in an open cart on October 16, 1793, her
October 17
1931 Al Capone controlled a criminal empire that generated an estimated $100 million
October 18
1867 The United States formally took possession of Alaska from Russia on October 18,
October 19
1781 General Charles Cornwallis did not attend his own surrender. On October 19, 1781
October 20
1973 President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archi
October 21
1805 Twenty-seven British ships of the line sailed into a combined Franco-Spanish fle
October 22
1962 President John F. Kennedy stared into television cameras at 7:00 p.m. on October
October 23
1983 A yellow Mercedes truck packed with the equivalent of 12,000 pounds of TNT drove
October 24
1929 Panic hit the New York Stock Exchange trading floor on the morning of October 24
October 25
1917 Armed workers and soldiers loyal to the Bolshevik Party seized government buildi
October 26
1977 Ali Maow Maalin, a 23-year-old hospital cook in Merca, Somalia, developed the te
October 27
1904 More than 150,000 New Yorkers packed into the stations and cars of the city's fi
October 28
1636 The Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted on October 28,
October 29
1929 Sixteen million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange on October 2
October 30
1938 Orson Welles, a 23-year-old theater director with a gift for provocation, sat be
October 31
1517 Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and theology professor at the University of W