On This Day In History
October 5th
1274 Around 1,000 soldiers of the Mongol army land on the Japanese island of Tsushima, the first attack of Kublai Khan‘s Mongol invasion of Japan
1789 French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles in the March on Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court moved to Paris
1813 Battle of the Thames; American forces under General William Henry Harrison defeat Tecumseh‘s Confederacy and their British allies led by Henry Procter near Chatham, Upper Canada
1864 Most of Calcutta destroyed by cyclone, approx 60,000 die
1978 Over 30 major nations ratify the Environmental Modification Convention which prohibits weather warfare that has widespread, long-lasting or severe effects
1988 Chile votes in a referendum 56-44 against extending Augusto Pinochet‘s regime by 8 years thus ending the dictator’s 16½ years in power
2000 Mass demonstrations in Belgrade culminate in the resignation of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milošević, often called the Bulldozer Revolution
2020 US President Donald Trump leaves Walter Reed National Military Medical Center while still infectious with COVID-19 and returns to the White House
Did You Know?
Monty Python‘s Flying Circus begins airing on BBC TV
Today in History in 1969
Would You Believe?
A strong hurricane known as the Saxby Gale devastates the Bay of Fundy region in Maritime Canada. Incredibly British naval officer Stephen Martin Saxby predicted the storm 10 months earlier in December 1868 via astronomy.
Today in History in 1869
October 6th
1917 Battle of Passchendaele: Canadian troops capture the village of Passchendaele in the Third Battle of Ypres, after 250,000 casualties on both sides
1939 Adolf Hitler announces plans to regulate Jewish problem
1948 Earthquake in Ashgabat kills 100,000 in the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
1948 Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey finds the first partial fossil skull of Proconsul africanus, an ancestor of apes and humans on Rusinga Island, Kenya
1949 US President Harry Truman signs Mutual Defense Assistance Act (for NATO)
1951 Joseph Stalin proclaims the Soviet Union has the atomic bomb
1956 Scientist Albert Sabin announces that his oral Polio vaccine is ready for testing; it would soon supplant Jonas Salk’s vaccine in many parts of the world
2021 WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recommends world’s first Malaria vaccine (Mosquirix) for children after a pilot program was effective in Africa [1]
Did You Know?
51 Pegasi discovered as the first major star, apart from the Sun, to have a planet orbiting around it
Today in History in 1995
Would You Believe?
Tavern owner “Billy Goat” Sianis buys seat for his goat for Game 4 of Baseball World Series, is escorted out and casts goat curse on Chicago Cubs
Today in History in 1945
October 7th
1571 Battle of Lepanto: Holy League of southern European nations destroy Ottoman fleet in significant loss off Western Greece
1737 A cyclone causes 40 foot waves that are believed to have killed 300,000 in Calcutta, India
1763 George III of Great Britain issues Proclamation of 1763, closing lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlement
1919 KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, established (oldest existing airline)
2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan starts with an air assault and covert operations on the ground
Did You Know?
Far side of Moon seen for the 1st time, courtesy of USSR’s Luna 3 space probe
Today in History in 1959
Would You Believe?
Georgia Tech, coached by John Heisman, defeats Cumberland, 222-0; most lopsided score in the history of US college football
Today in History in 1916
October 8th
1480 Great Stand on the Ugra river: Standoff between forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde and Ivan III, Grand Prince of all Rus. Ends with a Tatar-Mongol retreat, leading to the disintegration of the Horde.
1769 Captain James Cook lands in New Zealand at Poverty Bay on the East Coast of the North Island
1856 The Second Opium War or second Anglo-Chinese War: begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River
1915 Battle of Loos on WWI Western Front ends, German forces contain British attack (85,000 casualties)
1917 Leon Trotsky named chairman of the Petrograd Soviet as Bolsheviks gain control
1945 Microwave oven patented by US inventor Percy Spencer
2001 US President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security
Did You Know?
Kenyan Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”
Today in History in 2004
Would You Believe?
Forest fire destroys Peshtigo, Wisconsin, killing between 1,200 and 2,500 people, making it then the deadliest wildfire in recorded history
Today in History in 1871
October 9th
768 Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I are crowned Kings of The Franks
1000 Leif Ericson discovers “Vinland” (possibly L’Anse aux Meadows, Canada) reputedly becoming first European to reach North America
1446 The Hangul (Korean) alphabet is first published in Korea by King Sejong the Great
1831 Ioannis Kapodistrias, first Head of State of modern Greece, assassinated in Nafplion
1941 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program that would become the Manhattan Project
2006 North Korea conducts its first nuclear test, with an estimated yield of between 0.4-2 kilotons
Did You Know?
American inventor Isaac Singer patents sewing machine motor
Today in History in 1855
Would You Believe?
Vajont Dam disaster, landslide creates 50 million cubic metre wave killing around 2,000 in the Piave Valley in Northern Italy
Today in History in 1963
October 10th
680 Al-Hussein (Al-Ḥusayn ibn) and his followers killed at Karbala by army of Yazid, the Umayyad caliph, on the way to Kufa
1780 Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in the Caribbean, hitting Barbados first. Atlantic’s deadliest recorded hurricane.
1954 Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after withdrawal of French troops
1957 A fire at the Windscale nuclear plant in Cumbria, England becomes the world’s first major nuclear accident
Did You Know?
“Vinland Map” is introduced by Yale University as being the first known map of America, drawn about 1440
Today in History in 1965
Would You Believe?
1st dinner jacket (tuxedo) worn to autumn ball at Tuxedo Park, NY
Today in History in 1886
October 11th
1138 Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000
1634 Burchardi flood – “the second Grote Mandrenke” kills about 15,000 in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany
1737 Earthquake reported to have killed 300,000 and destroyed half of Calcutta in India. Now thought to have been an exaggerated account of a hurricane which claimed 3,000 of the city’s estimated 20,000 residents. [1]
1797 Battle of Camperdown (Kamperduin): British navy defeats Dutch fleet
1945 Chinese civil war begins between Kuomintang government led by Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong‘s Communist Party
1962 Second Vatican Council (21st ecumenical) convened by Pope John XXIII
1986 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland