UN
Day
International
Day of Rural Women
Events
of the day
Global
Handwash Day
Global
Handwashing Day will be the centerpiece
of a week of activities that will mobilize
millions of people in more than 80 countries
across all five continents to wash their
hands with soap. Research shows that children
– the segment of society so often the
most energetic, enthusiastic, and open
to new ideas – can also be powerful agents
of behavioral change.
Why
a Global Day for Handwashing with Soap?
Handwashing with soap
is the most effective and inexpensive
way to prevent diarrheal and acute respiratory
infections, which take the lives of millions
of children in developing countries every
year. Together, they are responsible for
the majority of all child deaths. Yet,
despite its lifesaving potential, handwashing
with soap is seldom practiced and difficult
to promote.
1211
– Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor
Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean
emperor Theodore I Lascaris.
1529 – The Siege of Vienna ends as the
Austrians rout the invading Turks, turning
the tide against almost a century of unchecked
conquest throughout eastern and central
Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
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 convicted 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
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.
1910 – Airship America launched from New
Jersey in the first attempt to cross the
Atlantic by a powered aircraft.
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, 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 encircles Ruijin, forcing
the fleeing Communists to begin the Long
March.
1939 – The New York Municipal Airport
(later renamed La Guardia Airport) is
dedicated.
1940 – The President of Catalonia, Lluís
Companys, is executed by the Spanish dictatorship
of Francisco Franco, making him the only
European president to have been executed.
1944 – The Arrow Cross Party (very similar
to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes
power in Hungary.
1945 – World War II: The former premier
of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by
a firing squad for treason.
1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes
conducts 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.
1951 – The first episode of I Love Lucy,
an American television sitcom starring
Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance,
and William Frawley, airs on the Columbia
Broadcasting System (CBS).
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 Catholic Worker
Movement stages an anti-war rally in Manhattan
including a public burning of a draft
card; the first such act to result in
arrest under a new amendment to the Selective
Service Act.
1966 – Black Panther Party is created
by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
1969 – Vietnam War; The Moratorium to
End the War in Vietnam is held in Washington
DC and across the US. Over 2 million demonstrate
nationally; about 250,000 in the nation's
capitol.
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.
1979 – Black Monday in Malta. The Building
of the Times of Malta, the residence of
the opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami
and several Nationalist Party clubs are
ransacked and destroyed by supporters
of the Malta Labour Party.
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.
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 – 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.
2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average
closed down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the
second worst day in the Dow's history
based on a percentage drop.
2011 – Global protests break out in 951
cities in 82 countries.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Saint Teresa of Ávila (Doctor of Church)
Saint Hedwig of Silesia
Saint Thecla of Kitzingen
October 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Sweetest Day can
fall, while October 21 is the latest;
celebrated on the third Saturday in October.
(Great Lakes Region)
Global Handwashing Day (International)
National Tree Planting Day (Sri Lanka)
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance
Day (Canada and the United States)
Teachers' Day (Brazil)
The Equirria or October equus, sacrifice
of a horse to Mars. (Roman Empire)
White Cane Safety Day (United States)
For details, contact Datacentre
