Events
1548
– The city of Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Our
Lady of Peace) is founded by Alonso de Mendoza
by appointment of the king of Spain and
Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
1720 – Caribbean pirate Calico Jack is captured
by the Royal Navy.
1740 – Maria Theresa takes the throne of
Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony
refuse to honour the Pragmatic Sanction
and the War of the Austrian Succession begins.
1781 – Patent of Toleration, providing limited
freedom of worship, is approved in Habsburg
Monarchy.
1803 – The United States Senate ratifies
the Louisiana Purchase.
1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between
the United States and the United Kingdom
which, among other things, settled the Canada
– United States border on the 49th parallel
for most of its length.
1827 – Battle of Navarino – a combined Turkish
and Egyptian armada is defeated by British,
French, and Russian naval force in the port
of Navarino in Pylos, Greece.
1873 – Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Rutgers
universities draft the first code of American
football rules.
1883 – Peru and Chile sign the Treaty of
Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is
ceded to the latter, bringing an end to
Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
1904 – Chile and Bolivia sign the Treaty
of Peace and Friendship, delimiting the
border between the two countries.
1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship
to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched
from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast,
Northern Ireland.
1917 – The Military Revolutionary Committee
of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation
and carrying out the Russian Revolution,
holds its first meeting.
1935 – The Long March ends.
1939 – Pope Pius XII publishes his first
major encyclical entitled Summi Pontificatus.
1941 – World War II: Thousands of civilians
in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia
are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
1943 – The cargo vessel Sinfra is attacked
by Allied aircraft at Suda Bay, Crete, and
sunk. 2,098 Italian prisoners of war drown
with it.
1944 – The Soviet Army and Yugoslav Partisans
liberate Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia
1944 – Liquid natural gas leaks from storage
tanks in Cleveland, then explodes; the explosion
and resulting fire level 30 blocks and kill
130.
1944 – General Douglas MacArthur fulfills
his promise to return to the Philippines
when he commands an Allied assault on the
islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese
during the Second World War.
1947 – The House Un-American Activities
Committee begins its investigation into
Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting
in a blacklist that prevents some from working
in the industry for years.
1947 – United States of America and Pakistan
establish diplomatic relations for the first
time.
1951 – The "Johnny Bright Incident"
occurs in Stillwater, Oklahoma
1952 – Governor Evelyn Baring declares a
state of emergency in Kenya and begins arresting
hundreds of suspected leaders of the Mau
Mau Uprising, including Jomo Kenyatta, the
future first President of Kenya.
1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first
armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic
missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class
submarine.
1962 – China launches simultaneous offensives
in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, beginning
the Sino-Indian War.
1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy
marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle
Onassis.
1970 – Siad Barre declares Somalia a socialist
state.
1971 – The Nepal Stock Exchange collapses.
1973 – "Saturday Night Massacre":
President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney
General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney
General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse
to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald
Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.
1973 – The Sydney Opera House opens.
1976 – The ferry George Prince is struck
by a ship while crossing the Mississippi
River between Destrehan and Luling, Louisiana.
Seventy-eight passengers and crew die and
only 18 people aboard the ferry survive.
1977 – A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes
in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie
Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along
with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road
manager, pilot, and co-pilot.
1981 – Two police officers and an armored
car guard are killed during an armed robbery
in Rockland County, NY, carried out by members
of the Black Liberation Army and Weather
Underground.
1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between
FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people
are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
1991 – The Oakland Hills firestorm kills
25 and destroys 3,469 homes and apartments,
causing more than $2 billion in damage.
1991 – A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi
region of India, killing more than 1,000
people.
2011 – The former leader of Libya, Muammar
Gaddafi, and his son Mutassim Gaddafi are
killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte
while in the custody of NTC fighters.
Holidays
and observances
Birth
of the Báb (Bahá'í Faith)
Christian Feast Day:
Acca of Hexham
Andrew of Crete
Artemius
Caprasius of Agen
Irene of Tomar
John Cantius (Extraordinary Form, celebrated
by Traditionalist Catholic)
October 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Kenyatta Day (Kenya)
Revolution Day, one of the two Patriotic
Days (Guatemala)
World Osteoporosis Day
Spirit Day
For details, contact Datacentre
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