Events
of the day
42
BC β Roman Republican civil wars: Second
Battle of Philippi β Mark Antony and Octavian
decisively defeat Brutus's army. Brutus
commits suicide.
425 β Valentinian III is elevated as Roman
Emperor, at the age of 6.
502 β The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic
king Theodoric the Great, discharges Pope
Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the
schism of Antipope Laurentius.
1086 β At the Battle of az-Zallaqah, the
army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the forces
of Castilian King Alfonso VI.
1157 β The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the
civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is
killed and Valdemar I restores the country.
1295 β The first treaty forming the Auld
Alliance between Scotland and France against
England is signed in Paris.
1641 β Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of
1641.
1642 β Battle of Edgehill: First major battle
of the First English Civil War.
1694 β British/American colonial forces,
led by Sir William Phipps, fail to seize
Quebec from the French.
1707 β The first Parliament of Great Britain
meets.
1739 β War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British
Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly
declares war on Spain.
1812 β Claude FranΓ§ois de Malet, a French
general, begins a conspiracy to overthrow
Napoleon Bonaparte, claiming that the Emperor
died in Russia and that he is now the commandant
of Paris.
1850 β The first National Women's Rights
Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts,
United States.
1861 β U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends
the writ of habeas corpus in Washington,
D.C., for all military-related cases.
1864 β American Civil War: Battle of Westport
β Union forces under General Samuel R. Curtis
defeat Confederate troops led by General
Sterling Price at Westport, near Kansas
City.
1867 β 72 Senators are summoned by Royal
Proclamation to serve as the first members
of the Canadian Senate.
1870 β Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of
Metz concludes with a decisive Prussian
victory.
1906 β Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane
in the first heavier-than-air flight in
Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.
1911 β First use of aircraft in war: An
Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe
Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian
War.
1912 β First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo
between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
1915 β Woman's suffrage: In New York City,
25,000-33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue
to advocate their right to vote.
1917 β Lenin calls for the October Revolution.
1929 β Great Depression: After a steady
decline in stock market prices since a peak
in September, the New York Stock Exchange
begins to show signs of panic.
1929 β The first North American transcontinental
air service begins between New York City
and Los Angeles, California.
1935 β Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman,
and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz
are fatally shot at a saloon in Newark,
New Jersey in what will become known as
The Chophouse Massacre.
1941 β World War II: Field Marshal Georgy
Zhukov takes command of Red Army operations
to prevent the further advance into Russia
of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht
from capturing Moscow.
1942 β World War II: Second Battle of El
Alamein: β At El Alamein in northern Egypt,
the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal
Montgomery begins a critical offensive to
expel the Axis armies from Egypt.
1942 β All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard
an American Airlines DC-3 airliner are killed
when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces
bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst
the victims is award-winning composer and
songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for
the Memory", "Love in Bloom",
"Blue Hawaii").
1942 β World War II: The Battle for Henderson
Field begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign
and ends on October 26.
1944 β World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf
β The largest naval battle in history begins
in the Philippines.
1944 β World War II: The Soviet Red Army
enters Hungary.
1946 β The United Nations General Assembly
convenes for the first time, at an auditorium
in Flushing, Queens, New York City.
1956 β Thousands of Hungarians protest against
the government and Soviet occupation. (The
Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November
4).
1958 β The Springhill Mine Bump β An underground
earthquake traps 174 miners in the No. 2
colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, the
deepest coal mine in North America at the
time. By November 1, rescuers from around
the world had dug out 100 of the victims,
marking the death toll at 74.
1958 β The Smurfs, a fictional race of blue
dwarves, later popularized in a Hanna-Barbera
animated cartoon series, appear for the
first time in the story La flute Γ six schtroumpfs,
a Johan and Peewit adventure by Peyo which
is serialized in the weekly comics magazine
Spirou.
1965 β Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division
(United States) (Airmobile), in conjunction
with South Vietnamese forces, launches a
new operation seeking to destroy North Vietnamese
forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical
Zone (the Central Highlands).
1970 β Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record
in a rocket-powered automobile called the
Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
1972 β Operation Linebacker, a US bombing
campaign against North Vietnam in response
to its Easter Offensive, ends after five
months.
1973 β The Watergate Scandal: US President
Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed
audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.
1973 β A United Nations sanctioned cease-fire
officially ends the Yom Kippur War between
Israel and Syria.
1983 β Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines
barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb,
killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French
army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that
same morning, killing 58 troops.
1989 β The Hungarian Republic is officially
declared by president MΓ‘tyΓ‘s SzΕ±rΓΆs, replacing
the communist Hungarian People's Republic.
1989 β Phillips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas
kills 23 and injures 314.
1992 β Emperor Akihito becomes the first
Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.
1993 β Shankill Road bombing: A Provisional
IRA bomb prematurely detonates in the Shankill
area of Belfast, killing the bomber and
nine civilians.
1998 β Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land
for peace" agreement.
2001 β Apple announces the iPod.
2002 β Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen
terrorists seize the House of Culture theater
in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers
hostage.
2004 β A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks
hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan,
killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving
85,000 homeless or evacuated.
2007 β A powerful cold front in the Bay
of Campeche causes the Usumacinta Jackup
rig to collide with Kab 101, leading to
the death and drowning of 22 people during
rescue operations after evacuation of the
rig.
2011 β A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake
strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582
people and injuring thousands.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
Giovanni da Capistrano
Ignatius of Constantinople
Severin of Cologne
October 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Chulalongkorn Day (Thailand)
Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle
(Republic of Macedonia)
Mole Day (Chemists)
National Day (Hungary)
For details, contact Datacentre
