Events

Up to 1800 
 3761 BC – The epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar.
 336 – Pope Marcus ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
 1428 - Start of the English siege of Orléans in the Hundred Years' War.
 1477 - Opening of Uppsala University in Sweden.
 1492 – Christopher Columbus misses Florida when he changes course.
 1506 – Pope Julius II and France occupy Bologna.
 1513 – Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramon de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
 1520 – First public burning of books in Netherlands, in Louvain.
 1542 – Explorer Cabrillo discovered Catalina Island off California coast.
 1571 – The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain, Venice, and Papal States) destroys Turkish fleet.
 1582 – Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
 1637 – Prince Frederick Henry of Orange occupies Breda.
 1690 – English attack Quebec under Louis de Buade.
 1702 – English/Dutch troops under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough occupy Roermond.
 1714 – Beer tax riots in Alkmaar, Netherlands.
 1737 – 40 foot waves sink 20,000 small craft and kill 300,000 (Bengal, India).
 1756 - Flooding on the Elbe near what is now Germany's North Sea coast kills 600 people.
 1763 – George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.
 1765 – Stamp Act Congress convenes in NY.
 1769 – English explorer, Captain Cook, reaches New Zealand. Abel Tasman had been the first European to land there over a century earlier.
 1776 – Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
 1777 – American Revolutionary War: Americans beat the British in the Battle of Second Saratoga and the Battle of Bemis Heights.
 1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.

1801  1900 
 1806 – Carbon paper patented in London by inventor Ralph Wedgewood.
 1816 – The first double-decked steamboat, the "Washington," arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana.
 1826 – Granite Railway (first chartered railway in the U.S.) begins operations.
 1828 – The city of Patras, Greece is liberated by the French expeditionary force in Peloponnese under General Maison.
 1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
 1864 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Darbytown Road, the Confederate forces' attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond is stopped.
 1864 – American Civil War: Capture of the CSS Florida — Union warship captures the USS Wachusett — Confederate raider ship while in port in Bahia, Brazil.
 1865 – The Morant Bay Rebellion starts in Jamaica.
 1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; student enrollment is 412, the most at any American university to that date.
 1870 – Leon Gambetta flees Paris in balloon.
 1879 – Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
 1882 – Baseball: First World Series (game 2), Chicago (NL) beats Cincinnati (AA) 2-0.
 1886 – Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.
 1900 – The term "orienteering" is first used for an event.

1901  1950 
 1904 – Baseball: New York Highlander Jack Chesbro wins record 41st game of season (41-12).
 1907 – France's Henry Farman flies 30 m in a double decker plane.
 1908 – Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.
 1908 – Serbia and Montenegro sign anti-Austria-Hungarian pact.
 1910 – Absinthe is banned in Switzerland.
 1912 – The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
 1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided victory in American college football.
 1918 - The Governing Council in Warsaw declares Poland to be an independent state.
 1919 – KLM of the Netherlands was founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
 1919 – First London-Amsterdam airline service (Britain Aerial Transport and KLM).
 1922 – Oud-burgem of Rotterdam Zimmerman becomes High Comm's of Austria.
 1922 – First radio link, WNJ (Newark, New Jersey) and WGY (Schenectady) link for World Series.
 1924 – Greek government of Dikalekopoulis forms.
 1928 – Ras Tafari Makonnen crowned negus of Abyssinia by Empress Zauditu.
 1928 – Paavo Nurmi runs world record 10 miles (50:15.0).
 1929 – Ramsay MacDonald is the first British premier to address the U.S. Congress.
 1931 – First infra-red photograph, Rochester, New York.
 1933 - Air France, the national airline of France, is created after the merger of five smaller airlines.
 1938 – Germany demands all Jewish passports stamped with the letter J.
 1940 – Germany invades Romania.
 1941 – German army occupies Viarma, U.S.S.R.
 1941 – John Curtin becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Australia
 1942 – the McCollum memo conspires to bring the United States to war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
 1942 – U.S. and British government announce establishment of United Nations.
 1942 – Maxwell Anderson's "Eve of St. Mark," premieres in New York City.
 1942 – Salvo Katjoesja-rocket destroys Nazi battalion in Stalingrad.
 1943 – Japan executes 100 American civilian prisoners on Wake Island.
 1944 – Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
 1944 – Uprising at Auschwitz, Jews burn down crematoriums.
 1944 – Fieldmarshal Erwin Rommel is ordered to return to Berlin.
 1944 – Allies bombs sea dikes at Vlissingen.
 1949 – German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
 1949 – One of the earliest television shows, "Ford Theater" debuts
 1950 – United States forces cross the 38th parallel in the Korean War.
 1950 - Missionaries of Charity is founded by Mother Teresa.

1951  2000 
 1951 – Malayan Emergency: Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) ambushes and kills British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney.
 1951 – David Ben-Gurion forms Israeli government.
 1957 – Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" debuts.
 1958 – President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
 1958 – U.S. manned space-flight project renamed Project Mercury.
 1958 – Potter Stewart appointed to U.S. Supreme Court.
 1959 – Far side of the Moon seen for first time, compliments of U.S.S.R.'s Luna 3.
 1960 – Second Kennedy and Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy in the second of four scheduled debates.
 1960 - Nigeria joins the UN.
 1962 – U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, U.S.S.R.
 1963 – John F. Kennedy signs ratification for the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
 1963 – Hurricane Flora hits Haiti and the Dominican Republic, kills 7,190.
 1968 – Hollywood adopts the movie ratings system.
 1970 – Richard Nixon announces a new five-point peace proposal to end the Vietnam War.
 1971 - Oman joins the UN.
 1976 - Hua Guofeng becomes Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
 1977 – The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
 1982 – Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000.
 1984 – NFL running back Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown's rushing record.
 1985 – The "Achille Lauro" is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.
 1985 – The Mameyes disaster occurs in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
 1996 – The Fox News Channel, an American cable news network, is launched.
 2000 – Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg abdicates in favour of his son, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
 2000 – Germany wins 1-0 against England in the last game at the Old Wembley Stadium.

From 2001 
 2001 – Start of United States war in Afghanistan with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
 2002 – Maher Arar is deported by the US government to Syria, where he is tortured and held without charge for a year before being returned home to Canada.
 2003 – California recall: California governor Gray Davis is recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 2004 – King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates.
 2005 - Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency win the Nobel Peace Prize.
 2006 – Sport: The first Lusophone Games, for Portuguese-speaking countries begin in Macao.
 2006 – Palau's capital is moved from Koror to Ngerulmud in the state of Melekeok.
 2006 – Russian journalist and writer Anna Politkovskaya is murdered.
 2011 – The Nobel Peace Prize is shared between Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen.
 2012 - Hugo Chávez is re-elected President of Venezuela against Henrique Capriles. Chavez dies less than five months later, on March 5, 2013.
 2014 - Lunar Eclipse: A "Blood Moon", or red-appearing Moon, is seen in most of the world except Europe and Africa.
 2016 - President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
 2019 - Saturn overtakes Jupiter as the planet in the Solar System with the most known Moons (82, compared to Jupiter's 79).
 2019 - Eight people are injured in a lorry-ramming attack in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany.

Births

Up to 1850 
 13 BC  Drusus Julius Caesar, adoptive son of Roman Emperor Tiberius (d. 23)
 1471  King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway (d. 1533)
 1573  William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1645)
 1576  John Marston, English poet and playwright (d. 1634)
 1589  Maria Magdalena of Austria (d. 1631)
 1728  Caesar Rodney, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1784)
 1744  Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (d. 1819)
 1746  William Billings, American composer (d. 1800)
 1748  King Charles XIII of Sweden (d. 1818)
 1769  Solomon Sibley, American politician (d. 1846)
 1798  Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, French violinmaker, businessman and inventor (d. 1875)
 1822  Rudolf Leuckert, German zoologist (d. 1898)
 1835  Felix Draeseke, German composer (d. 1913)
 1836  Henri Elzear Taschereau, 4th Chief Justice of Canada (d. 1911)
 1841  King Nicholas of Montenegro (d. 1921)
 1846  Wladimir Köppen, German scientist (d. 1940)
 1849  James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (d. 1916)

1851  1900 
 1857  George P. McLean, Governor of Connecticut (d. 1932)
 1866  Wlodimir Ledochowski, Polish-Austrian director of the Society of Jesus (d. 1942)
 1870  Uncle Dave Macon, American banjo player, singer, songwriter and comedian (d. 1952)
 1873  Alfred Ander, Swedish criminal, last person to be executed in Sweden (d. 1910)
 1877  Thomas Archibald Sprague, Scottish botanist (d. 1958)
 1881  Mikhail Drozdovsky, Russian general (d. 1918)
 1884  Harold Geiger, US Army aviation pioneer (d. 1927)
 1885  Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (d. 1962)
 1888  Henry A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States (d. 1965)
 1889  Robert Z. Leonard, American movie director, actor, producer and screenwriter (d. 1968)
 1892  Dwain Esper, American director and producer (d. 1982)
 1894  Del Lord, American director (d. 1970)
 1897  Elijah Muhammad, American Muslim leader (d. 1975)
 1897  Charles Chauvel, Australian screenwriter, movie director and producer (d. 1959)
 1898  Alfred Wallenstein, American cellist and conductor (d. 1983)
 1900  Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official (d. 1945)

1901  1925 
 1901  Souvanna Phouma, Prime Minister of Laos (d. 1984)
 1904  Armando Castellazzi, Italian footballer (d. 1968)
 1905  Andy Devine, American actor (d. 1977)
 1909  Anni Blomqvist, Finnish writer (d. 1990)
 1909  Shura Cherkassky, Ukrainian-American pianist (d. 1995)
 1909  Erastus Corning 2nd, American politician, 72nd Mayor of Albany, New York (d. 1983)
 1911  Vaughn Monroe, American singer-songwriter and bandleader (d. 1973)
 1912  Fernando Belaúnde Terry, President of Peru (d. 2002)
 1913  Walt Whitman Rostow, American economist (d. 2003)
 1914  Alfred Drake, American actor (d. 1992)
 1914  Begum Akhtar, Indian singer (d. 1974)
 1914  Sarah Churchill, British actress (d. 1982)
 1915  Charles Templeton, Canadian cartoonist and television evangelist (d. 2001)
 1917  June Allyson, American actress (d. 2006)
 1918  Harry V. Jaffa, American historian (d. 2015)
 1919  Zelman Cowen, Australian academic and Governor-General of Australia (d. 2011)
 1920  Georg Leber, German politician (d. 2012)
 1921  Raymond Goethals, Belgian footballer and coach (d. 2004)
 1922  William Zinsser, American writer, editor, literary critic and teacher (d. 2015)

1926  1950 
 1926  Marcello Abbado, Italian composer and pianist
 1927  Ronald David Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (d. 1989)
 1927  Al Martino, American singer and actor (d. 2009)
 1928  Sanne Ledermann, friend of Anne Frank (d. 1943)
 1928  Sohrab Sepehri, Persian poet and painter (d. 1980)
 1928  Ali Kafi, Algerian politician (d. 2013)
 1929  Hans-Peter Dürr, German physicist (d. 2014)
 1929  Graeme Ferguson, Canadian director and producer
 1931  Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 2021)
 1932  Joannes Gijsen, Dutch-born former Catholic bishop of Reykjavik (d. 2013)
 1934  Amiri Baraka, American poet, playwright and academic (d. 2014)
 1934  Ulrike Meinhof, German left-wing militant and Red Army Faction member (d. 1976)
 1935  Thomas Keneally, Australian writer
 1936  Charles Dutoit, Swiss conductor
 1937  Maria Szyszkowska, Polish politician
 1937  Christopher Booker, English journalist and author
 1938  Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer, actor and poet (d. 1992)
 1938  Ann Jones, English tennis player
 1939  Clive James, Australian TV presenter and writer
 1939  Harry Kroto, English chemist (d. 2016)
 1939  John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
 1939  Enrique Pinti, Argentine actor, comedian, theatre director and writer
 1942  Joy Behar, American talk show host and actress
 1943  José Cardenal, Cuban baseball player
 1943  Oliver North, American former military officer and politician
 1944  Donald Tsang, former Chief Executive of Hong Kong
 1944  Pete van Wieren, American sportscaster (d. 2014)
 1945  Kevin Godley, English singer-songwriter
 1946  Bernard Lavilliers, French singer-songwriter and actor
 1946  Pengiran Anak Saleha, Queen of Brunei
 1950  Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzanian politician, 4th President of Tanzania

1951  1975 
 1951  David J. Halberstam, American sportscaster
 1951  John Mellencamp, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
 1952  Mary Badham, American actress
 1952  Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
 1953  Ronald Worm, German footballer
 1953  Tico Torres, American musician (Bon Jovi)
 1953  Linda Griffiths, Canadian actress and playwright (d. 2014)
 1954  Christian Bourquin, French politician (d. 2014)
 1955  Yo-Yo Ma, French-born cellist
 1955  Ralph Johnson, American computer scientist
 1956  Brian Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
 1957  Jayne Torvill, English figure skater
 1959  Simon Cowell, English media personality
 1959  Lourdes Flores Nano, Peruvian politician
 1960  Viktor Lazlo, Belgian singer
 1964  Sam Brown, American singer
 1964  Dan Savage, American LGBT activist, journalist and television producer
 1966  Marco Beltrami, American movie score composer
 1966  Sherman Alexie, American author, humourist and screenwriter
 1967  Toni Braxton, American soul music singer
 1968  Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead
 1968  Pippa Funnell, British equestrian
 1969  Francesco Buzzurro, Italian guitarist
 1969  Karen L. Nyberg, American engineer and astronaut
 1970  Nicole Ari Parker, American actress
 1971  Ismael Urzaiz, Spanish footballer
 1971  Michelle Mone, Scottish businesswoman
 1972  Loek van Wely, Dutch chess player
 1972  Ben Younger, American screenwriter
 1973  Dida, Brazilian footballer
 1973  Grigol Mgalobishvili, 7th Prime Minister of Georgia
 1974  Charlotte Perrelli, Swedish singer
 1975  Tim Minchin, Australian comedian

From 1976 
 1976  Gilberto Silva, Brazilian footballer
 1976  Santiago Solari, Argentine footballer
 1976  Taylor Hicks, American singer
 1978  Alesha Dixon, English singer
 1978  Jake Humphrey, English sports television presenter
 1978  Omar Benson Miller, American actor
 1979  Aaron Ashmore, Canadian actor
 1979  Shawn Ashmore, Canadian actor
 1979  Simona Amanar, Romanian gymnast
 1980  Jean-Marc Gaillard, French cross-country skier
 1982  Madjid Bougherra, Algerian footballer
 1982  Jermain Defoe, English footballer
 1982  Robby Ginepri, American tennis player
 1983  Aaron Parks, American jazz musician
 1984  Salman Butt, Pakistani cricketer
 1984  Simon Poulsen, Danish footballer
 1985  Evan Longoria, American baseball player
 1986  Gunnar Nielsen, Faroese footballer
 1986  Kaitlyn, American wrestler and model
 1986  Bree Olson, American pornographic actress
 1987  Sam Querrey, American tennis player
 1987  Cian Healy, Irish rugby union player
 1987  Lauren Mayberry, Scottish singer (Chvrches)
 1988  Diego Costa, Brazilian-Spanish footballer
 1988  Holland Roden, American actress
 1990  Ayla Kell, American actress
 1991  Nicole Jung, American-Korean singer
 1991  Lay, Chinese-Korean entertainer
 1996  Lewis Capaldi, Scottish singer and songwriter
 1997  Kira Kosarin, American actress and singer
 2001  Princess Senate Seeiso, Princess of Lesotho

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 336  Pope Mark
 929  Charles the Simple, King of France (b. 879)
 1368  Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. 1338)
 1577  George Gascoigne, English soldier, courtier and poet (b. 1535)
 1612  Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet, dramatist and diplomat (b. 1538)
 1637  Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1587)
 1653  Fausto Poli, Italian cardinal (b. 1581)
 1708  Guru Gobind Singh, 10th Sikh Guru (b. 1666)
 1787  Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the American Lutheran Church (b. 1711)
 1796  Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (b. 1710)
 1849  Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b. 1809)
 1857  Louis McLane, United States Secretary of State (b. 1786)
 1870  Majid bin Said of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1834)
 1894  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American writer (b. 1809)
 1896  Emma Wedgwood, British naturalist (b. 1808)

1901  2000 
 1903  Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (b. 1832)
 1906  Honoré Beaugrand, 18th Mayor of Montreal (b. 1848)
 1919  Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
 1925  Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (b. 1860)
 1926  Emil Kraepelin, German psychiatrist (b. 1856)
 1943  Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (b. 1899)
 1943  Radclyffe Hall, English author and poet (b. 1880)
 1943  Archibald Warden, English tennis player (b. 1869)
 1951  Anton Philips, Dutch businessman (b. 1874)
 1956  Clarence Birdseye, American inventor (b. 1886)
 1959  Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)
 1967  Norman Angell, British politician (b. 1872)
 1991  Leo Durocher, American baseball player and manager (b. 1905)
 1992  Tevfik Esenc, last speaker of the Ubykh language (b. 1904)
 1993  Cyril Cusack, Irish actor (b. 1910)
 1994  Niels Kaj Jerne, Danish immunologist (b. 1911)

From 2001 
 2002  Pierangelo Bertoli, Italian singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
 2004  Kenneth Bigley, English engineer (b. 1942)
 2006  Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist and writer (b. 1958)
 2007  Norifumi Abe, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1975)
 2008  Peter Copley, British actor (b. 1915)
 2008  George Emil Palade, Romanian cell biologist (b. 1912)
 2009  Irving Penn, American photographer (b. 1917)
 2010  Milka Planinc, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1924)
 2011  Ramiz Alia, last Communist leader of Albania, and President (b. 1925)
 2012  Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, Mexican drug lord (b. 1974)
 2013  Ovadia Yosef, Israeli Chief Rabbi (b. 1920)
 2013  Patrice Chéreau, French director, movie maker, actor and producer (b. 1944)
 2014  Siegfried Lenz, German writer (b. 1926)
 2014  Iva Withers, Canadian-American theatre actress and singer (b. 1917)
 2014  Nika Kiladze, Georgian footballer (b. 1988)
 2014  Zilpha Keatley Snyder, American writer (b. 1927)
 2014  Cigar, American racehorse (b. 1990)
 2015  Dominique Dropsy, French footballer (b. 1951)
 2015  Elena Lucena, Argentine actress (b. 1914)
 2015  Harry Gallatin, American basketball player and coach (b. 1927)
 2015  W. R. Mitchell, British writer (b. 1928)
 2015  Jurelang Zedkaia, 5th President of the Marshall Islands (b. 1950)
 2016  Wolfgang Suschitzky, Austro-Hungarian-born British photographer and cinematographer (b. 1912)
 2017  Konstantin Sarsania, Russian footballer (b. 1968)
 2017  Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov, Russian philologist (b. 1929)
 2017  Jim Landis, American baseball player (b. 1934)
 2017  Washington SyCip, Filipino-American World War II veteran (b. 1921) 
 2017  Kazys Almenas, Lithuanian physicist, engineer and publisher (b. 1935)
 2017  Ole Krarup, Danish politician (b. 1935)
 2018  Peggy McCay, American actress (b. 1927)
 2018  Oleg Pavlov, Russian novelist (b. 1970)
 2018  Celeste Yarnall, American actress (b. 1944)
 2019  Pepe Oneto, Spanish journalist and writer (b. 1942)
 2019  Ella Vogelaar, Dutch politician (b. 1949)

Observances 
 Teacher's Day (Laos)
 National Day of East Germany (1949 to 1989)

October 07