Events

Up to 1900 
 1066  William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England.
 1422  After the brief Gollub War, the Teutonic Knights sign the Treaty of Melno with the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
 1529  The Siege of Vienna begins, as Suleiman I attacks the city.
 1540  The Society of Jesus receives its charter from Pope Paul III.
 1590  The death of Pope Urban VII ends the shortest papacy in history, lasting just 13 days.
 1605  The armies of Sweden are defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kirchholm.
 1777  Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital city of the United States for a day.
 1821  Mexico gains independence from Spain.
 1822  Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta Stone.
 1825  The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens in northern England, having the first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.
 1854  Steamship SS Arctic sinks with 300 people on board in the Atlantic Ocean.
 1865  Chile declares war on Spain.

1901  2000 
 1903  The "Wreck of the Old 97" train crash occurs near Danville, Virginia, killing 11 people (including one who later died on October 6), and injuring 7. The crash later becomes well-known through songs and musical pieces.
 1905  The formula E=mc squared is introduced, devised by Albert Einstein.
 1908  The first production of the Ford Model T automobile is built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
 1916  Iyasu V is officially deposed in a palace coup in Ethiopia, in favor of his aunt, Zauditu.
 1922  Constantine I of Greece abdicates the throne. His eldest son succeeds him as George II of Greece.
 1928  The Republic of China is recognised by the United States.
 1930  Bobby Jones wins the US Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of winning all the major golf tournaments of the year.
 1937  The Balinese Tiger is declared extinct.
 1938  The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth is launched in Glasgow, Scotland.
 1940  World War II: Germany, Japan and Italy sign the "Tripartite Pact".
 1942  World War II: Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escapes after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River.
 1949  The design of the Flag of the People's Republic of China (which is founded on October 1) is accepted by the National People's Congress.
 1957  In the Azores, the Capelinho volcano erupts on the island of Faial. 300 homes are destroyed and 2,000 people are evacuated.
 1959  Almost 5,000 people are killed when a typhoon strikes the island of Honshu, Japan.
 1961  Sierra Leone joins the UN.
 1968  The stage musical Hair opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London.
 1973  The Soviet Union launches the Soyuz 12 spacecraft.
 1979  The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the United States Congress to become the 13th US cabinet agency.
 1983  Richard Stallman announces the GNU Project.
 1987  In Cairo, Egypt, the first Metro line in Africa is opened.
 1988  Canadian athlete Ben Johnson is stripped of his Olympic gold medal, after failing a drug test.
 1993  The Sokhumi massacre takes place in Abkhazia.
 1996  Afghan forces are routed as the Taleban seizes control of Kabul.
 1997  The Julie N tanker ship crashes into the Million Dollar Bridge in Portland, Maine, spilling hundreds of gallons of oil.
 1997  Communication is lost with the Mars Pathfinder Probe.
 1998  Google is founded.
 1998  Gerhard Schröder is elected Chancellor of Germany, succeeding Helmut Kohl.

From 2001 
 2001  In Zug, Switzerland, Friedrich Leibacher shoots 18 people, of which 14 are killed. He then kills himself.
 2002  East Timor joins the UN.
 2003  The Smart 1 satellite is launched.
 2005  Tom and Jerry airs its 162nd, and last, episode.
 2007  NASA launches the Dawn probe.
 2008  Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese astronaut to perform a space walk.
 2009  German Parliamentary Election: Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel of the CDU is allowed to serve a second term in office, after defeating SPD candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier. She enters into a coalition with the Free Democrats under Guido Westerwelle.
 2014  The Mount Ontake volcano in Japan erupts.

Births

Up to 1900 
 823  Ermentrude of Orléans, Frankish Queen (d. 869)
 1271  Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, and Poland (d. 1305)
 1275  John II of Brabant (d. 1312)
 1389  Cosimo de' Medici, Italian art patron and ruler of Florence (d. 1464)
 1533  Stephen Bathory, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (d. 1586)
 1544  Takenaka Shigeharu, Japanese samurai (d. 1579)
 1601  King Louis XIII of France (d. 1643)
 1643  Solomon Stoddard, American Puritan clergyman (d. 1729)
 1657  Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, regent of Russia (d. 1704)
 1677  Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari, Italian musical composer (d. 1754)
 1696  Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Italian bishop and saint (d. 1787)
 1722  Samuel Adams, American patriot, revolutionary, writer and statesman (d. 1803)
 1729  Michael Denis, Austrian writer, priest and scientist (d. 1800)
 1765  Antoine Philippe de la Tremouille, French counter-revolutionary (d. 1794)
 1772  Martha Jefferson Randolph, daughter of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1836)
 1781  William I of Württemberg (d. 1864)
 1783  Agustín de Iturbide, Emperor of Mexico (d. 1824)
 1792  George Cruikshank, British artist (d. 1878)
 1818  Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (d. 1884)
 1821  Henri-Frédéric Amiel, Swiss philosopher, poet and critic (d. 1881)
 1824  William "Bull" Nelson, American Civil War general (d. 1862)
 1826  Armand David, French monk and naturalist (d. 1900)
 1830  William Babcock Hazen, American Civil War general (d. 1887)
 1838  Lawrence Sullivan Ross, American Confederate general and 19th Governor of Texas (d. 1898)
 1840  Thomas Nast, German-American political cartoonist (d. 1902)
 1840  Alfred Thayer Mahan, American admiral (d. 1914)
 1842  Alphonse François Renard, Belgian geologist (d. 1903)
 1861  Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, sister of Theodore Roosevelt (d. 1933)
 1862  Louis Botha, South African politician (d. 1919)
 1864  Andrej Hlinka, Slovakian politician and priest (d. 1938)
 1866  Eurosia Fabris, Italian saint (d. 1932)
 1867  Giovanni Bonzano, Italian cardinal (d. 1927)
 1871  Grazia Deledda, Italian writer (d. 1936)
 1871  Martin H. Glynn, 40th Governor of New York (d. 1924)
 1880  Jacques Thibaud, French violinist (d. 1953)
 1894  Lothar von Richthofen, German pilot (d. 1922)
 1898  Vincent Youmans, American composer and producer (d. 1946)

1901  1950 
 1907  Bhagat Singh, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1931)
 1907  Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and theorist (d. 2003)
 1907  Bernard Miles, English actor, director, producer and producer (d. 1991)
 1916  S. Yizhar, Israeli writer (d. 2006)
 1918  Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer (d. 1984)
 1919  James Wilkinson, British mathematician (d. 1986)
 1919  Johnny Pesky, American baseball player (d. 2012)
 1919  Jayne Meadows, American actress (d. 2015)
 1920  William Conrad, American actor (d. 1994)
 1921  John Malcolm Patterson, former Governor of Alabama (d. 2021)  
 1921  Miklós Jancsó, Hungarian movie director (d. 2014)
 1921  Milton Subotsky, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1991)
 1922  Arthur Penn, American screenwriter (d. 2010)
 1922  Heinrich Boere, German Nazi war criminal (d. 2013)
 1924  Bud Powell, American jazz pianist (d. 1966)
 1924  Josef Skvorecky, Czech writer and publisher (d. 2012)
 1925  Robert G. Edwards, British biologist and Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
 1927  Chrysostomos I, Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus (d. 2007)
 1927  Adhemar da Silva, Brazilian triple jumper (d. 2001)
 1929  Barbara Murray, English actress (d. 2014)
 1929  Txillardegi, Basque linguist, writer and politician (d. 2012)
 1931  Freddy Quinn, Austrian singer
 1932  Yash Chopra, Indian director (d. 2012)
 1932  Oliver E. Williamson, American economist
 1933  Greg Morris, American actor
 1933  Will Sampson, American actor and artist (d. 1987)
 1934  Wilford Brimley, American actor (d. 2020)
 1936  Don Cornelius, American television host (d. 2012)
 1936  Sancho Gracia, Spanish television presenter (d. 2012)
 1937  Vasyl Durdynets, 8th Prime Minister of Ukraine
 1938  Jean-Loup Dabadie, French journalist, songwriter and screenwriter
 1940  Josephine Barstow, English soprano
 1940  Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist (d. 2015)
 1941  Peter Bonetti, English footballer and coach
 1942  Dith Pran, Cambodian photojournalist (d. 2008)
 1942  Alvin Stardust, English singer (d. 2014)
 1943  Randy Bachman, Canadian musician
 1943  Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, Italian nobleman
 1943  Walter Riester, German politician
 1946  Nicos Anastasiades, Greek-Cypriot politician, President of Cyprus
 1946  Naiyyum Choudhury, Bangladeshi biochemist (d. 2019)
 1946  Robin Nedwell, English actor (d. 1999)
 1947  Barbara Dickson, Scottish singer
 1947  Denis Lawson, Scottish actor
 1947  Vic Snyder, American politician
 1947  Meat Loaf, American singer (d. 2022)
 1947  Dick Advocaat, Dutch football manager
 1948  Duncan Fletcher, Zimbabwean cricketer and coach
 1950  Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, Japanese-American actor and martial artist

1951  1975 
 1951  Jim Shooter, American writer
 1951  Anthony Laciura, American operatic tenor
 1952  Dumitru Prunariu, Romanian cosmonaut
 1952  Didier Dubois, French mathematician
 1952  Katie Fforde, English author
 1953  Diane Abbott, English politician
 1953  Claudio Gentile, Italian footballer
 1953  Mata Amritanandamayi, Indian guru and saint
 1953  Robbie Shakespeare, Jamaican musician and producer
 1953  Dumitru Prunariu, Romanian engineer and astronaut
 1954  Dougie MacLean, Scottish singer-songwriter
 1954  Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Russian violinist and composer
 1956  Milan Smrčka, Czech musician
 1956  Steve Archibald, Scottish footballer
 1957  John Inverdale, English broadcaster
 1957  Peter Sellars, American theatre director
 1958  Irvine Welsh, Scottish writer
 1960  Jean-Marc Barr, German-born French-American movie actor, director and producer
 1964  Stephan Jenkins, American musician and producer
 1965  Bernard Lord, Canadian politician, 30th Premier of New Brunswick
 1965  Peter MacKay, Canadian politician
 1966  Uche Okechukwu, Nigerian footballer
 1966  Jovanotti, Italian singer
 1966  Debbie Wasserman Schultz, American politician
 1966  Stephanie Wilson, American engineer and astronaut
 1967  Willie Rennie, Scottish politician
 1967  Llewella Gideon, English voice actor
 1968  Mari Kiviniemi, former Prime Minister of Finland
 1968  Patrick Muldoon, American actor
 1972  Lhasa de Sela, Mexican-American singer-songwriter (d. 2010)
 1972  Clara Hughes, Canadian cyclist
 1972  Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
 1973  Vratislav Lokvenc, Czech footballer
 1974  Carrie Brownstein, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actress

From 1976 
 1976  Francesco Totti, Italian footballer
 1976  Matt Harding, American video game designer and dancer
 1978  Mihaela Ursuleasa, Romanian pianist (d. 2012)
 1978  Pastora Soler, Spanish singer
 1979  Shinji Ono, Japanese footballer
 1980  Olivier Kapo, French footballer
 1980  Asashoryu Akinori, Mongolian sumo wrestler
 1981  Brendon McCallum, New Zealand cricketer
 1981  Mirjam Weichselbraun, Austrian television host and actress
 1982  Markus Rosenberg, Swedish footballer
 1982  Lil Wayne, American rapper
 1982  Darrent Williams, American football player
 1983  Jeon Hye-bin, South Korean actress and singer
 1984  Davide Capello, Italian footballer
 1984  Avril Lavigne, Canadian singer
 1984  Wouter Weylandt, Belgian cyclist (d. 2011)
 1985  Ibrahim Touré, Ivorian footballer (d. 2014)
 1987  Adam Bogdan, Hungarian footballer
 1991  Simona Halep, Romanian tennis player
 1992  Granit Xhaka, Swiss footballer
 1993  Monica Puig, Puerto Rican tennis player
 1995  Lina Leandersson, Swedish actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 855  Lothair I, King of the Romans (b. 795)
 1162  Odo II, Duke of Burgundy
 1249  Count Raymond VII of Toulouse (b. 1197)
 1404  William of Wykeham, English bishop (b. 1320)
 1547  Lady Eleanor Brandon (b. 1519)
 1557  Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (b. 1492)
 1590  Pope Urban VII (b. 1521)
 1651  Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria (b. 1573)
 1660  Vincent de Paul, French priest and saint (b. 1581)
 1700  Pope Innocent XII (b. 1615)
 1832  Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (b. 1781)
 1833  Ram Mohan, Indian reformer (b. 1772)
 1876  Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (b. 1817)
 1886  Charles Gordon Greene, American journalist (b. 1804)
 1891  Ivan Goncharev, Russian writer (b. 1812)

1901  2000 
 1917  Edgar Degas, French painter (b. 1834)
 1921  Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (b. 1854)
 1940  Walter Benjamin, German philosopher (b. 1892)
 1940  Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian doctor, won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1857)
 1956  Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete (b. 1911)
 1960  Sylvia Pankhurst, British Women's Rights activist (b. 1882)
 1961  H.D., American writer (b. 1886)
 1965  Clara Bow, American actress (b. 1905)
 1967  Felix Yusupov, Russian prince, participated in the killing of Grigori Rasputin (b. 1887)
 1972  S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician (b. 1892)
 1974  Silvio Frondizi, Argentine lawyer (b. 1907)
 1975  Jack Lang, 23rd Premier of New South Wales (b. 1876)
 1979  Gracie Fields, British comedienne (b. 1898)
 1981  Bronislaw Malinowski, Polish athlete (b. 1951)
 1986  Cliff Burton, American bassist (Metallica) (b. 1962)
 1991  Oona O'Neill, English actress (b. 1926)
 1993  Jimmy Doolittle, American general (b. 1896)
 1996  Mohammad Najibullah, President of Afghanistan (b. 1947)

From 2001 
 2004  John E. Mack, American psychiatrist (b. 1929)
 2005  Ronald Golias, Brazilian comedian and actor (b. 1929)
 2007  Kenji Nagai, Japanese photographer and journalist (b. 1957)
 2008  Mahendra Kapoor, Indian singer (b. 1934)
 2009  William Safire, American columnist (b. 1929)
 2011  David Croft, British writer, producer and director (b. 1922)
 2011  Imre Makovecz, Hungarian architect (b. 1935)
 2012  Herbert Lom, Czech-born British actor (b. 1917)
 2014  Eugie Foster, American science fiction writer (b. 1971)
 2014  James Traficant, American politician (b. 1941)
 2014  Taylor Hardwick, American architect (b. 1925)
 2014  Zhang Xianliang, Chinese author and poet (b. 1936)
 2014  Abdelmajid Lakhal, Tunisian actor and director (b. 1939)
 2014  Jean-Jacques Pauvert, French publisher (b. 1926)
 2015  Syed Ahmed, Indian politician (b. 1945)
 2015  Pietro Ingrao, Italian politician (b. 1915)
 2015  Wilton Felder, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1940)
 2015  Frank Tyson, English cricketer (b. 1930)
 2015  John Guillermin, English movie director and producer (b. 1925)
 2015  Denise Lor, American singer and actress (b. 1929)
 2016  Sebastian Papaiani, Romanian actor (b. 1936)
 2017  Joy Fleming, German singer (b. 1944)
 2017  Hiromi Hayakawa, Japanese-Mexican actress and singer (b. 1982)
 2017  Hugh Hefner, American adult magazine publisher and businessman (Playboy) (b. 1926)
 2017  Anne Jeffreys, American actress (b. 1923)
 2018  Marty Balin, American rock singer and musician (b. 1942)
 2018  Brian A. Joyce, American politician (b. 1962)
 2018  James G. March, American sociologist (b. 1928)
 2019  William J. Edwards, American politician (b. 1928)
 2019  Rob Garrison, American actor (b. 1960)
 2019  John J. Snyder, American Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1925)
 2019  Joseph C. Wilson, American writer (b. 1949)

Observances 
 End of Independence War Day (Mexico)
 Holiday for the French-speaking community, Belgium

Days of the year