Historical EventsToday: 10 October

Events

• 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Shi'a Muslims as Aashurah.


• 732 - Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.


• 1471 - Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm: Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.


• 1575 - Battle of Dormans: Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeated the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.


• 1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.


• 1631 - A Saxon army takes over Prague.


• 1780 - The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000-30,000 in the Caribbean.


• 1845 - In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.


• 1860 - The original cornerstone of the University of the South is laid in Sewanee, Tennessee.


• 1868 - Carlos Céspedes issues the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence.


• 1889 - Barnard College is founded.


• 1910 - Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity is established at Columbia University.


• 1911 - Wuchang Uprising leads to the demise of Qing Dynasty, the last Imperial court in China, and the founding of the Republic of China.


• 1911 - The KCR East Rail commences service between Kowloon and Canton.


• 1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.


• 1919 - Richard Strauss' opera Die Frau ohne Schatten receives its debut performance in Vienna.


• 1920 - The Carinthian Plebiscite determines that the larger part of Carinthia became part of Austria.


• 1933 - United Airlines Chesterton Crash: A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.


• 1935 - A tornado destroys the 160 metre tall wooden radio tower in Langenberg. As a result of this catastrophe, few wooden towers are constructed after this date.


• 1938 - The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.


• 1942 - Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.


• 1943 - Double Tenth Incident in Japanese controlled Singapore


• 1944 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp.


• 1945 - The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang signed a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China. Later, the pact is commonly referred to as the Double-Ten Agreement.


• 1954 - The Communist Party of Honduras is founded.


• 1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.


• 1957 - The Windscale fire in Cumbria, UK becomes the world's first major nuclear accident.


• 1963 - France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia.


• 1964 - The 1964 Summer Olympics opening ceremony at Tokyo, Japan, with first time of live Olympic telecast program by geostationary communication satellite.


• 1967 - The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, enters into force.


• 1969 - King Crimson releases their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, considered by many to be the first progressive rock album.


• 1970 - Fiji becomes independent.


• 1970 - In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.


• 1971 - Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, the London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.


• 1973 - Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.


• 1985 - United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.


• 1986 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.


• 1995 - South African President Nelson Mandela attends Genadendal.


• 1997 - An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.


• 2005 - Negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD in Germany had concluded that both parties would form a grand coaltion with Angela Merkel of the CDU as chancellor after both parties lost seats in the 2005 German federal election. She was subsequently elected in the Bundestag as chancellor on November 22 of the same year.

Historical EventsToday: 09 October

Events

• 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks.


• 1003 - Leif Erikson landed in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada. Became the first European to reach America.


• 1238 - James I of Aragon conquers Valencia and founds the Kingdom of Valencia.


• 1446 - The hangul alphabet is published in Korea.


• 1514 - Marriage of Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor.


• 1558 - Mérida is founded in Venezuela.


• 1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.


• 1595 - The Spanish army captures Cambrai.


• 1604 - Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to be observed in the Milky Way.


• 1635 - Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.


• 1701 - The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.


• 1760 - 7 Year's War: Russian forces occupy Berlin.


• 1771 - The Dutch merchant ship Vrouw Maria sinks near the coast of Finland.


• 1776 - Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.


• 1799 - Sinking of HMS Lutine, with the loss of 240 men and a cargo worth £1,200,000.


• 1804 - Hobart, capital of Tasmania, is founded.


• 1806 - Prussia declares war on France.


• 1812 - War of 1812: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.


• 1820 - Guayaquil declares independence from Spain.


• 1824 - Slavery is abolished in Costa Rica.


• 1831 - Capo d'Istria is assassinated.


• 1835 - Royal College, Colombo established with the name Hillstreet Academy in Sri Lanka.


• 1837 - Meeting at the U.S. Naval Academy establishes the U.S. Naval Institute.


• 1845 - The eminent and controversial Anglican, John Henry Newman, is received into the Roman Catholic Church.


• 1854 - Beginning of the siege of Sebastopol.


• 1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Santa Rosa Island - Union troops repel Confederate attempt to capture Fort Pickens.


• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.


• 1871 - The Great Chicago Fire is brought under control.


• 1874 - General Postal Union is created as a result of the Treaty of Berne.


• 1888 - The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.


• 1914 - World War I: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.


• 1919 - Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.


• 1934 - Regicide at Marseille: The assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France.


• 1936 - Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.


• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain - During a nighttime air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, England is hit by a bomb.


• 1941 - A coup in Panama declares Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.


• 1942 - Statute of Westminster 1931 formalises Australian autonomy.


• 1942 - The last day of the October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces withdraw back across the Matanikau River after destroying most of the Imperial Japanese Army's 4th Infantry Regiment.


• 1945 - Parade in NYC for Fleet Admiral Nimitz and 13 USN/USMC Medal of Honor recipients


• 1962 - Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.


• 1963 - In northeast Italy, over 2,000 people are killed when a large landslide behind the Vajont Dam causes a giant wave of water to overtop it.


• 1967 - A day after being caught, Che Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.


• 1969 - In Chicago, the United States National Guard is called in for crowd control as demonstrations continue in connection with the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (trial started on September 24).


• 1970 - The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia.


• 1981 - Abolition of capital punishment in France.


• 1983 - Rangoon bombing: attempted assassination of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan during an official visit to Rangoon, Burma. Chun survives but the blast kills 17 of his entourage, including four cabinet ministers, and 17 others were injured. Four Burmese officials also die in the blast.


• 1986 - The musical The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.


• 1989 - An official news agency in the Soviet Union reports the landing of a UFO in Voronezh.


• 1989 - In Leipzig, East Germany, 70,000 protesters demand the legalisation of opposition groups and democratic reforms.


• 1991 - Ecuador becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.


• 1992 - A 13 kilogram (est.) meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu


• 1995 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.


• 1999 - The last flight of the SR-71.


• 2001 - Second mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attack.


• 2006 - North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device.