History by month
October
31 days of history. Every date is an entry point to the events, births, and moments that shaped our world.
October 1
1908 A car that cost $850 when it debuted in 1908 eventually dropped to $260 by the e
October 2
1967 Thurgood Marshall had already argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and won 2
October 3
1990 Reunification happened faster than anyone planned. When Hungary cut its border f
October 4
1957 Sputnik 1 was a polished aluminum sphere 58 centimeters in diameter, weighing 83
October 5
1905 The Wright Flyer III was the world's first practical airplane, capable of sustai
October 6
1981 Anwar Sadat was watching a military parade on October 6, 1981, when a truck stop
October 7
1913 Ford engineers rigged a rope-and-winch system at the Highland Park plant on Octo
October 8
1871 The Great Chicago Fire began on October 8, 1871, in or near the O'Leary barn on
October 9
1936 The first hydroelectric generator at Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, bega
October 10
680 Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, refused to pledge allegiance t
October 11
1975 NBC gave Lorne Michaels a late-night slot and a modest budget on October 11, 197
October 12
1492 Rodrigo de Triana aboard the Pinta spotted land at approximately 2 a.m. on Octob
October 13
1307 King Philip IV of France ordered sealed arrest warrants opened simultaneously ac
October 14
1066 William of Normandy's army of roughly 7,000 men, including cavalry and archers,
October 15
1917 French authorities executed Mata Hari by firing squad after a trial where she fa
October 16
1793 Marie Antoinette was carted through the streets of Paris to the guillotine on Oc
October 17
1931 Federal prosecutors couldn't prove Al Capone ordered the St. Valentine's Day Mas
October 18
1867 Russia sold Alaska to the United States on October 18, 1867, for $7.2 million, r
October 19
1781 The formal surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, ended the last major engag
October 20
1973 President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate spe
October 21
1805 Admiral Horatio Nelson divided his fleet into two columns and drove them perpend
October 22
1962 President Kennedy addressed the nation on live television at 7 p.m. on October 2
October 23
1983 A Mercedes truck loaded with 12,000 pounds of TNT drove past two guard posts and
October 24
1929 Panic hit the New York Stock Exchange on October 24, 1929, when a record 12.9 mi
October 25
1917 Bolshevik Red Guards occupied key positions throughout Petrograd on the night of
October 26
1977 Ali Maow Maalin, a 23-year-old hospital cook in Merca, Somalia, developed the la
October 27
1904 New York City's first subway line opened on October 27, 1904, running from City
October 28
1636 The Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted 400 pounds on
October 29
1929 The New York Stock Exchange collapsed on October 29, 1929, as 16.4 million share
October 30
1938 Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds
October 31
1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenber