Events Pre-1600 312 – Constantine the Great enters Rome after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, stages a grand adventus in the city, and is met with popular jubilation. Maxentius' body is fished out of the Tiber and beheaded. 437 – Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople unifying the two branches of the House of Theodosius. 1390 – First trial for witchcraft in Paris leading to the death of three people. 1467 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
1601–1900 1611 – Russian homage to the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa. 1621 – The London Pageant of 1621 celebrates the inauguration of Edward Barkham (Lord Mayor). 1658 – Second Northern War: Naval forces of the Dutch Republic defeat the Swedes in the Battle of the Sound. 1665 – Portuguese forces defeat the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitate King António I of Kongo, also known as Nvita a Nkanga. 1675 – Leibniz makes the first use of the long s (∫) as a symbol of the integral in calculus. 1792 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who sighted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River. 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross. 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Wauhatchie: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant repel a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet in one of the few night battles of the war, protecting the Union's recently opened supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
1901–present 1914 – World War I : the Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of the Central Powers. 1918 – World War I: the German High Seas Fleet is incapacitated when sailors mutiny, an action which would trigger the German Revolution of 1918–19. 1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. 1929 – Black Tuesday: The New York Stock Exchange crashes, ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and eventually contributing to the Great Depression. 1941 – The Holocaust: In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews are shot by German occupiers at the Ninth Fort, a massacre known as the "Great Action". 1944 – World War II: The Dutch city of Breda is liberated by 1st Polish Armoured Division. 1944 – World War II: The Soviet Red Army enters Hungary. 1948 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF. 1953 – BCPA Flight 304 DC-6 crashes near San Francisco. 1955 – The sinks after probably striking a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol, with a loss of more than 600 sailers. 1956 – Suez Crisis begins: Israeli forces invade the Sinai Peninsula and push Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal. 1957 – Israel's prime minister David Ben-Gurion and five of his ministers are injured when Moshe Dwek throws a grenade into the Knesset. 1960 – An airplane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff in Toledo, Ohio. 1964 – The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar is renamed to the United Republic of Tanzania. 1964 – Biggest jewel heist in American history when Murph the Surf and gang burgle the American Museum of Natural History stealing the Star of India and other gems. 1967 – Montreal's World Fair, Expo 67, closes with over 50 million visitors. 1969 – The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. 1972 – The three surviving perpetrators of the Munich massacre are released from prison in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615. 1980 – Demonstration flight of a secretly modified C-130 for an Iran hostage crisis rescue attempt ends in a crash landing at Eglin Air Force Base's Duke Field, Florida, leading to the cancellation of Operation Credible Sport. 1985 – Major General Samuel K. Doe is announced as the winner of the first multi-party election in Liberia. 1986 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher opens the last stretch of the M25 motorway. 1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid. 1994 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill U.S. President Bill Clinton. 1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. 1998 – Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time. 1998 – ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with live coverage of the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission. 1998 – Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras. 1998 – The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures over 200. 1999 – A large cyclone devastates Odisha, India. 2002 – A fire destroys a luxurious department store in Ho Chi Minh City, where 1,500 people are shopping. More than 60 people die and over 100 are unaccounted for in the deadliest peacetime disaster in Vietnam. 2004 – The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. 2005 – Bombings in Delhi, India kill 67 and injure over 200 people. 2006 – ADC Airlines Flight 053 crashes after takeoff from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Nigeria killing 96 people and injuring nine. 2008 – Delta Air Lines merges with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of US legacy carriers to five. 2008 – A pair of deadly earthquakes hits Baluchistan, Pakistan, killing 215. 2012 – Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the United States, killing hundreds, while leaving nearly $70 billion in damages and causing major power outages. 2014 – A mud slide; the 2014 Badulla landslide, in south-central Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people, and leaves hundreds of people missing. 2015 – China announces the end of its one-child policy after 35 years. 2018 – A Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia killing 189 people on board. This is the first of two crashes that will lead to the plane being grounded worldwide. 2020 – Jeremy Corbyn, former Leader of the Labour Party and of the Opposition in the United Kingdom is suspended from the Labour Party following his response to findings from the EHRC on the issue of antisemitism within the party. 2022 – At least 156 die at a crowd crush during a Halloween celebration in Itaewon district, Seoul, South Korea. 2022 – At least 100 people are killed and over 300 are injured by a double car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Births Pre-1600 1463 – Alessandro Achillini, Italian physician and philosopher (died 1512) 1497 – Benedetto Accolti the Younger, Italian cardinal (died 1549) 1504 – Shin Saimdang, South Korean painter and poet (died 1551) 1507 – Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Spanish general (died 1582) 1550 – Laura Guidiccioni, Italian noblewoman and poet (died 1597/9) 1562 – George Abbot, English archbishop and academic (died 1633)
1601–1900 1682 – Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, French historian, explorer, and author (died 1761) 1690 – Martin Folkes, English mathematician and astronomer (died 1754) 1704 – John Byng, English admiral and politician, 11th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (died 1757) 1711 – Laura Bassi, Italian physicist and academic, first woman to have doctorate in science (died 1778) 1740 – James Boswell, Scottish lawyer and author (died 1795) 1808 – Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer and meteorologist (died 1873) 1812 – Louise Granberg, Swedish playwright (died 1907) 1815 – Dan Emmett, American composer (died 1904) 1822 – Mieczysław Halka-Ledóchowski, Russian-Polish cardinal (died 1902) 1831 – James Boucaut, English-Australian politician, 11th Premier of South Australia (died 1916) 1832 – Narcisa de Jesús, Ecuadorian saint (died 1869) 1837 – Harriet Powers, American folk artist and quilter (died 1910) 1855 – Paul Bruchési, Canadian archbishop (died 1939) 1855 – Paul-Jacques Curie, French physicist and academic (died 1941) 1861 – Andrei Ryabushkin, Russian painter (died 1904) 1866 – Antonio Luna, Filipino general and politician (died 1899) 1866 – Carl Gustav Witt, German astronomer (died 1946) 1875 – Marie of Romania (died 1938) 1877 – Narcisa de Leon, Filipino film producer (died 1966) 1877 – Wilfred Rhodes, English cricketer and coach (died 1973) 1879 – Alva B. Adams, American lawyer and politician (died 1941) 1879 – Franz von Papen, German soldier and politician, Chancellor of Germany (died 1969) 1880 – Abram Ioffe, Russian physicist and academic (died 1960) 1881 – John DeWitt, American football player and hammer thrower (died 1930) 1882 – Jean Giraudoux, French author and playwright (died 1944) 1883 – Victor Hochepied, French swimmer and water polo player (died 1966) 1891 – Fanny Brice, American actress and singer (died 1951) 1897 – Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Nazi Germany (died 1945) 1897 – Billy Walker, English footballer (died 1964) 1898 – Alan Barker, English soldier (died 1984) 1899 – Akim Tamiroff, Georgian-American actor (died 1972)
1901–present 1901 – Émilienne Morin, French activist (died 1991) 1905 – Henry Green, English author (died 1973) 1906 – Fredric Brown, American author (died 1972) 1907 – Edwige Feuillère, French actress (died 1998) 1910 – A. J. Ayer, English philosopher and author (died 1989) 1913 – Al Suomi, American ice hockey player and referee (died 2014) 1914 – Maxim of Bulgaria, Bulgarian patriarch (died 2012) 1915 – William Berenberg, American physician and academic (died 2005) 1918 – Bernard Gordon, American screenwriter and producer (died 2007) 1918 – Diana Serra Cary, American actress and author (died 2020) 1920 – Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-American physician and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2011) 1920 – Václav Neumann, Czech violinist and conductor (died 1995) 1921 – Baselios Thoma Didymos I, Indian metropolitan (died 2014) 1921 – Baku Mahadeva, Sri Lankan civil servant and academic (died 2013) 1921 – Bill Mauldin, American soldier and cartoonist (died 2003) 1922 – Neal Hefti, American trumpet player and composer (died 2008) 1923 – Carl Djerassi, Austrian-American chemist, author, and playwright (died 2015) 1923 – Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs, Dutch runner, hurdler, and long jumper (died 2015) 1924 – Bernard Middleton, British restoration bookbinder (died 2019) 1925 – Dominick Dunne, American journalist and author (died 2009) 1925 – Robert Hardy, English actor (died 2017) 1925 – Haim Hefer, Polish-Israeli songwriter and poet (died 2012) 1925 – Klaus Roth, British mathematician (died 2015) 1925 – Zoot Sims, American saxophonist and composer (died 1985) 1926 – Necmettin Erbakan, Turkish engineer and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Turkey (died 2011) 1926 – Jon Vickers, Canadian tenor and actor (died 2015) 1927 – Frank Sedgman, Australian tennis player 1929 – Yevgeny Primakov, Ukrainian-Russian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Russia (died 2015) 1930 – Bertha Brouwer, Dutch sprinter (died 2006) 1930 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French sculptor and painter (died 2002) 1930 – Omara Portuondo, Cuban singer and dancer 1930 – Natalie Sleeth, American pianist and composer (died 1992) 1932 – Dick Garmaker, American basketball player (died 2020)