/year

October 16 in history

240 sourced entries recorded on October 16, from 362 CE to 2022 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 690Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty, and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire as "Holy and Divine Emperor". She becomes the first and only female "emperor" in 5,000 years of Chinese history. Wu Zetian changes the dynasty's name to the Zhou Dynasty, and begins to murder throne pretendants and ministers who try to oppose her. During her reign she elevates the status of Buddhism above Taoism.source
  • 764October 14–21 – Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion: A short-lived revolt led by Fujiwara no Nakamaro is suppressed. Emperor Junnin is deposed after a 6-year reign, and forced into exile. Former empress Kōken reassumes the imperial throne of Japan, and takes the name Shōtoku. She appoints her close associate, the priest Dōkyō, prime minister (taishi), running the government with him. Nakamaro is captured and killed with his wife and children.source
  • 912Abd al-Rahman III succeeds his grandfather Abdullah ibn Muhammad (after his execution) and becomes emir of Córdoba (Al-Andalus).source
  • 930Emperor Daigo of Japan, being fatally ill, abdicates in favor of his 7-year-old son Suzaku, after a 33-year reign. He enters the Buddhist priesthood, but dies shortly after. Former Emperor Uda (Daigo's father), remains the power behind the Japanese throne (until 931).source
  • 955Battle on the Raxa: Otto I, allied with the Rani tribe, defeats the Obotrite federation, led by Nako and his brother Stoigniew (probably at the Recknitz or Elde rivers) near Mecklenburg. The Elbe Slavs are forced to pay tribute, and accept a peace agreement.source
  • 1035Conrad II grants the right to hold the first Freimarkt festival in Bremen. The city increases her trade with Norway, and the northern Netherlands.source
  • 1111October 5 – 18-year-old Baldwin VII succeeds his father, Robert II, as Count of Flanders until 1119.source
  • 1306In a ceremony at Prague, King Rudolf I of Bohemia marries Elizabeth Richeza, the widow of Rudolf's predecessor, King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia.source
  • 1311Council of Vienne: Pope Clement V convokes the 15th Ecumenical Council at Vienne, France, in the presence of 20 cardinals, about 100 archbishops and bishops, and a number of abbots and priors. The main item on the agenda of the council is the Order of the Knights Templar. Clement passes papal bulls to dissolve the Templar Order, confiscate their lands, and label them as heretics.source
  • 1323Lord Raymond-Bernard, of the Aquitaine town of Montpezat, burns the village of Saint-Sardos to the ground and hangs the French royal sergeant who acted as agent for King Charles IV. France's government blames the England's Baron Basset of the Duchy of Gascony, for hiring Lord Raymond-Bernard.source
  • 1367Pope Urban V makes the first attempt to move the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon. This move is reversed in 1370, when he is forced to return to Avignon, and shortly afterwards dies.source
  • 1404The 5th Parliament of King Henry IV of England (summoned August 25), nicknamed "The Unlearned Parliament" because Henry refuses to allow lawyers to sit, opens for a four week session in Coventry, closing on November 13.source
  • 1419The first session, in almost two years, of the English Parliament is opened by King Henry V. The House of Commons re-elects Roger Flower as its speaker.source
  • 1502Columbus and his crew arrive at Almirante Bay in Panama.source
  • 1510Mingyi Nyo declares independence from the Ava Kingdom in upper Burma, by establishing the Toungoo dynasty.source
  • 1536The three negotiators of Pope Paul III depart France after three months of discussions with representatives of King Francois I.source
  • 1550Altan Khan crosses the Great Wall of China and besieges Beijing, burning the suburbs.source
  • 1555(1st day of 10th month Tenbun 24) – At the Battle of Miyajima Island, Mori Motonari defeats Sue Harukata.source
  • 1583King Philip II of Spain orders the transfer of Abada the rhinoceros from the Casa de Campo public park of Madrid, to the menagerie at his residence at El Escorial.source
  • 1590Saadian invasion of the Songhai Empire: An army of 20,000 troops, led by Judar Pasha is dispatched from Marrakesh in the Saadi Sultanate (now Morocco), on orders of Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur. The Saadi Army's objective is to conquer the Songhai Empire, led by the Emperor Askia Ishaq II, in North Africa, corresponding to what is now the Republic of Mali.source
  • 1605The reign of Jehangir begins (reigned till 28 October 1627).source
  • 1651Prince Charles of the House of Stuart escapes from England to find refuge in France.source
  • 1663With 2,000 men under his command, Petar Zrinski, the Viceroy of Croatia within the Holy Roman Empire, defeats a much larger force of 8,000 Ottoman soldiers in the Battle at Jurjeve Stijene, near the modern town of Otočac. The Croatians lose 10 soldiers killed; the Ottoman invasion force suffers over 1,500 deaths.source
  • 1690Lawrence Justinian (1381–1456) and John of Sahagún (c. 1430–79) are canonized by Pope Alexander VIII.source
  • 1697The Norwegian Code, promulgated by King Christian V of Denmark-Norway in 1687, is amended to provide for torture of condemned criminals in certain capital offenses in Norway, with permission for burning with hot irons, or cutting off the prisoner's right hand while the prisoner is being transported for decapitation.source
  • 1711Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts is established in Brussels.source
  • 1717Antonio Vivaldi's opera Tieteberga is performed for the first time, premiering at the Teatro San Moisè in Venicesource
  • 1724Yeongjo becomes the new emperor of Korea after the death of his older brother Gyeongjong. He reigns for almost 52 years until his death on April 22, 1776.source
  • 1732Russia approves the second Kamchatka expedition of Danish-born Russian cartographer Vitus Bering, and the Admiralty orders him to sail east and try to claim uncharted lands in North America.source
  • 1737An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.3 occurs off the shore of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Tsunamis up to 60 m high follow in the Pacific ocean.source
  • 1740October 9–22 – Batavia Massacre: Troops of the Dutch East India Company massacre at least 10,000 Chinese Indonesians in Batavia.source
  • 1749At Falmouth, a part of the British Province of Massachusetts Bay that would later be the site of Portland, Maine, a peace treaty is signed between representatives of Massachusetts Bay and 19 sagamores and tribal chiefs of the Wabanaki Confederacy (encompassing the Penobscot, Kennebec, Odanak and Wôlinak tribes of the Abenaki Indians), temporarily settling territorial disputes in Maine during King George's War.source
  • 1749the Irish House of Commons threatens Charles Lucas with prosecution and he is forced to flee.source
  • 1755The Penn's Creek massacre is carried out against white settlers who have moved into the Susquehanna Valley in the Pennsylvania colony, in territory also claimed by the Delaware Indians. The Delawares attack the Penn's Creek village, located near what is now Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and kill 25 of the 26 men, women and children living there.source
  • 1757Seven Years' War: Raid on Berlin – Hungarian raiders (3,400 horseman) under Count András Hadik plunder Berlin. He demands that the city council pay a ransom of 200,000 thalers and a dozen pairs of gloves for Empress Maria Theresa. The Hungarians leave the Prussian capital after they received messages about a Prussian relief force under Prince Dietrich von Anhalt-Dessau, marching towards Berlin.source
  • 1759Smeaton's Tower, John Smeaton’s Eddystone Lighthouse off the coast of South West England, is first illuminated.source
  • 1759Smeaton's Tower, John Smeaton's Eddystone Lighthouse, is first illuminated.source
  • 1760Seven Years' War: Battle of Kloster-Kamp – Ferdinand of Brunswick is beaten back from the Rhine by a French army.source
  • 1777Articles of Capitulation of 5,782 British, under Burgoyne are written.source
  • 1786The Confederation Congress establishes the United States Mint to make common coinage and currency for the U.S., to replace individual state coins.source
  • 1793October 15–16 – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Wattignies – A French Republican force commanded by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan compels a Habsburg Austrian Coalition army to retire.source
  • 1793French Revolution: Marie Antoinette, the widowed queen consort of Louis XVI, is guillotined in the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the conclusion of a 2-day trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal.source
  • 1799Evan Pritchard (Ieuan Lleyn), David Thomas (Dafydd Ddu Eryri) and Griffith Williams (Gutyn Peris) are "ordained" bards of the province of Gwynedd by Iolo Morganwg.source
  • 1799War of the Second Coalition: Action of 16 October 1799 – A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £54,000,000 is captured by the British Royal Navy off Vigo.source
  • 1799Action of 16 October 1799: A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £600,000 is captured by the Royal Navy off Vigo.source
  • 1802The port of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River are closed to American traffic by order of the city's Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, threatening the economy in the western United States, and prompting the need for the Louisiana Purchase.source
  • 1805October 16–October 19 – War of the Third Coalition: Ulm Campaign – Battle of Ulm: Austrian General Mack von Leiberich is forced to surrender his entire army to Napoleon, after being surrounded.source
  • 1813October 16–19 – Napoleonic Wars – Battle of Leipzig: Napoleon is defeated by the forces of the Sixth Coalition. More than 600,000 troops are in the field, with well over 10% killed, wounded or missing. Many of the German states forming the Confederation of the Rhine defect from Napoleon I to the Coalition, as a result of the battle.source
  • 1821the School of Arts of Edinburgh, a predecessor of Heriot-Watt University, is established by Leonard Horner for the education of working men.source
  • 1829The first modern hotel in the United States, Tremont House (Boston), opens.source
  • 1834The Palace of Westminster in London is destroyed by fire, along with both the House of Commons and the House of Lords (which are not in session) of the British Parliament. An investigation later traces the disaster to an order from the Exchequer to the Board of Works to destroy the tally sticks that had been stored as part of record keeping, the use of the furnaces beneath the House of Lords to carry out the task, and the failure of authorities to stop the work or to fight the fire after smoke had first been detected, the conclusion being that the fire was "wholly attributable to carelessness and negligence."source
  • 1834Burning of Parliament: Much of the Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire resulting from the burning of tally sticks formerly used by the Exchequer.source
  • 1836Alte Pinakothek in Munich opened.source
  • 1838Grave Creek Stone, a probable hoax, allegedly discovered in Moundsville, West Virginia.source
  • 1840Potchefstroom, Winburg and Natalia unifies as a single Boer republicsource
  • 1841Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, by Rev. Thomas Liddell, who carries a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, and becomes the school's first principal.source
  • 1842Queen's University is foundedsource
  • 1843Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton discovers the calculus of quaternions and deduces that they are non-commutative.source
  • 1843Søren Kierkegaard's philosophical book Fear and Trembling is first published, in Denmark.source
  • 1846At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. William T. G. Morton, a dentist, gives the first successful public demonstration of ether anesthesia.source
  • 1848A magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes Marlborough, causing three deaths.source
  • 1852After nearly five years' imprisonment in France, former Algerian Emir Abdelkader El Djezairi is released by orders of then-president Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte.source
  • 1854Abraham Lincoln, in his "Peoria speech", expresses opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Popular Sovereignty, and the expansion of slavery in the United States.source
  • 1859John Brown raids the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an unsuccessful bid to spark a general slave rebellion.source
  • 1859Militant abolitionist leader John Brown raids the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in an unsuccessful bid to spark a general slave rebellion.source
  • 1864Belgian Legion embark for Mexico to take part in the Second French intervention in Mexicosource
  • 1866October 7–21 – The Second Plenary Council of American Roman Catholic bishops is held in Baltimore.source
  • 1867English immigrant James Nash reports to authorities that he has discovered 75 ounces of alluvial gold in a creek at Gympie, Queensland. The find sparks a gold rush to the area, saving the colony of Queensland from bankruptcy.source
  • 1869England's first residential university-level women's college, the College for Women (predecessor of Girton College, Cambridge), is founded at Hitchin, by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon.source
  • 1872University College Wales (later to become Aberystwyth University) begins its first academic session.source
  • 1875Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.source
  • 1882The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad ("Nickel Plate Road") runs its first trains over the entire system between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago. Nine days later the Seney Syndicate sells the road to William Henry Vanderbilt, for US$7.2 million.source
  • 1883In five Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.source
  • 1883Cape Midland – Cradock to Colesberg, 126 mi 19 ch.source
  • 1891White River National Forest is established in Colorado.source
  • 1893American sisters Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill copyright their book Song Stories for the Kindergarten including "Good Morning to All". The melody, by Mildred Hill, is later adapted, without authorization, by Robert H. Coleman as "Good Morning to You!", with the second stanza containing the words to "Happy Birthday to You", leading to a successful copyright lawsuit by the Hill sisters in 1934.source
  • 1898The island of Puerto Rico is turned over by Spain to the United States. Ángel Rivero Méndez, the 149th and last Spanish governor of Puerto Rico, yields the office and turns over the keys to all military installations in the capital, San Juan to U.S. Army Captain Henry A. Reed, and General John R. Brooke becomes the new American military governor.source
  • 1898The American ferryboat Berkeley, the only means prior to 1937 for motor vehicles to travel directly across San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, is launched. Its role will be superseded in 1937 by the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.source
  • 1902The first Borstal (youth offenders' institution) opens in Borstal, Kent, U.K.source
  • 1905The Partition of Bengal is made by Lord Curzon to separate the region of Bengal into Muslim and Hindu territories until its reunification in 1911.source
  • 1906Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.source
  • 1911Mexican Revolution: Felix Diaz, nephew of Porfirio Díaz, occupies the port of Veracruz, as a sign of rebellion against Madero.source
  • 1912Bulgarian pilots Radul Minkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the second bombing with an airplane in history, at the railway station of Karaagac near Edirne, against Turkey.source
  • 1913The British Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard as the first oil-fired battleship.source
  • 1916Margaret Sanger opens the first U.S. birth control clinic, a forerunner of Planned Parenthood.source
  • 1916Margaret Sanger opens a family planning and birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the U.S., a forerunner of Planned Parenthood. Nine days later, she is arrested for breaking a New York state law prohibiting distribution of contraceptives. This same year, she publishes What Every Girl Should Know, providing information about such topics as menstruation and sexuality in adolescents.source
  • 1919In Germany, Adolf Hitler gives his first speech for the German Workers' Party (DAP).source
  • 1920Polish–Soviet War: After the Polish army captures Tarnopol, Dubno, Minsk and Dryssa, the ceasefire is enforced.source
  • 1923Roy and Walt Disney found The Walt Disney Company, at this time known as the Disney Brothers Studio.source
  • 1923A sixth tropical storm develops in the Gulf of Mexico; a rare occurrence, it consists of four active tropical storms simultaneously.source
  • 1925October 5–16 – The Locarno Treaties are negotiated.source
  • 1926An ammunition explosion on troopship Kuang Yuang near Jiujiang, China, kills 1,200.source
  • 1926Explosion of ammunition on the Chinese troopship Kuang Yuang, near Kiukiang, Chinasource
  • 1933October 14–16 – The new constitution of Estonia is approved only on the third consecutive referendum.source
  • 1933Parricides committed in the United States by Victor Licata lead to calls for the legal prohibition of cannabis.source
  • 1934The Long March of the People's Liberation Army of the Chinese Communist Party begins.source
  • 1935Discovery of a Zionist arms shipment at the port of Jaffa leads to unrest throughout Palestine.source
  • 1938Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the United States, condemns the Munich Agreement as a defeat, and calls upon America and western Europe to prepare for armed resistance against Hitler.source
  • 1938Nils Yngvar Ustvedt, medical doctor and politician (born 1868)source
  • 1940The draft registration of approximately 16 million men begins in the United States.source
  • 1940Nazi Governor-General Hans Frank establishes the Warsaw Ghetto.source
  • 1942A cyclone and consequential floods in the Bay of Bengal kill 40,000 people, with particularly heavy damage around Contai.source
  • 1942Animated short film The Mouse of Tomorrow, featuring the debut of Mighty Mouse (as "Super Mouse"), is released in the United States.source
  • 1943The Holocaust: Raid of the Ghetto of Rome – Over a thousand Jews are rounded up in Rome by the Gestapo; only 16 will survive their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp. The public silence of Pope Pius XII on the raid becomes a matter of historical controversy.source
  • 1944WWII: American bombing of Salzburg destroys the dome of the city's cathedral and most of a Mozart family home.source
  • 1945The Food and Agriculture Organization is established at a meeting in Quebec City as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
  • 1946The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.source
  • 1948The 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, the oldest juried art fair in the American Midwest, is founded.source
  • 1949Greek Civil War ends with a communist surrender.source
  • 1951East China Normal University is founded in Shanghai, China.source
  • 1951Judy Garland begins a series of concerts in New York's Palace Theatre.source
  • 1952The first ever Test cricket match of India national cricket team post independence was held at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground against Pakistan national cricket team.source
  • 1957Farmer Antônio Vilas Boas claims to have been abducted by extraterrestrials. This would become one of the earliest recorded alien abduction cases.source
  • 1962October 14–28 — The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs between the United States and Soviet Union over the deployment of Soviet ballistic missiles to Cuba.source
  • 1962Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. President Kennedy is told of photographs (taken from U-2 flights) showing Soviet nuclear weapon installations being constructed on Cuba in the Caribbean. A stand-off ensues for 12 days between the United States and the Soviet Union, threatening the world with nuclear war.source
  • 1963Ludwig Erhard replaces Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor of West Germany.source
  • 1964China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.source
  • 1964October 10–24 – The 1964 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo, Japan, the first in an Asian country.source
  • 1967Thirty-nine people, including singer-activist Joan Baez, are arrested in Oakland, California, for blocking the entrance of that city's military induction center.source
  • 19681968 Olympics Black Power salute: In Mexico City, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists in a Black Power salute after winning, respectively, the gold and bronze medals in the Olympic men's 200 metres (with the support of Australian silver medallist Peter Norman).source
  • 1969October 11–16 – The New York Mets upset the Baltimore Orioles four games to one in the World Series.source
  • 1970October Crisis: The Canadian government declares a state of emergency and outlaws the Quebec Liberation Front.source
  • 1974The Colegio de Profesores de Chile is created, replacing the Single Union of Education Workers, which functioned between 1970 and 1973.source
  • 1975Moroccan King Hassan II announced plans for a march of over 350,000 civilians across the border to Western Sahara to claim the parts of Western Sahara for Morocco.source
  • 1975The last naturally occurring case of smallpox is diagnosed and treated, the victim being two-year-old Rahima Banu in Bangladesh.source
  • 1975Rahima Banu's smallpox infection is reported. She is the last known person to have been infected with naturally occurring Variola major.source
  • 1978Pope John Paul II succeeds Pope John Paul I as the 264th pope, resulting in the first Year of Three Popes since 1605. He is the first Polish pope in history, and the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523).source
  • 1978Test cricket debut of Kapil Dev, India vs. Pakistan at Faisalabad.source
  • 1979A tsunami in Nice, France, kills 23 people.source
  • 1980The most recent atmospheric nuclear weapons test to date was conducted by China.source
  • 1981October 14–21. A delegation of Solidarity visits France.source
  • 1981Gas explosions at a coal mine at Hokutan, Yūbari, Hokkaidō, Japan, kill 93 people.source
  • 1985The Finnish dry cargo ship MS Hanna-Marjut, on its way from Mariehamn to Naantali, sinks in hard sea on the open water of Kihti between the Kökar and Sottunga islands of Åland, leading to the drowning of four people.source
  • 1986The International Olympic Committee chooses Albertville, France to be the host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics and Barcelona, Spain to be the host city of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The IOC also announces that the summer and winter games will separate with the winter games on every even, common year; and the summer games on every leap year starting from 1992.source
  • 1987October 15–16 – The Great storm of 1987 strikes southern Great Britain and northwestern France. It is one of the strongest storms to affect the region in the past 200 years.source
  • 1992A new Act of Parliament re-establishes the former Order of Merit of the Polish People's Republic under the new name Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej).source
  • 1994Robbery on the Bank of the Republic: In the Colombian city of Valledupar, a branch of the Colombian central bank Banco de la Republica (Bank of the Republic) is robbed of COP$24,075 million of non emitted bills (some US$33 million); this comes to be known as "El Robo del Siglo" (the bank heist of the century).source
  • 1994October 2 – 16 – The Philippines participates in the 1994 Asian Games held in Hiroshima, Japan from October 2 to 16, 1994. It Ranks 14th with three gold medals, two silver medals and eight bronze medals with a total of 13 over-all medals.source
  • 1995The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.source
  • 1997The first color photograph appears on the front page of The New York Times.source
  • 1997The Iraqi national census is conducted, estimating the population of Iraq at 22,046,000.source
  • 1998John Hume and David Trimble are announced as the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.source
  • 2001American planes misidentify and bomb a Red Cross facility in Afghanistan. A similar error occurs again on October 27.source
  • 2002The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Alexandria, Egypt, in a ceremony attended by several heads of state.source
  • 2003Pope John Paul II holds mass to celebrate his 25th anniversary as pope, becoming the fourth pope to reach the milestone.source
  • 2003Argentine General Antonio Domingo Bussi is detained for crimes committed in the Dirty War.source
  • 2006Iranian runner Hossein Fazeli wins world cross-country title in Sweden Sunday.source
  • 2007October 15 – October 21 – The 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing, China.source
  • 2012Seven paintings worth $25 million are stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.source
  • 2013Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse Airport, Laos, killing all 49 people on board.source
  • 2016Montenegrin parliamentary election, 2016source
  • 2017A bank in Al Arish, North Sinai was robbed by terrorists of local currency equivalent to about US $1 million. Seven people including 3 civilians were killed in the gunfire from the assailants.source
  • 2018Canada legalises the sale and use of cannabis, becoming the second country in the world to do so, after Uruguay in 2013.source
  • 20182018 Bouknadel train derailmentsource
  • 2019Venezuelan councilman and opposition politician Edmundo Rada is reported missing. He is found dead the following day on the side of the road out of Petare, Caracas, burned and with two coup de grâce shots in the back of his neck.source
  • 2021The Lucy spacecraft is launched by NASA, the first mission to explore the Trojan asteroids.source
  • 2022October 16–October 23 – The 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held. Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary by the Central Committee, beginning a third term as the paramount leader of China.source

Births

  • 1351Gian Galeazzo Visconti, first Duke of Milan (died 1402)source
  • 1396William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English noble (died 1450)source
  • 1430King James II of Scotland (died 1460) and his twin Alexander Stewart, Duke of Rothesay (died 1430)source
  • 1456Ludmila of Poděbrady, Regent of the duchies of Brzeg and Oława from 1488 (died 1503)source
  • 1458Adolph II, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, German prince (died 1526)source
  • 1483Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (died 1542)source
  • 1524Nicolas, Duke of Mercœur, French Catholic bishop (died 1577)source
  • 1524Nicolas of Lorraine, Duke of Mercœur (died 1577).source
  • 1535Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (died 1585)source
  • 1588Luke Wadding, Irish Franciscan friar and historian (died 1657)source
  • 1620Pierre Paul Puget, French painter (died 1694)source
  • 1678Anna Waser, Swiss painter (died 1714)source
  • 1679Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (died 1745)source
  • 1708Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (died 1777)source
  • 1758Noah Webster, U.S. lexicographer (died 1843)source
  • 1797James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (died 1868)source
  • 1803Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (died 1859)source
  • 1815Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (died 1905)source
  • 1841Prince Itō Hirobumi, 4-time prime minister of Japan (died 1909)source
  • 1854Karl Kautsky, Czech Marxist theoretician (died 1938)source
  • 1854Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (died 1900)source
  • 1863Austen Chamberlain, English politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1937)source
  • 1886David Ben-Gurion, Polish-born first Prime Minister of Israel (died 1973)source
  • 1890Michael Collins, Irish patriot (died 1922)source
  • 1898William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1980)source
  • 1908Enver Hoxha, Albanian communist dictator (died 1985)source
  • 1918Louis Althusser, French philosopher (died 1990)source
  • 1936Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet serial killer (died 1994)source
  • 1977John Mayer, American musician and record producersource
  • 2003Princess Kritika of Nepalsource

Deaths

  • 362Eliphius, Roman Catholic priest and saintsource
  • 385Fú Jiān, emperor of the Chinese Di state Former Qin (born 337)source
  • 786Lullus, archbishop of Mainzsource
  • 955Stoigniew, Obotrite prince and co-rulersource
  • 976Caliph Al-Hakam II dies after a 15-year reign in which he has ended the Fatimid Caliphate in Morocco and made the University of Córdoba the greatest institution in the world. Al-Hakam is succeeded by his 10-year-old son Hisham II as ruler of the Caliphate of Córdoba. His widow Subh becomes regent together with Almanzor the de facto rulers.source
  • 976Al-Hakam II, Umayyad caliph (born 915)source
  • 1027Fujiwara no Kenshi, Japanese dowager empress (born 994)source
  • 1047Henry VII, German noblemansource
  • 1071Almodis de la Marche, French noblemansource
  • 1130Pedro González de Lara, Castilian magnatesource
  • 1190Louis III (the Mild), German noblemansource
  • 1210Matilda of Boulogne, duchess of Brabantsource
  • 1284Shams al-Din Juvayni, Persian ruler and viziersource
  • 1323Amadeus V, Savoyan nobleman and regent (born 1252)source
  • 1368Michele Morosini dies in office from the bubonic plague, only four months after becoming Doge of Venice, and is replaced by Antonio Venier as the Republic's chief executive.source
  • 1382Michele Morosini, Doge of Venice, dies after contracting the bubonic plague. Antonio Venier is elected to succeed him. Vernier will be the chief executive of the republic for 18 years until his death in 1400.source
  • 1384At the age of 10, Jadwiga is crowned "King" of Poland in Kraków following the 1382 death of her father, King Louis of Hungary.source
  • 1438Anne of Gloucester, English noblewoman (born 1383)source
  • 1501Étienne de Vesc, courtier of Louis XI (c. 1445)source
  • 1553Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (born 1472)source
  • 1555The first two Protestant Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, are burned at the stake in England.source
  • 1555Nicholas Ridley, English clergyman (burned at the stake)source
  • 1590Archduchess Anna of Austria, Duchess of Bavaria (born 1528)source
  • 1591Pope Gregory XIV (born 1535)source
  • 1591Pope Gregory XIV dies from an attack of gallstones and leaves the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church vacant for the third time in 14 months. The Pope, formerly Cardinal Niccolò Sfondrati, had served for only 10 months after being elected on December 5, 1590.source
  • 1594William Allen, English cardinal (born 1532)source
  • 1621Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer (born 1562)source
  • 1628François de Malherbe, poet, critic and translator (born 1555)source
  • 1653Jan Wildens (born 1586), paintersource
  • 1655Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician and music theorist (born 1591)source
  • 1680Raimondo Montecuccoli, Italian general (born 1609)source
  • 1700Adrian, Patriarch of All Russia, dies after more than 10 years as head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is replaced by the hand-picked choice of Tsar Peter the Great with the appointment of Simeon Ivanovich Yavorsky as Patriarch Stefan.source
  • 1725Ralph Thoresby, British historian (born 1658)source
  • 1730Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer (born 1658)source
  • 1750Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer, lutenist (born 1687)source
  • 1755Gerard Majella, Italian Roman Catholic lay brother and saint (born 1725)source
  • 1767Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, Russian military leader (born 1683)source
  • 1772Ahmad Shah Durrani, Afghan founder of the Durrani Empire (cancer) (born 1724)source
  • 1780October 10–16 – The Great Hurricane flattens the islands of Barbados, Martinique and Sint Eustatius; 22,000 are killed.source
  • 1781Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (born 1705)source
  • 1791Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great (born 1739)source
  • 1793Marie-Antoinette, Queen Consort of France (executed) (born 1755)source
  • 1810Nachman of Breslov chassidic master (born 1772)source
  • 1884Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Hawaiian ali‘i (born 1831)source
  • 1906Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America (born 1826)source
  • 1946Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Nazi foreign minister (born 1893)source
  • 1951Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan is assassinated.source
  • 1959George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1880)source
  • 1975The "Balibo Five", Australian television journalists are killed at Balibo by Indonesian Army special forces in the buildup to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.source
  • 1991Luby's shooting: 23 people are killed at a Luby's restaurant in Killeen, Texas after George Hennard drives his truck through the establishment and begins firing at diners. It becomes the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and wouldn't be surpassed until the Virginia Tech shooting.source
  • 2000Mel Carnahan, 66, American lawyer and Governor of Missouri (since 1993), plane crash.source
  • 2003Stu Hart, 88, Canadian professional wrestler, stroke.source
  • 2011Dan Wheldon, 33, British IndyCar driver, racing accident.source