/year

October 21 in history

226 sourced entries recorded on October 21, from 256 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 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
  • 1074The Belgium beer brand Affligem is founded.source
  • 1096Battle of Civetot: The Seljuk Turks led by Kilij Arslan I defeat the People's army (20,000 men) near Nicaea. The crusaders are slaughtered, and the camp at Civetot is captured. Only children are spared and sent into slavery. Around 3,000 manage to escape back to Constantinople.source
  • 1097Siege of Antioch: The Crusaders arrive outside the city and begin the siege. They can not impose a complete blockade on Antioch. The Seljuk garrison comes out of the city to harass Crusader siege-lines and intercept supply convoys (supported by a Genoese fleet of 12 galleys) from Saint Symeon and Alexandretta (modern Turkey).source
  • 1209Innocent III crowns Otto IV as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in St. Peter's Basilica at Rome.source
  • 1275Battle of Martos: A Castilian army under Sancho of Aragon (archbishop of Toledo) is defeated by the Moors at Martos.source
  • 1296The formal coronation of Alauddin Khalji as Sultan of Delhi takes place, and he takes the regnal name Muhammad Shah I.source
  • 1313Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland delivers an ultimatum at a meeting of the Scottish nobles at an assembly in Dundee, giving Scots who have not yet come into his peace agreement a year to swear fealty to him or lose all their estates. The Scottish nobles of Lothian appeal to Edward II for protection, who promises to bring an English expeditionary force by midsummer in 1314.source
  • 1344Pope Clement VI issues dispensation for marriage between Maurice fitz Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, and Joan, daughter of the Earl of Desmond.source
  • 1345Justiciar captures Castleisland.source
  • 1345Battle of Auberoche in Gascony: The English defeat the French.source
  • 1345The Battle of Auberoche is fought between an Anglo-Gascon force of 1,200 men under Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Derby, and a French army of 7,000 commanded by Louis of Poitiers. It was fought at the village of Auberoche near Périgueux in northern Aquitaine resulting in an Anglo-Gascon victory.source
  • 1368Charles greets Pope Urban at Monte Mario, and the two ride together to a welcome in Rome.source
  • 1371An attempt on Saint Ursula's Day by the Duke of Brunswick, to defeat the uprising in the principality of Luneberg and to reclaim his title, is unsuccessful.source
  • 1420King Henry V summons the English Parliament, directing its members to assemble at Westminster on December 2.source
  • 1422King Charles VI of France passes away at the age of 53 after years of mental illness, and rival groups fight over who his successor will be. In Paris, Henry VI of England, the 10-month old son of the late French regent, England's King Henry V, and grandson of King Charles VI, is proclaimed King Henri II of France. In Bourges, the Dauphin Charles, eldest son of King Charles VI, is proclaimed as King Charles VII.source
  • 1428Siege of Orléans: After four days of bombardment, English troops attempt an assault on the boulevart of the city walls but the French defenders hold the attackers back with missile fire, rope nets, scalding oil, hot coals and quicklime. p.383source
  • 1434The University of Catania is founded in Italy.source
  • 1490The Massacre of Monzievaird takes place in Scotland at the county Perthshire, with 20 members of Clan Murray being killed when members of Clan Drummond and Clan Campbell set fire to the church where the Murrays have assembled.source
  • 1494France and Milan, with at least 14,000 troops, capture the town of Mordano, part of the Lordship of Imola, an ally of Naples. The French then begin killing at least 300 of the Mordano defenders and pillaging the town, while the Kingdom of Naples refuses to come to Mordano's defense.source
  • 1512Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.source
  • 1513The coronation of James V, 17 months old, as King of Scotland takes place in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle.source
  • 1520October 21 (Feast of St. Ursula) – The islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon are discovered by Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes, off Newfoundland. He names them Islands of the 11,000 Virgins, in honour of Saint Ursula.source
  • 1520The four remaining ships of the Magellan expedition and their crews confirm that they have found the passage that will be named the Strait of Magellan, the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The crew of the San Antonio, led by Estêvão Gomes elects not to sail into strait and begins journeying back to Spain.source
  • 1532King Francis I meets with Henry VIII of England for the first time in 12 years at Saint-Inglevert, where they agreed to form an alliance against their common enemies.source
  • 1554The Plassenburg castle in Bavaria, residence of the ruling House of Hohenzollern in the Principality of Ansbach, is destroyed during the Second Margrave War.source
  • 1578Battle of Wenden: The Russians are defeated by the Swedes, who proceed to take Polotsk.source
  • 1591The city of Nijmegen is captured from Spanish occupiers by Maurice of Orange, the staatholder of the Dutch Republic.source
  • 1597The Spanish Armada reaches the English Channel without opposition. An English ship sees the invading force's approach, but is intercepted and sunk, with the survivors being taken prisoner. The Armada encounters a storm the next day.source
  • 1600The Battle of Sekigahara occurs in what is now present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan, where the Eastern Army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu emerges victorious against the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari. The battle ends the Sengoku period and grants the Tokugawa clan nominal control over Japan, establishing the Tokugawa shogunate with Tokugawa Ieyasu as shogun.source
  • 1603Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): The Safavid Army of Iran, led by Emperor Abbas the Great, recaptures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire after 15 years of Ottoman occupation.source
  • 1613Gabriel Bathory, ruler of the Principality of Transylvania, is removed from office by vote of the nobles meeting at Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia in Romania). Bathory refuses to vacate the palace at the Transylvanian capital at Várad, (now Oradea in Romania), and is murdered on October 27.source
  • 1624Edict of Saint-Germain-en-Laye establishes a Chamber of Justice for the investigation of financial abuse and embezzlement in government.source
  • 1638The Great Thunderstorm in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, England: probable ball lightning strikes the parish church, killing 4 and injuring about 60.source
  • 1665Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert found the Manufacture royale des glaces of Saint Gobain, which is the oldest French company of the CAC 40, with 350 years in 2015.source
  • 1665Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs (Royal Mirror-Glass Factory, a predecessor of Saint-Gobain), is established by royal letters patent issued by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in Paris.source
  • 1680Charles II's fourth parliament (the "Exclusion Bill Parliament", summoned in 1679) assembles. The term Whig comes to be used for those in favour of the Exclusion Bill and Tory for those who oppose it.source
  • 1688The Venetians raise the siege of Negroponte.source
  • 1690The play Amphitryon by John Dryden, based on Molière's 1668 play of the same name, receives its first performance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.source
  • 1692In Barbados, a slave revolt is crushed.source
  • 1719The Red Canal is opened in the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, after seven years of construction, at a ceremony in the presence of the Tsar Peter the Great.source
  • 1728October 20–23 – The Copenhagen Fire of 1728 (the largest in the Danish city's history) burns.source
  • 1740October 9–22 – Batavia Massacre: Troops of the Dutch East India Company massacre at least 10,000 Chinese Indonesians in Batavia.source
  • 1743Benjamin Franklin's view of a lunar eclipse from Philadelphia is spoiled by a rainstorm; several days later, he learns that residents of Boston received the same storm hours after the eclipse, demonstrating that weather moves from west to east.source
  • 1747King George II transfers Thomas Herring, Archbishop of York, to become the new Archbishop of Canterbury, three days after the death of John Pottersource
  • 1774The word Liberty is first displayed on a flag raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts, in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.source
  • 1788The 14th and last session of the Continental Congress and (the 6th as Congress under the Articles of Confederation) is adjourned.source
  • 1797In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli; the ship will remain in commission in the 21st century.source
  • 1798October 21–22 – Revolt of Cairo: Napoleon Bonaparte suppresses a revolt in Cairo. French occupation survives but becomes more dependent on force and administration.source
  • 1803John Dalton presents a paper to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society containing the first table of atomic weights.source
  • 1803Thomas Russell, co-founder of the Society of United Irishmen, is hanged at Downpatrick Gaol.source
  • 1805Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Battle of Trafalgar: The British fleet, led by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain; however, Admiral Nelson is fatally shot.source
  • 1805Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar – British naval fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. Admiral Nelson is fatally shot.source
  • 1805Battle of Trafalgar: A British Royal Navy fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. About 465 of the 18,000 men on the British ships were born in Wales.source
  • 1805An underground explosion at Hebburn colliery on Tyneside kills 35.source
  • 1806Battle of Trafalgar: A British Royal Navy fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. About 465 of the 18,000 men on the British ships were born in Wales.source
  • 1807The British sail away with the Danish naval fleet (17 ships of the line, 12 frigates, 8 brigs, 35 smaller vessels and 81 transport ships) after destroying the ships under construction at the Holmen Naval Base.source
  • 1807foundation stone of the Nelson Monument, Edinburgh, on Calton Hill, is laid.source
  • 1812Siege of Burgos: British troops under Arthur Wellington are forced to abandon the siege of Burgos after a month. Meanwhile, Joseph Bonaparte makes plans to recapture Madrid. He assembles an army led by Louis-Gabriel Suchet and Jean-de-Dieu Soult to drive Wellington out of central Spain.source
  • 1816Penang Free School is founded by Rev. Sparke Hutchings, on the island of Penang (in modern-day Malaysia).source
  • 1822The volcano Mount Vesuvius near Naples erupts.source
  • 1824Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement, receiving BP 5,022 for An Improvement in the Mode of Producing an Artificial Stone.source
  • 1824Joshua John Moore is the first person to take out a ticket-of-occupation for the land which later became the site of Canberrasource
  • 1825PS Comet II sinks off Gourock (Scotland) with the loss of 62 lives.source
  • 1825PS Comet II sinks off Gourock in the Firth of Clyde with the loss of 62 lives.source
  • 1831The November Uprising ends in the defeat of Polish forces.source
  • 1837General Thomas Jesup captures Seminole leader Osceola under pretext of negotiations.source
  • 1845The New York Herald becomes the first newspaper to mention the game of baseball.source
  • 1858Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring music associated with the can-can, is first performed in Paris.source
  • 1860October 18–21 – Beijing's Old Summer Palace is burned to the ground by orders of British general Lord Elgin, in retaliation for mistreatment of several prisoners of war, during the Second Opium War.source
  • 1861American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff – Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops, in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is also killed in the fighting.source
  • 1865Opening of Howells (department store) in Cardiff as a drapery.source
  • 1866October 7–21 – The Second Plenary Council of American Roman Catholic bishops is held in Baltimore.source
  • 1866Risk Allah Bey brought to trial in Brussels on charges of murder and forgery.source
  • 1867'Manifest destiny': Medicine Lodge Treaty – Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders, requiring Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.source
  • 1868The M6.3–6.7 Hayward earthquake affects the San Francisco Bay Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing damage from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz.source
  • 1882Waseda University is founded by Shigenobu Ōkuma in Japan as Tokyo Specializing School.source
  • 1882The Canadian Rugby Football Union is founded. {Reference is needed. The link cited as well as the Rugby Canada Wiki note different years (1880 and 1884 respectively)}source
  • 1888The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is established.source
  • 1889Cape Western – Eerste River to Somerset West, 8 mi 79 ch.source
  • 1889Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder is recorded by Adelbert Theodor Wangemann, a German associate of Thomas Edison, on wax cylinders via phonograph. The two surviving wax cylinders that are produced make von Moltke, who was born in 1800, the earliest-living human whose voice has been recorded, and the only person born in the 18th century whose voice will be heard into the 21st.source
  • 1898General Leonard Wood, the U.S. military governor of Cuba, issues a proclamation guaranteeing personal rights to the Cuban people.source
  • 1902A five-month strike by the United Mine Workers in the United States ends.source
  • 1903Due to ill health Prime Minister Giuseppe Zanardelli resigns. He dies two months later.source
  • 1904Russo-Japanese War: Dogger Bank incident – The Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats, in the North Sea.source
  • 1904Dogger Bank incident: the Baltic Fleet of the Imperial Russian Navy, heading for the Russo-Japanese War, mistakes British fishing trawlers in the North Sea for Japanese torpedo boats and opens fire, sinking one, and causing serious diplomatic conflict between Russia and Britain.source
  • 1910The 11th National Congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) is held in Milan, dominated by the conflict between the reformist wing and the intransigent wing of the left. Leonida Bissolati and Ivanoe Bonomi attack Filippo Turati from the right, while Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani and Gaetano Salvemini criticize from the left. At the far left is Benito Mussolini who is participating for the first time at the national party congress.source
  • 1912October 18–21 – First Balkan War: The Greek navy captures the island of Lemnos for use as a forward base against the Dardanelles.source
  • 1915The United Daughters of the Confederacy holds its first annual meeting outside the South, in San Francisco. Historian General Mildred Rutherford addresses the gathering on the "Historical Sins of Omission & Commission", of Yankee historians.source
  • 1916Friedrich Adler shoots Count Karl von Stürgkh, Minister-President of Austria.source
  • 1916Icelandic community service referendum, 1916source
  • 1921George Melford's wildly successful silent film The Sheik, which will propel its leading actor Rudolph Valentino to international stardom, premieres in Los Angeles.source
  • 1925October 19–29 – Incident at Petrich: A brief conflict occurs between Bulgaria and Greece after a Greek soldier accidentally crosses into the Bulgarian side and is shot by border guards.source
  • 1929October 18–24: battle at Zhengzhou, Henan between Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army and National Revolutionary Armysource
  • 1930Lord Passfield, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, issues a white paper, a formal statement of the British policy in Palestine, outlining a more restrictive british policy towards jewish immigration and land settlement.source
  • 1930The Hope Simpson Royal Commission publishes the Hope Simpson Report, following the widespread 1929 Palestine riots, which recommends limiting Jewish immigration, claiming a lack of agricultural land to support such immigration.source
  • 1934October 20–November 3 – Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from his native Brisbane, Australia, to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The November 3 Hawaii–San Francisco leg is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.source
  • 1935Grant v Australian Knitting Mills, a landmark case in consumer law, is decided on appeal in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the U.K.source
  • 1937October 18–21 – Spanish Civil War: The whole Spanish northern seaboard falls into the Falangists' hands; Republican forces in Gijón, Spain, set fire to petrol reserves prior to retreating before the advancing Falangists.source
  • 1938In direct contravention of the recently signed Munich Agreement, Adolf Hitler circulates among his high command a secret memorandum stating that they should prepare for the "liquidation of the rest of Czechoslovakia" and the occupation of Memel.source
  • 1939The first meeting of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Uranium is held under Lyman James Briggs, authorized by President Roosevelt to oversee neutron experiments, a precursor of the Manhattan Project.source
  • 1941Comic book superheroine Wonder Woman, created by William Moulton Marston and H. G. Peter, makes her first appearance in All Star Comics #8, "Introducing Wonder Woman", in the US (cover date December 1941).source
  • 1942Gordon Conant becomes premier of Ontario, replacing Mitchell Hepburnsource
  • 1942A Royal New Zealand Air Force torpedo bomber sinks the German MS Palatia, with a loss of 946 lives.source
  • 1943HMCS Chedabucto sinks near Rimouski after an accidental collision with another ship.source
  • 1944World War II: Smokey Smith earns the Victoria Cross on the Savio River in Italy.source
  • 1945Census (population 18,790,174)source
  • 1951A storm in southern Italy kills over 100.source
  • 1952October 21–22 – A typhoon hits southern Luzon, killing 443 (as of October 24). Albay was the worst-hit province with 118 deaths reported in Tabaco.source
  • 1959Åslaug Haga, politician and Ministersource
  • 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
  • 1962Hurtigruten passenger ship MS Sanct Svithun running between Bergen and Kirkenes goes in the northbound Hurtigruten, sank during a stormy night after running aground off her normal course, resulting in the deaths of 41 while 48 survived the event.source
  • 1964October 10–24 – The 1964 Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo, Japan, the first in an Asian country.source
  • 1965Comet Ikeya–Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 km from the sun.source
  • 1967Approximately 70,000 Vietnam War protesters march in Washington, D.C. and rally at the Lincoln Memorial; in a successive march that day, 50,000 people march to the Pentagon, where Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin symbolically chant to "levitate" the building and "exorcise the evil within."source
  • 1967Tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters march in Washington, D.C. Allen Ginsberg symbolically chants to 'levitate' The Pentagon.source
  • 1967An Egyptian surface-to-surface missile sinks the Israeli destroyer Eilat, killing 47 Israeli sailors. Israel retaliates by shelling Egyptian refineries along the Suez Canal.source
  • 1969Willy Brandt becomes Chancellor of West Germany.source
  • 1969General Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup, 6 days after the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke.source
  • 1969General Siad Barre comes to power in Somalia in a coup d'état, 6 days after the assassination of President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke.source
  • 1971U.S. President Richard Nixon nominates Lewis Franklin Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court.source
  • 1971Pablo Neruda receives the nobel prize for literature.source
  • 1971The Clarkston explosion in Scotland, caused by a gas leak, kills 22 people.source
  • 1973A peace declaration was signed between the Malaysian government and the North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP) at Simanggang, Sarawak. After the signing, the district and division of Simanggang were later renamed Sri Aman ("town of peace").source
  • 1977The European Patent Institute is founded.source
  • 1977A U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed during a military exercise in Mindoro, killing 24 servicemen.source
  • 1978Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 Skylane over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.source
  • 1980In Major League Baseball, The Philadelphia Phillies of the National League defeat the Kansas City Royals of the American League, 4–1, in Game Six of the World Series to win the championship.source
  • 1981Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.source
  • 1981October 14–21. A delegation of Solidarity visits France.source
  • 1983At the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures, the metre is defined in terms of the speed of light as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.source
  • 1986The Marshall Islands became an associated state under the Compact of Free Association.source
  • 1987Government falls over Voeren crisissource
  • 1987The Bangladesh Civil Service Administration Academy was established.source
  • 1989The Commonwealth Heads of Government issue the Langkawi Declaration on the Environment, making environmental sustainability one of the Commonwealth of Nations's main priorities.source
  • 1990Census (population 56,473,005)source
  • 1991Lebanon hostage crisis: Jesse Turner, a mathematics professor who has been held hostage for more than four years, is released.source
  • 1992150,000 coal miners march in London to protest government plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of miners.source
  • 1993A coup in Burundi results in the death of president Melchior Ndadaye and sparks the Burundi Civil War.source
  • 1993Landslides occurred in an abandoned open cast tin mine near Pantai Remis, Perak.source
  • 1999Appears in Bucharest the first issue of Playboy magazine.source
  • 2001Driss El Himer wins the Amsterdam Marathonsource
  • 2002The discovery of the James Ossuary is announced.source
  • 2002The results of the 2001 census are released, showing a 5.0% rise in the national population to 10,356,117 since the last census in 1991.source
  • 2003After acknowledging that it has produced enriched uranium, Iran agrees to suspend its nuclear program.source
  • 2003October 20–21 APEC Thailand 2003 took place in Bangkok, Thailand.source
  • 2007October 15 – October 21 – The 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is held in Beijing, China.source
  • 2007Finnish racing driver Kimi Räikkönen won his first Formula One World Championship, driving for Scuderia Ferrari at the Brazilian Grand Prix.source
  • 2008The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated at Geneva.source
  • 2012Pedro Calungsod is canonized in the Vatican City. He is the second Filipino saint.source
  • 2016A Camrail intercity passenger train derails and crashes in Eséka, killing at least 79 with a further 550 injured.source
  • 2020Heavy rains brought by tropical storm Linfa caused landslides at the Rao Trang 3 hydroelectric plant in Thua Thien Hue, Vietnam, killing 17 construction workers and 13 soldiers who were on a rescue mission.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
  • 2025Sanae Takaichi becomes the first female Prime Minister of Japan.source
  • 2025American Eric Lu wins the quinquennial XIX International Chopin Piano Competition at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Poland.source

Births

  • 1328Hongwu Emperor of China (died 1398)source
  • 1409Alessandro Sforza, Italian condottiero (died 1473)source
  • 1449George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III of England (died 1478)source
  • 1449George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (died 1478)source
  • 1467Giovanni il Popolano, Italian diplomat (died 1498)source
  • 1527Louis I, Cardinal of Guise, French Catholic cardinal (died 1578)source
  • 1527Louis I, Cardinal of Guise, French cardinal (d.1578)source
  • 1536Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt (died 1586)source
  • 1543Michael Hicks, English politician (died 1612)source
  • 1581Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (died 1641)source
  • 1582John Ernest of Nassau-Siegen, German general (died 1617)source
  • 1624Edward Harley, English politician (died 1700)source
  • 1650Jean Bart, French admiral (died 1702)source
  • 1650Jean Bart, privateer (died 1702)source
  • 1658Henri de Boulainvilliers, French nobleman (died 1722)source
  • 1660Georg Ernst Stahl, German physician and chemist (died 1734)source
  • 1672Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Italian historian, scholar (died 1750)source
  • 1675Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (died 1710)source
  • 1675Emperor Higashiyama (died 1710)source
  • 1685George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard, English Royal Navy admiral (died 1765)source
  • 1693Frederik Nannestad, bishop (died 1774).source
  • 1712James Steuart, Scottish economist (died 1780)source
  • 1757Charles-Pierre Augereau, Marshal of France and duc de Castiglione (died 1816)source
  • 1761Louis Albert Guislain Bacler d'Albe, French painter and cartographer (died 1824)source
  • 1772Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher (died 1834)source
  • 1790Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and politiciansource
  • 1833Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite, creator of the Nobel Prize (died 1896)source
  • 1874Henri Guisan, military leader (died 1960)source
  • 1877Oswald Avery, Canadian-American physician, medical researcher (died 1955)source
  • 1914Martin Gardner, American writer (died 2010)source
  • 1929Ursula K. Le Guin, American science-fiction, fantasy author (died 2018)source
  • 1930Ivan Silayev, politician (died 2023)source
  • 1949Benjamin Netanyahu, 2-time prime minister of Israelsource
  • 1956Carrie Fisher, American actress and novelist (died 2016)source
  • 1995Doja Cat, American rappersource

Deaths

  • 256Lü Dai (or Dinggong), Chinese general (born 161)source
  • 383Ursula, Roman Christian martyr and saintsource
  • 645Zhenzhu Khan, khan of Xueyantuosource
  • 1023Gero, archbishop of Magdeburgsource
  • 1096Walter Sans Avoir, French leader of the First Crusadesource
  • 1125Cosmas of Prague, Bohemian chroniclersource
  • 1221Alix, Duchess of Brittany (or Alis), Breton noblewoman (born 1200)source
  • 1266Birger Jarl, Swedish nobleman and knight (born 1210)source
  • 1287Stephen Bersted, English cleric and bishopsource
  • 1345Louis I de Poitiers, Count of Valentinoissource
  • 1422King Charles VI of France (born 1368)source
  • 1422Charles VI of France dies, and his successor Charles VII takes over the throne.source
  • 1422Charles VI of France (born 1368).source
  • 1494Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan (born 1469)source
  • 1500Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (born 1442)source
  • 1514Alexander, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken and Count of Veldenz (1489–1514) (born 1462)source
  • 1556Pietro Aretino, Italian author (born 1492)source
  • 1600Shimazu Toyohisa, Japanese samurai (born 1570)source
  • 1638The Great Thunderstorm at Widecombe-in-the-Moor in Devon: 4 are killed and around 60 injured when probable ball lightning strikes the parish church.source
  • 1687Edmund Waller, English poet and politician (born 1606)source
  • 1765Giovanni Paolo Panini, Italian painter and architect (born 1691)source
  • 1777Samuel Foote, English dramatist and actor (born 1720)source
  • 1793Johann Hartmann, violinist and composer (born 1726)source
  • 1805John Cooke, English captain (born 1762)source
  • 1805Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, British admiral (mortally wounded in battle) (born 1758)source
  • 1904Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer (born 1877)source
  • 1924Viktor Kovačić, architect (born 1874)source
  • 1956Joseph Laurent Philippe, bishopsource
  • 1959The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of modern art (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who died on April 9) opens to the public in New York City.source
  • 1966Aberfan disaster in South Wales (U.K.): 144 (including 116 children) are killed by a collapsing coal spoil tip.source
  • 1969Jack Kerouac, American author (born 1922)source
  • 1993President Ndadaye was assassinated by Tutsi extremists, starting another genocide against Tutsis and a civil war.source
  • 2003Elliott Smith, 34, American musician, suicide by stabbing.source
  • 2012George McGovern, 90, American politician and USAAF pilot, U.S. Representative (1957–1961) and Senator (1963–1981), 1972 Democratic Party presidential nominee.source
  • 2014October 18 - 22 people are killed in heavy rainfall, with 9 killed in the capital of Managua by a wall collapse.source
  • 2014Gough Whitlam, 98, Australian politician, Prime Minister (1972–1975).source