EVENTS
- 1682 – City of Philadelphia Founded. The historical city in the State of Pennsylvania was founded by English entrepreneur, William Penn. Penn received the land as a payment to fulfill a debt that King Charles II owed to Penn’s father. Philadelphia is the only UNESCO-declared World Heritage City in the United States and it was temporarily the capital of the United States in the 1800s.
- 1787 – The first of 85 Federalist Papers appeared in print in a New York City newspaper. The essays argued for the adoption of the new U.S. Constitution. They were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.
- 1795 – The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid.
- 1838 – State of Missouri passes the Extermination Order. Governor Lilburn Boggs signed Missouri Executive Order 44 as a result of the Battle of Crooked River which took place a few days earlier on October 24-25. The fight occurred between Mormon forces and a Missouri state militia and it resulted in 4 fatalities. The executive order ruled that ‘all Mormons were to be treated as enemies and that they must be exterminated or driven out of the state for public peace.’ The order forced members of the Church of Latter Day Saints to migrate from Missouri to Illinois.
- 1904 – The first New York City subway line opens
- 1978 – The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
- 1991 – Turkmenistan declares independence from the Soviet Union. The Central Asian country had been a separate republic of the USSR since 1925. Saparmurat Niyazov, the head of the country under the Soviets, continued ruling the country under the title of President for Life until his death in 2006. The day is annually celebrated in the country as Independence Day.
- 1998 – Gerhard Schroder becomes Chancellor of Germany
- 1999 – Shooting in the Armenian Parliament. 8 people, including the country’s prime minister, Vazgen Sargsyan and Speaker Karen Demirchyan, were killed when armed gunmen shot at the members of the Armenian National Assembly. The gunmen claimed that they were there to carry out a coup and that the prime minister was their target. The siege ended after the Armenian troops surrounded the parliament building and the gunmen surrendered.
- 2004 – The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1728 – Captain James Cook (British explorer)
- 1782 – Niccolo Paganini (Violinist)
- 1858 – Theodore Rosevelt (26th US President)
- 1872 – Emily Post (Etiquette book author)
- 1914 – Dylan Thomas (Poet)
- 1920 – K. R. Narayanan (Indian politician, 10th President of India)
- 1932 – Sylvia Plath (American poet)
- 1952 – Francis Fukuyama (American philosopher)
- 1967 – Scott Weiland (Singer – Stone Temple Pilots)
- 1984 – Irfan Pathan (Indian cricketer)
- 1984 – Kelly Osbourne (Ozzy’s daughter)
DEATHS
- 939 – Æthelstan (English king)
- 1553 – Michael Servetus (Spanish theologian, physician, cartographer)
- 1605 – Akbar (Mughal emperor)
- 1975 – Rex Stout (American author)
- 2013 – Lou Reed (American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer)