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On this day

Storm Ophelia strikes the U.K. and Ireland causing major damage and power loss.

2017

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Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.

2013

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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Egypt, commemorating the ancient library of Alexandria.

2002

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The magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake strikes Southern California

1999

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Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.

1998

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Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.

1996

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The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C. About 837,000 attend.

1995

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The Skye Bridge in Scotland is opened.

1995

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George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.

1991

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Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1984

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Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

1978

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Indonesian troops kill the Balibo Five, a group of Australian journalists, in Portuguese Timor.

1975

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Three-year-old Rahima Banu, from Bangladesh, is the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox.

1975

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The Australian Coalition sparks a constitutional crisis when they vote to defer funding for the government's annual budget.

1975

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Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1973

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Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act during the October Crisis.

1970

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Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.

1968

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Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.

1968

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Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1968

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China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

1964

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Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party, while Alexei Kosygin becomes the head of government.

1964

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Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).

1962

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Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro delivers his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Fulgencio Batista government for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks.

1953

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The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

1951

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The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War.

1949

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The Philippines takes over the administration of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.

1947

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Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal are executed by hanging.

1946

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Holocaust in Italy: Raid on the Roman Ghetto.

1943

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Holocaust in Poland: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

1940

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World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.

1939

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Chinese Communists begin the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.

1934

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Háry János, a Hungarian folk opera by Zoltán Kodály is premiered at the Royal Hungarian Opera House in Budapest.

1926

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Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.

1923

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Adolf Hitler delivers his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.

1919

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Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

1916

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William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.

1909

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The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

1905

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A diplomatic incident between the United States and Chile occurred after U.S. sailors were attacked in Valparaíso, nearly leading to war.

1891

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The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.

1882

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Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1875

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The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".

1869

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Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.

1869

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Origins of the American Civil War: Abolitionist John Brown and his supporters launch a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

1859

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William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation.

1846

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William Rowan Hamilton invents quaternions, a three-dimensional system of complex numbers.

1843

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Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.

1841

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Great Trek: Afrikaner voortrekkers repulse a Matabele attack, but lose their livestock.

1836

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Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

1834

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Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni, uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.

1817

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Simón Bolívar sentences Manuel Piar to death for challenging the racial-caste in Venezuela.

1817

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The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon in the four-day Battle of Leipzig.

1813

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War of the Third Coalition: Napoleon surrounds the Austrian army at Ulm.

1805

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French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

1793

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War of the First Coalition: French victory at the Battle of Wattignies forces Austria to raise the siege of Maubeuge.

1793

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American Revolutionary War: The British-led Royalton raid is the last Native American raid on New England.

1780

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The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing between 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles.

1780

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Mathematician William Whiston's predicted comet fails to strike the Earth.

1736

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Prince Gesualdo of Venosa murders his wife and her lover.

1590

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Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.

1384

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Pope Urban V enters Rome, the first pope to do so in more than fifty years since the beginning of the Avignon Papacy.

1367

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The Council of Vienne convenes for the first time.

1311

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King Otto I defeats a Slavic revolt in what is now Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

955

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Abd ar-Rahman III becomes the eighth Emir of Córdoba.

912

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Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.

690

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Ricimer defeats Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.

456

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