• 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
• 1665 - The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
• 1786 - The oldest musical organization in the United States is founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.
• 1811 - Tecumseh's War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.
• 1837 - In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot dead by a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.
• 1874 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.
• 1885 - In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on the Canadian Pacific Railway railway extending across Canada.
• 1893 - Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote.
• 1900 - Battle of Leliefontein, a battle during which the Royal Canadian Dragoons win three Victoria Crosses.
• 1907 - Delta Sigma Pi was founded at New York University.
• 1910 - The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse.
• 1912 - The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opens in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.
• 1914 - The first issue of The New Republic magazine is published.
• 1914 - The German colony of Kiaochow Bay and its centre at Tsingtao are captured by Japanese forces.
• 1916 - Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress.
• 1917 - Russian Revolution: In Petrograd, Russia, Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government (As Russia was still using the Julian Calendar, subsequent period references show the date as October 25).
• 1917 - World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ends: British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
• 1918 - The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year.
• 1918 - Kurt Eisner overthrows the Wittelsbach dynasty in the Kingdom of Bavaria.
• 1921 - The Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF), National Fascist Party, comes into existence.
• 1929 - In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
• 1931 - The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
• 1933 - Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.
• 1940 - In Tacoma, Washington, the middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge ("Galloping Gertie") collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge's completion.
• 1941 - World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia was sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimea’s hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.
• 1941 - Holocaust: In Nemyriv, Ukraine, German fascists murder 2580 Jews.
• 1944 - A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico from excessive speed when descending a hill. 16 people were killed and 50 were injured.
• 1956 - Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt.
• 1957 - Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
• 1963 - Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, eleven miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days.
• 1967 - Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city.
• 1967 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• 1973 - The U.S. Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
• 1983 - 1983 United States Senate bombing: a bomb explodes inside the U.S. Capitol Building.
• 1987 - In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
• 1989 - Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.
• 1989 - David Dinkins becomes the first African American mayor of New York City.
• 1989 - East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph, along with his entire cabinet, is forced to resign after huge anti-government protests.
• 1990 - Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland.
• 1991 - Magic Johnson announces that he's infected with HIV and retires from the NBA.
• 1996 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
• 1996 - A Nigerian Boeing 727 crashes into a lagoon 40 miles southeast of Lagos, killing 143.
• 2000 - Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first former First Lady to win public office in the United States, although actually she still was the First Lady.
• 2000 - Controversial US presidential election that was later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.
• 2000 - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration discovers one of the country's largest LSD labs inside a converted military missile silo in Wamego, Kansas.
• 2001 - The supersonic commercial aircraft Concorde resumes flying after a 15-month hiatus.
• 2002 - Iran bans advertising of United States products.
• 2004 - War in Iraq: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day "state of emergency" as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
• 2007 - Jokela school shooting in Tuusula, Finland, resulting in the death of nine people.

Births