Events

• 921 – Treaty of Bonn: The Frankish kings Charles the Simple and Henry the Fowler sign a peace treaty or ‘pact of friendship’ (amicitia), to recognise their borders along the Rhine.
• 1426 – Lam Sơn uprising: Lam Sơn rebels emerge victorious against the Ming army in the Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động taking place in Đông Quan, in now Hanoi.
• 1504 – Christopher Columbus returns from his fourth and last voyage.
• 1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
• 1811 – Tecumseh’s War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.
• 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.
• 1881 – Mapuche rebels attack the Chilean settlement of Nueva Imperial, as defenders fled to the hills and the settlement was effectively destroyed.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: Battle of Leliefontein, a battle during which the Royal Canadian Dragoons win three Victoria Crosses.
• 1914 – The German colony of Kiaochow Bay and its centre at Tsingtao are captured by Japanese forces.
• 1917 – The Gregorian calendar date of the October Revolution, which gets its name from the Julian calendar date of 25 October.
  • On this date in 1917, the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace.
• 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.
• 1919 – The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
  • Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in 23 US cities.
• 1931 – The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed on the anniversary of the October Revolution.
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War: The Madrid Defence Council is formed to coordinate the Defence of Madrid against nationalist forces.
• 1941 – World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.
• 1944 – Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German World War I veteran, is hanged by his Japanese captors along with 34 of his ring.
• 1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States.
• 1954 – In the US, Armistice Day becomes Veterans Day.
• 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.
• 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: János Kádár returns to Budapest in a Soviet armoured convoy, officially taking office as the next Hungarian leader. By this point, most armed resistance has been defeated.
• 1957 – Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
• 1973 – The United States Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
• 1975 – In Bangladesh, a joint force of people and soldiers takes part in an uprising led by Colonel Abu Taher that ousts and kills Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, freeing the then house-arrested army chief and future president Major General Ziaur Rahman.
• 1983 – Cold War: The command post exercise Able Archer 83 begins, eventually leading to the Soviet Union to place air units in East Germany and Poland on alert, for fear that NATO was preparing for war.
• 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.
• National Day, after Treaty of the Pyrenees. (Northern Catalonia, France).
• National Revolution and Solidarity Day (Bangladesh).
• October Revolution Day (the Soviet Union (former, official), modern Belarus, Kyrgyzstan).

People (Births)

• 1186 – Ögedei Khan, Mongol ruler, 2nd Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (d. 1241).
• 1728 – James Cook, English captain, navigator, and cartographer (d. 1779).
• 1860 – Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, French general and engineer (d. 1936).
• 1879 – Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (d. 1940).
• 1900 – Nellie Campobello, Mexican writer who chronicled the Mexican Revolution (d. 1986).
• 1914 – R.A. Lafferty, American soldier, engineer, and author (d. 2002).
• 1918 – Paul Aussaresses, French general (d. 2013).
• 1921 – Jack Fleck, American soldier and golfer (d. 2014).
• 1930 – Rudy Boschwitz, German-American soldier and politician.
• 1943 – Boris Gromov, Russian general and politician, Governor of Moscow Oblast.
• 1952 – David Petraeus, American general, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
• 1964 – Philip Hollobone, English soldier and politician.
• 1965 – Sigrun Wodars, German runner and physiotherapist.
• 1974 – Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Jamaican hurdler.
• 1988 – Thomas Schneider, German sprinter.

People (Deaths)

• 927 – Zhu Shouyin, general of Later Tang.
• 1944 – Hannah Szenes, Hungarian-Israeli soldier and poet (b. 1921).
• 1992 – Alexander Dubček, Slovak soldier and politician (b. 1921).
• 2000 – Chidambaram Subramaniam, Indian publisher and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (b. 1910).
• 2012 – Sandy Pearson, Australian general (b. 1918).
• 2014 – Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (b. 1928).
• 2015 – Ri Ul-sol, North Korean marshal and politician (b. 1921).