Events

• 48 BC – Pompey disembarks at Pelusium upon arriving in Egypt, whereupon he is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy XIII.
• 351 – Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
• 365 – Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.
• 935 – Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.
• 995 – Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, kills most members of the rival Slavník dynasty.
• 1066 – William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.
• 1106 – King Henry I of England defeats his brother Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebray.
• 1238 – King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors.
  • Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.
• 1322 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
• 1538 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
• 1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California.
  • He is the first European in California.
• 1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
• 1781 – American Revolution: American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown.
• 1787 – The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
• 1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted.
  • It will be made public on 13 October.
• 1867 – Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario’s predecessors since 1796.
• 1868 – The Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
• 1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a metre.
• 1901 – Philippine-American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.
• 1912 – The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Protestant Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
• 1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
• 1918 – World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.
• 1928 – Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mould growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
• 1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland.
• 1939 – World War II: The siege of Warsaw comes to an end.
• 1941 – World War II: The Drama uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
• 1944 – World War II: Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.
• 1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
• 1970 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo.
• 1973 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT’s alleged involvement in the coup d’état in Chile.
• 1995 – Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.
• 1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
• 2009 – The military junta leading Guinea attacks a protest rally, killing or wounding 1,400 people.
• 2012 – Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.
• Czech Statehood Day (Czech Republic).

People (Births)

• 1555 – Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, Marshal of France (d. 1623).
• 1878 – Joseph Ruddy, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1962).
• 1900 – Isabel Pell, American socialite, fought as part of the French Resistance during WWII (d. 1951).
• 1903 – Haywood S. Hansell, American general (d. 1988).
• 1923 – John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish captain and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Selkirkshire (d. 2007).
• 1926 – Jerry Clower, American soldier, comedian, and author (d. 1998).
• 1933 – Joe Benton, English soldier and politician.
• 1969 – Marcel Dost, Dutch decathlete.
• 1974 – Mariya Kiselyova, Russian swimmer.
• 1975 – Lenny Krayzelburg, Russian-American swimmer.
• 1976 – Fedor Emelianenko, Russian mixed martial artist and politician.
• 1986 – Meskerem Legesse, Ethiopian runner (d. 2013).
• 1993 – Jodie Williams, English sprinter.

People (Deaths)

• 48 BC – Pompey, Roman general and politician (b. 106 BC).
• 1829 – Nikolay Raevsky, Russian general and politician (b. 1771).
• 1844 – Pyotr Aleksandrovich Tolstoy, Russian general and politician (b. 1769).
• 1915 – Saitō Hajime, Japanese samurai (b. 1844).
• 1918 – Freddie Stowers, American soldier, Medal of Honour recipient (b. 1896).
• 1943 – Filippo Illuminato, Italian partisan, Gold Medal of Military Valour (b. 1930).
• 1962 – Roger Nimier, French soldier and author (b. 1925).
• 1970 – Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian colonel and politician, 2nd President of Egypt (b. 1918).
• 1993 – Alexander A. Drabik, American sergeant (b. 1910).
• 2002 – Hartland Molson, Canadian captain and politician (b. 1907).
• 2012 – Avraham Adan, Israeli general (b. 1926).
• 2014 – Joseph H. Alexander, American colonel and historian (b. 1938).