23 – Rebels capture and sack the Chinese capital Chang'an during a peasant rebellion. They kill and decapitate the emperor, Wang Mang, two days later.
610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.
1227 – Assassination of Caliph al-Adil.
1302 – A peace treaty between the Byzantine Empire and the Republic of Venice ends the Byzantine–Venetian War (1296–1302).
1363 – End of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeat that of his rival, Chen Youliang, in one of the largest naval battles in history.
1511 – Formation of the Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice against France.
1535 – The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Myles Coverdale.
1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.
1597 – The first Guale uprising begins against the Spanish missions in Georgia.
1636 – The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.
1693 – Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.
1725 – Foundation of Rosario in Argentina.
1777 – Battle of Germantown: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.
1779 – The Fort Wilson Riot takes place.
1795 – Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence with a "Whiff of Grapeshot", using cannon to suppress armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the French Legislature (National Convention).
1824 – Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.
1830 – Creation of the Kingdom of Belgium after separation from the Netherlands.
1853 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.
1876 – Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas.
1883 – First run of the Orient Express.
1883 – First meeting of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.
1895 – The first U.S. Open Men's Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.
1917 – World War I: The Battle of Broodseinde fought between the British and German armies in Flanders.
1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 and destroys the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey. Fires and explosions continue for three days forcing massive evacuations and spreading ordnance over a wide area, pieces of which were still being found as of 2007.
1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.
1936 – In the East End of London, marches staged by British fascists and various anti-fascist organizations result in violent clashes between them in what becomes known as the Battle of Cable Street.
1940 – Meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the Brenner Pass.
1941 – Norman Rockwell's Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
1943 – World War II: U.S. captures the Solomon Islands from the Japanese.
1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
1958 – Fifth Republic of France is established.
1960 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes after a bird strike on takeoff from Boston's Logan International Airport, killing 62 people (out of 72 onboard).
1963 – Hurricane Flora kills 6,000 in Cuba and Haiti.
1965 – Pope Paul VI arrives in New York, the first Pope to visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere.
1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.
1967 – Omar Ali Saifuddien III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son, His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
1976 – Official launch of the InterCity 125 high speed train.
1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h), driving Thrust2 at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
1985 – The Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.
1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
1992 – The Rome General Peace Accords ends a 16-year civil war in Mozambique.
1992 – El Al Flight 1862: An El Al Boeing 747-258F crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground.
1993 – Russian Constitutional Crisis: In Moscow, tanks bombard the White House, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rally outside.
1997 – The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Loomis, Fargo and Company. A Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the $17.3 million stolen cash.
2001 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812: A Sibir Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. Seventy-eight people are killed.
2003 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel: Twenty-one Israelis, Jews and Arabs, are killed, and 51 others wounded.
2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.
2006 – Wikileaks is launched by Julian Assange.
2010 – The Ajka plant accident in western Hungary releases about a million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet) of liquid alumina sludge. Nine people are killed and 122 injured, and the Marcal and Danube rivers are severely contaminated.
