September 9th
 

1585 ~ Birthday of Cardinal Armand-Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu, French statesman.

1776 ~ The Continental Congress officially named their new country the United States.

1824 ~ Birthday of Anton Bruckner, Austrian Composer.

1828 ~ Birthday of Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (Anna Karenina, War and Peace).

1839 ~ John Herschel took the first glass plate photograph.

1941 ~ Birthday of Otis Redding, Soul Singer.

1945 ~ Admiral Grace Hopper discovered the first computer bug.

1976 ~ Death of Mao Zedong, chief architect of the Chinese Communist Revolution.

1987 ~ Extradition to Belgium of twenty-five English football fans involved in the Heysel stadium disaster.

2001 ~ The leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was assassinated in Afghanistan.

September 10th
 

1846 ~ Elias Howe of Spencer, Mass., received a patent for the sewing machine.

1939 ~ World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley was sunk by mistake by the submarine HMS Trition off the coast of Norway and became the first loss of the Royal Navy.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist.

1943 ~ World War II: German forces began their occupation of Rome.

1945 ~ Vidkun Quisling sentenced to death for collaboration with Nazi Germany.

1960 ~ Birthday of Colin Firth, Actor (Shakespeare in Love, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually).

1971 ~ Death of Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union.

1977 ~ Hamida Djandoubi, convicted of murder, became the last person to be executed by the guillotine in France.

1990 ~ The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the largest church in Africa and perhaps the world, consecrated by Pope John Paul II.

2000 ~ British paratroopers rescued six held hostage by the "West Side Boys".

September 11th
 

1297 ~ William Wallace led a Scottish army to defeat the English in the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

1711 ~ Birthday of William Boyce, Composer.

1914 ~ In one of the earlier military engagements of WWI, Australian forces defeat Germans in New Britain.

1922 ~ British Mandate of Palestine began.

1948 ~ Death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General of Pakistan.

1973 ~ A military coup in Chile headed by General Augusto Pinochet toppled elected Marxist President Salvador Allende.

1987 ~ CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, angry over being preempted for a tennis match, marched off the set, leaving affiliates with six minutes of an empty news desk.

1997 ~ Scotland voted to re-establish its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England and the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

2001 ~ The September 11 terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City, part of The Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and crashed a passenger airliner in Pennsylvania. In total, almost 3,000 were killed.

2002 ~ Death of Johnny Unitas, Football Hall of Famer.

September 12th
 

490 B.C. ~ The Athenians defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

1683 ~ The Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Battle of Vienna.

1814 ~ War of 1812: An American detachment halted the British land advance to Baltimore in the Battle of North Point.

1880 ~ Birthday of H.L. Mencken, Journalist, Author.

1913 ~ Birthday of Jesse Owens, American track and field athlete.

1940 ~ Cave paintings discovered in Lascaux, France.

1959 ~ First episode of Bonanza. First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color.

1977 ~ Death of Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist.

2003 ~ The U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions against Libya after Libya agreed to accept responsibility and make payment of US $2.7 billion to the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

2003 ~ Death of Johnny Cash, Country Music Great.

September 13th
 

1321 ~ Death of Dante Alighieri, writer (The Divine Comedy)

1819 ~ Birthday of Clara Schumann, Pianist, Composer.

1857 ~ Birthday of Milton S. Hershey, chocolate entrepreneur and founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company.

1874 ~ Birthday of Arnold Schoenberg, Composer.

1948 ~ Margaret Chase Smith was elected senator, and became the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.

1971 ~ Frank Robinson became the 11th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland.

1977 ~ Death of Leopold Stokowski, Conductor.

1993 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands on a peace deal.

1999 ~ A bomb exploded in Moscow, killing some 119 people.

2006 ~ Kimveer Gill kills one student and wounds 19 others at Dawson College in Montreal.

Dante's dead?

September 14th
 

1737 ~ Birthday of Michael Haydn, Austrian composer.

1752 ~ The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar, skipping eleven days (September 2 was followed directly by September 14 that year).

1760 ~ Birthday of Luigi Cherubini, Composer.

1814 ~ Francis Scott Key wrote The Star-Spangled Banner.

1927 ~ Death of Isadora Duncan, Dancer.

1948 ~ Ground was broken in New York City for the United Nations' world headquarters.

1959 ~ The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashed onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it.

1982 ~ Death of Princess Grace of Monaco.

1994 ~ The Major League Baseball season was canceled because of a players’ strike.

2005 ~ A federal judge in San Francisco ruled the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional.

September 15th
 

1254 ~ Birthday of Marco Polo, Italian explorer.

1789 ~ Birthday of James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist.

1928 ~ Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1935 ~ The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship and made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.

1950 ~ The U.N. staged its fist offensive operation in the Korean War; an amphibious assault at Inchon.

1963 ~ The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing kills four children in Birmingham, Alabama.

1975 ~ Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia.

1977 ~ Death of Maria Callas, Opera Diva.

1981 ~ The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Sandra Day O'Connor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1982 ~ The first issue of USA Today was published.

September 16th
 

1810 ~ Fr. Miguel Hidalgo proclaimed Mexico's independence from Spain.

1736 ~ Death of Gabriel Fahrenheit, German Physicist.

1795 ~ British captured Capetown South Africa.

1940 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act.

1956 ~ Play-Doh was first introduced.

1959 ~ French President De Gaulle recognized Algerian right of self determination.

1968 ~ Candidate Richard Nixon appeared on Laugh-in.

1974 ~ U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft evaders.

1987 ~ The Montreal Protocol was signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

1996 ~ The Howard Stern Radio Show premiered.

September 17th
 

1394 ~ King Charles VI of France ordered all Jews expelled from France.

1640 ~ Boston, Massachusetts was incorporated.

1787 ~ The text of the U.S. Constitution was completed in Philadelphia.

1862 ~ Union forces repelled a Confederate invasion of Maryland in the Civil War Battle of Antietam.

1908 ~ Death of Lt. Thomas Selfridge, first to die in an airplane crash.

1929 ~ Birthday of Sir Stirling Moss, Formula One racer.

1939 ~ The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.

1970 ~ Civil war broke out in Jordan.

1972 ~ "M.A.S.H." premiered on CBS.

1978 ~ The Camp David Accords were signed by Israeli and Egyptian representatives.

Thomas Selfridge, an unfortunate trendsetter.

September 18th
 

1709 ~ Birthday of Samuel Johnson, Essayist & Critic.

1759 ~ The British capture Quebec City.

1819 ~ Birthday of Leon Foucault, Physicist.

1927 ~ Columbia Broadcasting System went on the air.

1947 ~ The U.S. Air Force became an independent service.

1961 ~ Death of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the UN.

1970 ~ Death of Jimi Hendrix, Rock Musician.

1971 ~ Birthday of Lance Armstrong, Cyclist Extraordinaire.

1975 ~ Patty Hearst was arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.

1998 ~ ICANN was formed.

September 19th
 

1737 ~ Birthday of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence Signer, Senator.

1796 ~ George Washington made his farewell address.

1900 ~ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbed the First National Bank of $32,640.

1934 ~ Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for the murder of Charles Lindbergh Junior.

1935 ~ Death of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, rocket scientist, physicist.

1941 ~ Birthday of Mama Cass Elliott, musician.

1945 ~ Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) sentenced to death in London.

1955 ~ Juan Peron was deposed in Argentina.

1989 ~ A terrorist bomb exploded in a UTA DC-10 above Niger killing 171.

1991 ~ Ötzi the Iceman ws discovered by German tourists.

September 20th
 

1519 ~ Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on a voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia.

1908 ~ Death of Pablo de Sarasate, Violinist.

1934 ~ Birthday of Sophia Loren, Italian actress.

1948 ~ Birthday of George R. R. Martin, Science Fiction Writer.

1970 ~ The Soviet probe Luna 16 collected moon soil samples for return to earth.

1973 ~ Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all “Battle of the Sexes“ tennis match.

1984 ~ A suicide car bomber attacked the U.S. Embassy annex in north Beirut, killing 20 people.

2000 ~ After playing 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Jr took a day off.

2004 ~ CBS News apologized for a "mistake in judgment" in its story questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service, saying it could not vouch for the authenticity of documents featured in the report.

2005 ~ Death of Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter.

September 21st
 

1756 ~ Birthday of John MacAdam, road builder.

1780 ~ Benedict Arnold gave the British the plans to West Point.

1866 ~ Birthday of H. G. Wells, science fiction author.

1874 ~ Birthday of Gustav Holst, Composer.

1896 ~ British force under Horatio Kitchener took Dongola in the Sudan.

1897 ~ The Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus letter was published in the New York Sun.

1937 ~ J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit.

1947 ~ Birthday of Stephen King, Author.

1964 ~ Malta became independent from the UK

2003 ~ The Galileo mission was terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere.

Also a member of the Lennon/MacAdam songwriting team that gave us "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"
;)

"Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" (Lennon-McAdams)

Good One! :)

September 22nd
 

1784 ~ Russia established a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.

1791 ~ Birthday of Michael Faraday, Scientist.

1828 ~ Death of Shaka Zulu, Zulu leader.

1862 ~ President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

1869 ~ Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold opened in Munich.

1964 ~ ”Fiddler on the Roof”, the first musical to surpass 3,000 performances, opened at the Imperial Theatre.

1975 ~ Sara Jane Moore’s assassination attempt on U.S. President Gerald Ford was foiled by Oliver Sipple.

1980 ~ Iraq invaded Iran.

1999 ~ Death of George C. Scott, Actor.

2001 ~ Death of Isaac Stern, Violinist.

September 23rd
 

63 B.C. ~ Birthday of Caesar Augustus, 1st Roman Emperor.

1642 ~ First commencement at Harvard College.

1806 ~ Discovery of Neptune by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier.

1884 ~ Herman Hollerith applied for a patent on his mechanical adding machine.

1920 ~ Birthday of Mickey Rooney, actor.

1930 ~ Birthday of Ray Charles, U.S. R&B and jazz musician, singer.

1932 ~ The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd were renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1949 ~ Birthday of Bruce Springsteen, Singer & Songwriter.

1952 ~ Richard Nixon made his “Checkers speech".

1972 ~ Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos introduced a dictatorial government.

September 24th
 

622 ~ Muhammad completed his hegira from Mecca to Medina.

1664 ~ The Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to England.

1755 ~ Birthday of John Marshall, the fourth and longest-serving Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court.

1890 ~ As a pre-condition to Utah being admitted to the U.S., the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) officially renounced polygamy.

1896 ~ Birthday of F Scott Fitzgerald, Novelist (This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby,…)

1976 ~ The Rhodesian Government agreed to introduce black majority rule to the country within two years.

1988 ~ Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis in the 100 Meters sprint at the Seoul Olympics. Mr. Johnson was later disqualified for using performance enhancing drugs.

1991 ~ Death of Dr. Seuss, Writer.

1996 ~ President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.

September 25th
 

1066 ~ Battle of Stamford Bridge, which marked the end of the Viking era.

1683 ~ Birthday of Jean-Philippe Rameau, Composer.

1890 ~ Yosemite National Park established.

1897 ~ Birthday of William Faulkner, American writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1932 ~ Birthday of Glenn Gould, Pianist.

1950 ~ UN forces recaptured Seoul, the South Korean capital.

1957 ~ U.S. Army paratroopers ended the Little Rock school crisis.

1981 ~ Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the 102nd Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first woman to hold the office.

1983 ~ Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov averted World War III by refusing to accept - despite the (erroneous) alert given by the Soviet early warning system - that the U.S. had launched missiles against the USSR.

1996 ~ The last of the Magdalen Asylums was closed.

September 26th
 

1687 ~ The Parthenon in Athens is partially destroyed after an explosion caused by the bombing from the Venetian forces besieging the Ottoman Turks.

1820 ~ Death of Daniel Boone, American icon.

1888 ~ Birthday of T. S. Eliot, Poet.

1898 ~ Birthday of George Gershwin, Composer.

1944 ~ Allied troops began a retreat from Arnhem.

1945 ~ Death of Béla Bartók, Composer.

1948 ~ Birthday of Olivia Newton-John, Singer.

1957 ~ ”West Side Story” opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.

1960 ~ Kennedy and Nixon met in the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates.

1983 ~ Australia II won the “America’s Cup”.

Just out of interest, the word "fucking" was in the libretto for "West Side Story" in the opening "Jets" song/dance. You know the one, "When you're a Jet...".

I wonder if this was in the Broadway production. I suspect so.

50 years ago, I was four.

^^^ Wild! I never knew that! Pretty risky stuff back then.

TY :)

September 27th
 

1389 ~ Birthday of Cosimo de Medici, Florentine ruler.

1540 ~ The Jesuit Order received its charter from Pope Paul III.

1722 ~ Birthday of Samuel Adams, Patriot & Brewer.

1917 ~ Death of Edgar Degas, Impressionist painter.

1918 ~ Birthday of Sir Martin Ryle, English physicist and astronomer.

1921 ~ Death of Engelbert Humperdinck, Composer.

1964 ~ The Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

1968 ~ The Musical "Hair" opened in London.

1996 ~ The Taliban drove the government of Afghani President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of the capital Kabul. They then dragged former leader Mohammad Najibullah out of the U.N. compound and hanged him from a traffic light pole.

2001 ~ An armed man went on a shooting rampage in Zug, Switzerland, killing 14 people before taking his own life.

September 28th
 

1066 ~ William the Conqueror invaded England, landing at Pevensey, Sussex.

1915 ~ Birthday of Ethel Rosenberg, Spy.

1924 ~ The first round-the-world flight completed. It took 175 days.

1925 ~ Birthday of Seymour Cray, Computer Scientist.

1939 ~ Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.

1953 ~ Death of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1976 ~ Stevie Wonder released Songs in the Key of Life.

1995 ~ Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord to transfer much of the West Bank to the control of its Arab residents.

1988 ~ Death of Charles Addams, Cartoonist, creator of The Adams Family.

2000 ~ Death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada.

Charles Addams was a strange man.

September 29th
 

1547 ~ Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes, Author (Don Quixote).

1714 ~ George, Elector of Hanover, arrived in Greenwich to assume the British throne as King George I. (Thanks dm383!)

1758 ~ Birthday of Horatio Nelson, English icon.

1901 ~ Birthday of Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

1957 ~ The New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds.

1960 ~ Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

1962 ~ Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite was launched.

1978 ~ Death of Pope John Paul, who reigned just 33 days.

2004 ~ The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passed within 964,000 miles of Earth.

2004 ~ The Montreal Expos played their last game at Olympic Stadium.

September 30th
 

1791 ~ Mozart's opera “The Magic Flute” premiered in Vienna, Austria.

1882 ~ Birthday of Hans Geiger, German physicist & co-inventor of the Geiger counter.

1913 ~ Death of Rudolf Diesel, German inventor.

1924 ~ Birthday of Truman Capote, Author (In Cold Blood).

1938 ~ British, French, German and Italian leaders agreed that Nazi Germany would be allowed to annex Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

1954 ~ The submarine USS Nautilus was commissioned as the first nuclear reactor powered vessel.

1955 ~ Death of James Dean, American actor.

1960 ~ The last episode of The Howdy Doody Show aired.

1991 ~ President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was forced from office.

1999 ~ Japan's worst nuclear accident occurred at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokai-mura, northeast of Tokyo.

October 1st
 

1903 ~ The visiting Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Boston Americans 7-3 in the first World Series game.

1905 ~ The Julliard School of Music was founded in New York City.

1939 ~ British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during a radio broadcast described the Soviet Union as ''a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma''.

1943 ~ The International War Crimes Tribunal in Nuremburg sentenced 12 Nazi leaders to death.

1949 ~ The People's Republic of China was formed with Mao Zedong as its head.

1961 ~ The New York Yankees' Roger Maris hit his 61st home run of the season.

1968 ~ The cult horror movie "Night of the Living Dead" had its world premiere in Pittsburgh.

1971 ~ Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida. Eventually it would become the largest, man-made, tourist attraction in the world.

1986 ~ Former President Jimmy Carter's presidential library and museum were dedicated in Atlanta.

2001 ~ The Supreme Court suspended former President Bill Clinton from practicing before the high court.

October 2nd
 

1187 ~ Saladin captured Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.

1800 ~ Birthday of Nat Turner, leader of an American slave uprising.

1836 ~ Charles Darwin returned to England after a 5-year journey aboard the HMS Beagle collecting data he will later use to develop his theory of evolution.

1852 ~ Birthday of William Ramsay, Scottish chemist.

1869 ~ Birthday of Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Indian political leader.

1890 ~ Birthday of Groucho Marx, American comedian and actor.

1935 ~ Italy invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1967 ~ Thurgood Marshall sworn in as the first African-American justice of United States Supreme Court.

1985 ~ Death of Rock Hudson, Actor.

1993 ~ Hardline Communists riot in Moscow.

October 3rd
 

1873 ~ Birthday of Emily Post, etiquette advisor.

1900 ~ Birthday of Thomas Wolfe, American novelist.

1916 ~ Birthday of James Herriot, veterinarian, author.

1922 ~ Rebecca L. Felton, D-Ga., became the first woman to be seated in the U.S. Senate. She was appointed to serve out the remaining term of Sen. Thomas E. Watson.

1925 ~ Birthday of Gore Vidal, author.

1967 ~ Death of Woody Guthrie, folk musician.

1973 ~ Frank Robinson was named major league baseball's first black manager as he was put in charge of the Cleveland Indians.

1990 ~ The re-unification of Germany. East Germany ceased to exist.

1995 ~ A jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of murder in the 1994 slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.

1997 ~ Attorney General Janet Reno said she had found no evidence that President Bill Clinton broke the law with White House coffees and overnight stays for big contributors.

October 4th
 

1880 ~ Birthday of Damon Runyon, Writer.

1903 ~ Birthday of John Vincent Atanasoff, inventor of the digital electronic computer.

1924 ~ Birthday of Charlton Heston, Actor.

1941 ~ Birthday of Anne Rice, Author.

1943 ~ Birthday of H. Rap Brown, civil rights activist & murderer.

1957 ~ Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1983 ~ The first Hooters restaurant opens in Clearwater, Florida.

1993 ~ Russian President Boris Yeltsin ordered the army to begin storming the Russian parliament building.

2002 ~ John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban”, received a 20-year sentence.

2004 ~ The SpaceShipOne rocket plane broke through Earth's atmosphere for the second time in five days to capture a $10 million prize.

October 5th
 

1713 ~ Birthday of Denis Diderot, philosopher.

1813 ~ Death of Tecumseh, American Indian leader.

1882 ~ Birthday of Robert Goddard, rocket scientist.

1902 ~ Birthday of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation.

1936 ~ Birthday of Václav Havel, playwright, president of the Czech Republic.

1947 ~ President Harry Truman gave the first televised White House address.

1994 ~ Forty eight members of a Swiss cult die in a mass suicide.

1969 ~ “Monty Python's Flying Circus” made its debut on BBC Television.

1972 ~ Montreal, Quebec: British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

2000 ~ Mass demonstrations in Belgrade led to the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic.

October 6th
 

1600 ~ Jacopo Peri's “Euridice”, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in Florence.

1846 ~ Birthday of George Westinghouse, Engineer & Inventor.

1887 ~ Birthday of Le Corbusier, Swiss architect.

1892 ~ Death of Alfred Tennyson, British poet laureate.

1914 ~ Birthday of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer, leader of the “Kon-Tiki” expedition.

1927 ~ Opening of “The Jazz Singer”, the first talking movie.

1948 ~ Birthday of Gerry Adams, Irish politician.

1973 ~ Egyptian troops cross the Suez Canal, starting the Yom Kippur War.

1981 ~ Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated.

1995 ~ The first extrasolar planet was discovered orbiting 51 Pegasi, in the constellation of Pegasus.

October 7th
 

1571 ~ The Ottoman Empire was defeated at the battle of Lepanto.

1849 ~ Death of Edgar Allan Poe, American writer.

1885 ~ Birthday of Niels Bohr, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

1900 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official and leader of the SS.

1908 ~ Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.

1931 ~ Birthday of Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

1955 ~ Birthday of Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist.

1985 ~ The “Achille Lauro” was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

2001 ~ The U.S. began its air offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan.

2003 ~ California governor Gray Davis was recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

October 7th
 

1984 ~ The Chicago Cubs lose Game 5 of the National League Championship Series to end their first post-season trip since the 1945 World Series. That afternoon is sometimes referred to as "Sunday, Bloody Sunday," by Cubs fans.

October 8th
 

1871 ~ The Great Chicago Fire destroyed about 17,450 buildings, killed about 250 people and left another 90,000 homeless.

1895 ~ Birthday of Juan Perón, former president of Argentina.

1920 ~ Birthday of Frank Herbert, Science Fiction writer.

1949 ~ Birthday of Sigourney Weaver, Actress.

1952 ~ The UK suffered its worst peacetime rail accident.

1961 ~ In London, the Post Office Tower opened.

1982 ~ Solidarity, and all other labor organizations in Poland, were banned.

1992 ~ Death of Willy Brandt, German politician.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart went to jail.

Poor Martha.

October 9th
 

1804 ~ Hobart, Tasmania, was founded.

1835 ~ Birthday of Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer.

1859 ~ Birthday of Alfred Dreyfus, French military officer.

1940 ~ Birthday of John Lennon, Musician & Songwriter.

1942 ~ The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalized Australian autonomy.

1948 ~ Birthday of Jackson Browne (Doctor My Eyes, The Pretender, Running On Empty).

1961 ~ Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" reached #1.

1967 ~ Guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia.

1970 ~ The Khmer Republic was proclaimed in Cambodia.

1974 ~ Death of Oskar Schindler, businessman.