On this day in History - Oct. 10

• 0019 - Germanicus dies (b. 15 BC). Roman general.
• 0680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Shi'a Muslims as Aashurah. (See also History Focus)
• 0732 - Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abd-ar-Rahman, is killed during the battle.
• 0732 - Abd ar-Rahman dies. Moorish Governor of Andalusia
• 0833 - al-Ma'mun dies (b. 0786). Abbasid caliph of Baghdad
• 1459 - Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini dies (b. 1380). Italian humanist and classicist
• 1471 - Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm: Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
• 1486 - Bartolomeu Dias receives a Portuguese Royal annuity.
• 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli dies (b. 1484). Swiss reformer (killed in battle)
• 1575 - Battle of Dormans: Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeated the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.
• 1582 - Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1631 - A Saxon army take over Prague.
• 1659 - Abel Tasman dies (b. 1603). Dutch explorer and navigator. He discovered Tasmania
• 1674 - Thomas Traherne dies. English poet
• 1678 - John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll was born (d. 1743). Scottish soldier
• 1684 - Antoine Watteau was born (d. 1721). French rococo painter
• 1700 - Lambert-Sigisbert Adam was born (d. 1759). French sculptor.
• 1708 - David Gregory dies (b. 1659). Scottish astronomer
• 1714 - Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert dies (b. 1646). French economist.
• 1720 - Antoine Coysevox dies (b. 1640). French sculptor
• 1723 - William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper dies. Lord Chancellor of England
• 1725 - Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil dies. Governor-General of New France
• 1731 - Henry Cavendish was born (d. 1810). British scientist.
• 1733 - France declares war on Austria over the question of Polish succession.
• 1738 - Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania (d. 11 Mar 1820). Painter (Death of General Wolfe)
• 1747 - John Potter dies. Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1765 - Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, dies (b. 1688).Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
• 1777 - Heinrich von Kleist was born. Poet.
• 1780 - John Abercrombie was born (d. 1844). Scottish physician and philosopher
• 1780 - The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000-30,000 in Caribbean.
• 1783 - Henry Brook dies in Dublin (b. 1703). Novelist and dramatist.
• 1813 - Giuseppe Verdi was born (d. 1901). Italian composer (Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida).
• 1817 - Gertrudis Bocanegra es fusilada en Michoacán (n. 11 Abr 1765). defensora da libertad y luchadora infatigable pela causa da Independencia do Mexico.
• 1819 - Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger was born (d. 1883). German theologian.
• 1824 - Guadalupe Victoria sworn as the first President of Mexican Republic.
• 1825 - Paul Kruger was born (d. 1904). President of the Transvaal Republic.
• 1827 - Ugo Foscolo dies (b. 1778). Italian writer .
• 1827 - Rosario Ortiz was born in Concepcion. Chilean journalist, one of the first of Latina America.
• 1828 - Samuel J. Randall was born (d. 1890). Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• 1830 - Queen Isabella II was born (d. 1904). Queen of Spain
• 1834 - Aleksis Kivi was born (d. 1872). Finnish author (Seitseman veljesta : Seven Brothers, 1870)
• 1837 - Robert Gould Shaw was born (d. 1863). U.S. Army officer.
• 1837 - Charles Fourier dies (b. 1772). French philosopher.
• 1839 - Francisco Giner de los Rios was born (d. 1915). Spanish educator and philosopher. Founder of "Institución Libre de Enseñanza".
• 1845 - In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
• 1856 - Vicente López y Planes dies. Author of the lyrics of the National Hymn.
• 1858 - Varnhagen von Ense dies in Berlin (b. 1785). Eminent German writer, poet and historian. 1861 - Fridtjof Nansen was born (d. 1930). Norwegian explorer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.
• 1860 - The original cornerstone of the University of the South was laid in Sewanee, Tennessee.
• 1861 - Fridtjof Nansen was born (d. 1930). Norwegian explorer, Nobel laureate
• 1863 - Louis Cyr was born (d. 1912). French Canadian strongman.
• 1868 - Carlos Céspedes issued the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence.
• 1870 - Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin was born (d. 1953). Russian writer.
• 1872 - William H. Seward dies (b. 1801). United States Secretary of State
• 1875 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy dies (b. 1817). Russian novelist, poet and dramatist.
• 1877 - Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer is given a funeral with full military honors.
• 1885 - Walter Anderson was born (d. 1962). German folklorist.
• 1893 - Lip Pike dies (b. 1845). Baseball player.
• 1895 - Lin Yutang was born (d. 1976). Chinese writer.
• 1895 - Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Deva Gosvami Maharaja was born (d. 1988). Indian religious Guru
• 1895 - Wolfram von Richthofen was born (d. 1945). German field marshal.
• 1898 - Lilly Daché was born (d. 1989). French-born milliner.
• 1900 - Helen Hayes was born (d. 1993). American actress. Academy Award for Best Actress for her first major role: "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" in 1931, and forty years later for Best Supporting Actress in "Airport" . Her major works includes also "Happy Birthday", "Time Remembered".
• 1901 - Alberto Giacometti was born (d. 1966). Swiss sculptor.
• 1901 - Lorenzo Snow dies (b. 1814). President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• 1903 - Vernon Duke was born (d. 1969). American composer and songwriter
• 1903 - Prince Charles of Belgium was born (d. 1983). Prince Regent of Belgium.
• 1906 - R.K. Narayan was born (d. 2001). Indian novelist.
• 1906 - Paul Creston was born (d. 1985). American composer.
• 1908 - Baseball Writers Association forms.
• 1908 - Johnny Green was born (d. 1989). American songwriter, arranger and conductor.
• 1910 - Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity is established at Columbia University.
• 1911 - Wuchang Uprising which led to the demise of Qing Dynasty, the last emperial court in China, and the founding of the Republic of China.
• 1911 - The KCR East Rail commenced service between Kowloon and Canton.
• 1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggered the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• 1913 - Claude Simon was born (d. 2005). French writer, Nobel Prize laureate in 1985
• 1914 - Tommy Fine was born (d. 2005). Baseball player.
• 1914 - Ivory Joe Hunter was born (d. 1974). American R&B singer.
• 1914 - Charles I of Romania dies (b. 1839)
• 1915 - Owen Bradley was born. Producer.
• 1916 - Mirita Casimiro (ZulmiraCasimiro de Almeida) was born in Viseu (d. Cascais 25 Mar 1970). Portuguese actress (Note: some fonts refer her birthday on 1914)
• 1917 - Thelonious Monk was born (d. 1982). American jazz pianist.
• 1920 - The Carinthian Plebiscite determined that the larger part of Carinthia became part of Austria.
• 1923 - Nicholas Parsons was born. English actor
• 1924 - James Clavell was born (d. 1994). Australian author.
• 1924 - Ludmilla Tchérina was born (d. 2004). Ballet dancer and actress.
• 1924 - Ed Wood was born (d. 1978). American filmmaker.
• 1924 - James Clavell was born (d. 1994). Australian author. His books included "Shogun" and "Noble House."
• 1926 - Richard Jaeckel was born (d. 1997). American actor.
• 1927 - Gustave Whitehead dies (b. 1874). German-born inventor
• 1929 - David Neto dies in S. Paulo (b. 1929). Brazilian actor.
• 1930 - Mustafa Zaidi was born (d. 1970). Pakistani poet.
• 1930 - Yves Chauvin was born. French chemist, Nobel laureate
• 1930 - Harold Pinter was born. English playwright, Nobel laureate
• 1932 - Harry Smith was born. English football player
• 1933 - Jay Sebring was born (d. 1969). American hair stylist
• 1933 - A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage while en route from Cleveland, Ohio to Chicago, Illinois, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
• 1935 - George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" opened on Broadway.
• 1935 - A tornado destroyed the 160 metre tall wooden radio tower in Langenberg. As a result of this catastrophe, few wooden towers were constructed after this date.
• 1938 - The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
• 1938 - World War II: The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Germany.
• 1938 - Moriyama Daido was born. Japanese photographer.
• 1940 - Berton Churchill dies (b. 1876). Canadian actor.
• 1942 - Peter Coyote was born. American actor
• 1943 - Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China.
• 1944 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp.
• 1946 - Charles Dance was born. English actor
• 1946 - John Prine was born. American singer
• 1946 - Ben Vereen was born. American actor and dancer, entertainer
• 1946 - Chris Tarrant was born. British television host
• 1946 - Naoto Ka was born. Japanese politician
• 1946 - Peter Mahovlich, was born.National Hockey League player
• 1947 - Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony was premiered in St. Petersburg, called Leningrad at the time.
• 1947 - Martin Ruane was born (d. 1998). Professional wrestler.
• 1948 - Séverine was born. French singer
• 1948 - Cyril Neville was born. Rock singer-musician (The Neville Brothers)
• 1949 - Jessica Harper was born. Actress
• 1951 - Ratu Epeli Ganilau was born. Fiji soldier and statesman
• 1953 - Midge Ure was born. Scottish musician
• 1953 - Gus Williams was born. American basketball player
• 1953 - David Lee Roth was born. American singer
• 1954 - The Communist Party of Honduras is founded.
• 1956 - Amanda Burton was born. Northern Irish actress
• 1957 - Rumiko Takahashi was born. Japanese artist
• 1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
• 1957 - Miguel Falabella was born. Brazilian actor.
• 1958 - Tanya Tucker was born. American singer
• 1959 - Bradley Whitford was born. American actor.
• 1959 - Kirsty MacColl was born (d. 2000). British singer.
• 1960 - Eric Martin was born. American singer
• 1961 - Martin Kemp was born. Musician (Spandau Ballet)
• 1961 - Jodi Benson was born. American voice actress and singer
• 1963 - France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia.
• 1963 - Daniel Pearl was born (d. 2002). American journalist.
• 1963 - Rebecca Pidgeon was born. American actress, singer, and songwriter
• 1963 - Jolanda de Rover was born. Dutch swimmer
• 1963 - Jim Glennie was born. Rock musician (James)
• 1963 - Anita Mui was born (d. 2003). Hong Kong singer.
• 1963 - Vegard Ulvang was born. Norwegian cross-country skier
• 1963 - Édith Piaf dies (b. 19 Dec 1915). French singer.
• 1963 - Arturo Umberto Illia assume a presidencia da Argentina
• 1964 - The 1964 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo, Japan
• 1964 - Eddie Cantor dies (b. 1892). American singer and vaudeville performer.
• 1964 - Jean Paul Sartre refuses The Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1965 - Chris Penn was born (d. 2006). American actor.
• 1965 - Toshi was born. Japanese singer (X Japan)
• 1966 - Simon and Garfunkel release the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
• 1966 - Tony Adams was born. English football player
• 1968 - Bart Brentjens was born. Dutch mountainbiker
• 1969 - Brett Favre was born. American football player ~
• 1970 - Fiji becomes independent.
• 1970 - In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• 1970 - Maja Tatic was born. Serbian singer
• 1970 - Corinna May was born. German singer
• 1970 - Dean Kiely was born. Irish footballer
• 1970 - Sir Matthew Pinsent was born. English rower.
• 1971 - Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, the London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
• 1971 - Ian Bennett was born. English football player
• 1971 - Evgeny Kissin was born. Russian pianist
• 1971 - John Cawte Beaglehole dies (b. 1901). New Zealand historian.
• 1972 - Ricardo Sá Pinto was born. Portuguese football player.
• 1972 - Alexei Zhitnik was born. Russian ice hockey player
• 1973 - Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
• 1973 - Mario López was born. American actor.
• 1973 - Semmy Schilt was born. Dutch kickboxer
• 1973 - Ludwig von Mises dies (b. 19 Sep 1881). Austrian economist.
• 1974 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. was born. American race car driver.
• 1974 - Julio Ricardo Cruz was born. Argentinian football player
• 1974 - Chris Pronger was born. National Hockey League player
• 1975 - Papua-Nova Guiné é admitido como Estado-Membro da ONU
• 1976 - Bob Burnquist was born. Brazilian-born skateboarder
• 1976 - Pat Burrell was born. American baseball player
• 1977 - José Fioravanti dies. Argentine sculptor.
• 1978 - US President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law that authorizes the minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
• 1978 - Jodi Lyn O'Keefe was born. American actress
• 1978 - Ralph Metcalfe dies (b. 1910). American athlete.
• 1979 - Nicolás Massú was born. Chilean tennis player
• 1979 - The Pac-Man arcade game is released to the Japanese market by Namco.
• 1979 - Christopher Evans dies (b. 1931). British psychologist and computer scientist
• 1979 - Mya was born. American singer
• 1980 - Tim Maurer was born. American singer (Suburban Legends)
• 1980 - Elvis Hammond was born. Ghanaian football player.
• 1981 - Mya Harrison was born. American singer
• 1982 - Amon Buchanan was born. Australian rules football (not soccer) player
• 1982 - Dan Stevens was born. English actor
• 1983 - Vusimuzi Sibanda was born. Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1983 - Ralph Richardson dies (b. 1902). English actor.
• 1984 - Chiaki Kuriyama was born. Japanese actress.
• 1984 - Stephanie Cheng was born. Hong Kong singer
• 1984 - Chiaki Kuriyama was born. Japanese actress
• 1985 - Layke Anderson was born. British actor
• 1985 - Dominique Cornu was born. Belgian professional cyclist
• 1985 - United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
• 1985 - Yul Brynner dies (b. 1915). Russian-born actor.
• 1985 - Orson Welles dies (b. 1915). American director and actor.
• 1986 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
• 1987 - Fiji becomes a republic.
• 1988 - Em Portugal, assinatura do acordo relativo à revisão constitucional por Aníbal Cavaco Silva, do PSD, e Vítor Constâncio, do PS.
• 1993 - In Greece, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, led by Andreas Papandreou, won a solid majority of seats in parliamentary elections
• 1994 - Americans Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell won the Nobel Prize in medicine.
• 1995 - University of Chicago professor Robert E. Lucas won the Nobel Prize in economics for demonstrating how people's fears and expectations can frustrate policy-makers' efforts to shape the economy.
• 1995 - World chess champion Gary Kasparov won a month-long championship match against Viswanathan Anand.
• 1995 - South African President Nelson Mandela attends Genadendal.
• 1997 - The NHL's Carolina Hurricanes win their first-ever regular season game by defeating the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 1997 - An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.
• 1997 - The International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator, Jody Williams, were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1998 - Clark Clifford dies (b. 1906). United States Secretary of Defense.
• 1999 - Portugal's governing Socialist Party was returned to power by a comfortable margin in a general election.
• 1999 - Morris West dies. Writer.
• 2000 - Sirimavo Bandaranaike dies (b. 1916). Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
• 2001 - US President George W. Bush presents a list of 22 most wanted terrorists.
• 2002 - Teresa Graves dies (b. 1948). American actress and singer.
• 2003 - Europe's Largest Water Bridge Opens in Germany
• 2003 - Eugene Istomin dies (b. 1925). American pianist.
• 2003 - Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer and activist wins the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize ( See Shirin Ebadi related article in this blog)
• 2004 - Ken Caminiti dies (b. 1963). Baseball player.
• 2004 - Christopher Reeve dies (b. 1952). American actor.
• 2004 - Arthur H. Robinson dies (b. 1915). American cartographer.
• 2004 - Maurice Shadbolt dies (b. 1932). New Zealand writer.
• 2005 - Channel 4's new documentary channel More4 starts broadcasting on ntl, Sky Digital and Freeview in the UK.
• 2005 - Wayne Booth dies (b. 1921). American literary critic.
• 2005 - Milton Obote dies (b. 1925). President of Uganda.
• RC Saints - Saint Thomas of Villanueva ; Saint Paulinus of York (in England)
• Republic of China (on Taiwan) - National Day (Double Tenth Day 雙十國慶)
• Fiji - Fiji Day (National Day)
• Saint Francis Borgia
• World Mental Health Day / Dia Mundial da Saúde Mental
• North Korea - Foundation of the Korean Workers Party
• World Day against the death penalty / Dia Mundial contra a pena de morte