On this day in History - Oct. 8

• 0314 - Roman Emperor Licinius is defeated by his colleague Constantine I at the Battle of Cibalae, and loses his European territories.
• 0451 - At Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor, the first session of the Council of Chalcedon begins (ends on November 1).
• 0705 - Death of Caliph Abd al-Malik, in Damascus.
• 0976 - Jelena of Zadar dies. Croatian queen.
• 1075 - Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned king of Croatia.
• 1085 - St Mark's Cathedral in Venice was consecrated.
• 1179 - Death of Odo de Saint-Amand, 8th Master of the Templars.
• 1200 – Isabella of Angoulême is crowned Queen of England.
• 1286 - John I of Dreux dies (b. 1217). Duke of Brittany.
• 1317 - Fushimi dies (b. 1265). Emperor of Japan.
• 1480 – Great standing on the Ugra river, a standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, which results in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and the eventual disintegration of the Horde.
• 1515 - Margaret Douglas was born (d. 1578). Countess of Lennox.
• 1515 - Partida da expedição de Juan Díaz de Solís (descobridor do Rio da Prata).
• 1573 - End of the Spanish siege of Alkmaar, first Dutch victory in Eighty Years War.
• 1575 - Jan Massys dies. Flemish painter.
• 1582 - Beacuse of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1585 - Heinrich Schutz was born. Composer.
• 1600 - San Marino adopts its written constitution.
• 1604 - The supernova called "Kepler's nova" is 1st sighted.
• 1610 - Polish troops capture Moscow.
• 1621 - Antoine de Montchrétien dies. French dramatist and economist.
• 1647 - Christian Sørensen Longomontanus dies (b. 1562). Danish astronomer.
• 1652 - John Greaves dies (b. 1602). English mathematician and antiquarian.
• 1656 - John George I, Elector of Saxony dies (b. 1585).
• 1659 - Jean de Quen dies. French Jesuit missionary and historian.
• 1676 - Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro was born (d. 1764). Spanish scholar.
• 1708 - Jean Perronet was born (d. 27 Feb 1794). French civil engineer renowned for his stone-arch bridges, especially the Pont de la Concorde, Paris.
• 1713 - Yechezkel Landau was born (d. 1793). Polish rabbi and Talmudist.
• 1715 - Michel Benoist was born (d. 1774). French Jesuit missionary.
• 1720 - Jonathan Mayhew was born (d. 1766). American minister.
• 1735 - Yongzheng dies (b. 1678). Emperor of China.
• 1747 - Jean-François Rewbell was born (d. 1807). French politician.
• 1754 - Henry Fielding dies in Lisbon (b. 1707). English novelist and dramatist. His Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon will appear the following year.
• 1765 - Harman Blennerhassett was born (d. 1831). Irish lawyer.
• 1772 - Jean Joseph de Mondonville dies (b. 1711). French composer.
• 1789 - John Ruggles was born (d. 1874). American politician.
• 1789 - William John Swainson was born (d. 1855). English naturalist and artist.
• 1793 - John Hancock dies (b. 1737). American revolutionary and businessman.
• 1795 - Andrew Kippis dies (b. 1725). English non-conformist clergyman and biographer.
• 1799 - Evaristo da Veiga was born (d. 1837). Brazilian poet, journalist and politician.
• 1803 – The Treaty of Ried was signed between Bayern and Austria.
• 1803 - Vittorio Alfieri dies. Italian earl/writer.
• 1806 – Napoleonic Wars: Forces of the British Empire lay siege to the port of Boulogne in France by using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve.
• 1809 - James Elphinston dies (b. 1721). Scottish philologist.
• 1813 - The Treaty of Ried was signed between Bayern and Austria.
• 1818 - John Henninger Reagan was born (d. 1905). American and Confederate politician.
• 1820 - Henri Christophe dies (b. 06 Oct 1767). He was a leader in the war of Haitian independence (1791-1804) and later president (1807-1811) and self-proclaimed King Henry I (1811-1820) of northern Haiti.
• 1821 - The government of general José de San Martín establishes the Peruvian Navy.
• 1826 - George Garrard dies (b. 31 May 1760). English painter and sculptor.
• 1826 - Friedrich Krupp dies. Industrialist.
• 1829 - Rail transport: Stephenson's The Rocket wins The Rainhill Trials.
• 1834 - Walter Kittredge was born (d. 1905). American musician and composer.
• 1834 - François-Adrien Boieldieu dies (b. 1775). French composer.
• 1835 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reaches James Island, Galapagos archipelago.
• 1840 - First constitution in Haway is proclaimed.
• 1846 - Portugal: Com a prisão do Duque da Terceira, lugar-tenente da Rainha D. Maria II nas províncias do Norte, por José Passos e forças revoltadas de infantaria 6, tem início a Guerra Civil da Patuleia.
• 1847 - Rose Scott dies (d. 1925). Australian social reformer.
• 1850 - Henri Louis le Chatelier was born (d. 17 Sep 1936). French chemist who is best known for the principle of Le Chatelier, which makes it possible to predict the effect a change of conditions (temperature, pressure, and concentration of reaction components) will have on a chemical reaction
• 1856 - The Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
• 1860 – Telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco opens.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Perryville - Union forces under General Don Carlos Buell halt the Confederate invasion of Kentucky by defeating troops led by General Braxton Bragg at Perryville, Kentucky.
• 1863 - Catulo da Paixão Cearense was born in São Luís do Maranhão (d. 10 May 1946). Brazilian poet.
  
• 1863 - Edythe Chapman was born (d. 1948). American actress.
• 1864 - Ozias Leduc was born (d. 1955). Québécois painter.
• 1865 - António Pedro Lopes de Mendonça dies (b. 1826). Portuguese writer.
• 1869 - Franklin Pierce dies (b. 1804). 14th President of the United States.
• 1870 - Louis Vierne was born (d. 1937). French organist.
• 1871 - Four major fires break out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Peshtigo, Wisconsin, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. The Great Chicago Fire is the most famous of these, burning 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) in one day, eventually destroying about 17,450 buildings, and killing about 250 people while leaving another 100,000 homeless. The Peshtigo Fire burns 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) across six counties in one day and kills 1,200 to 2,500 people, making it the deadliest in United States history. The Holland Fire destroys at least two towns.
• 1872 - John Cowper Powys was born (d. 17 Jun 1963). Welsh novelist, essayist, and poet. He is known chiefly for his long panoramic novels, including Wolf Solent (1929), A Glastonbury Romance (1932), and Owen Glendower (1940). His other works include an Autobiography (1934) and books of essays such as The Meaning of Culture (1930), The Pleasures of Literature (1938), The Art of Growing Old (1943).
• 1873 - Ejnar Hertzsprung was born in Copenhagen (d. 21 Oct 1967). Danish astronomer who classified types of stars by relating their surface temperature (or colour) to their absolute brightness.
• 1877 - Hans Heysen was born (d. 1968). German-born landscape artist.
• 1878 - Alfred Munnings was born. British painter.
• 1879 - War of the Pacific: the Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos, Peruvian Admiral Miguel Grau is killed in the encounter.
• 1879 - Ch'en Ch'ien-sheng “Ch'en Tu-hsiu” was born (d. 27 May 1942). Founder of the Chinese Communist Party (May 1920) and a major leader in developing the cultural basis of revolution in China. He was removed from his position of leadership in 1927 and was expelled from the Communist Party in 1929.
• 1879 - Miguel Grau Seminario dies (b. 1834). Peruvian Admiral.
• 1883 – Dick Burnett was born (d. 1977). American musician.
  
• 1883 - Otto Heinrich Warburg was born (d. 1 Aug 1970). German biochemist awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1931 for his research on cellular respiration, the process by which substances directly supplied to cells or stored in them are broken down into simpler components while using up oxygen.
• 1884 - Walther von Reichenau was born (d. 1942). German military.
• 1886 - Austin F. Pike dies (b. 1819). American politician from New Hampshire.
• 1887 - Huntley Gordon was born (d. 1956). Canadian actor.
• 1888 - Melville Fuller is sworn in as the 8th Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1888 - Ernst Kretschmer was born (d. 8 Feb 1964). German psychiatrist who attempted to correlate body build and physical constitution with personality characteristics and mental illness.
• 1889 - C. E. Woolman was born (d. 1966). American airline founder.
• 1890 - Edward Rickenbacker was born (d. 1973). American pilot.
• 1890 - Philippe Thys was born (d. 1971). Belgian cyclist.
• 1894 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. dies (b. 1809). American physician and writer.
• 1895 - Eulmi incident- Queen Min of Joseon, the last empress of Korea, is assassinated and her corpse burnt by the Japanese in Gyeongbok Palace.
• 1895 - The Berliner Gramophone Company was founded in Philadelphia. Record players were not too far off in the future
• 1895 - Juan Perón was born (d. 1 Jul 1974). President of Argentina (1946-1955; 1973-1974); married Eva Peron [Evita] who died in 1952; married Maria Estela Martinez aka Isabel, who became Vice President of Argentina in 1973 and then took over the presidency upon the death of her husband [1974].
• 1895 - Zog I was born (d. 1961). King of Albania.
• 1896 - Dow Jones starts reporting an average of selected industrial stocks.
• 1896 - Julien Duvivier was born (d. 1967). French film director.
• 1897 - Rouben Mamoulian was born (d. 1987). Armenian-American film director.
• 1897 - Alexei Savrasov dies (b. 1830). Russian painter.
• 1901 - Doris Allen was born (d. 2002). American psychologist.
• 1901 - Eivind Groven was born (d. 1977).Norwegian composer and ethnomusicologist.
• 1904 - Clemens Alexander Winkler dies. German chemist who discovered the element germanium (1886).
• 1905 - A permanent waving machine was first used on a woman's hair, by Charles Nessler.
• 1906 - Harry Gilbert Day was born. American nutritional biochemist who helped develop (with Joe Muhler and William Nebergall) the fluoride additive used in toothpaste to combat tooth decay
• 1910 - Gus Hall was born (d. 2000). American union organizer.
• 1910 - Kirk Alyn was born (d. 1999). American actor.
• 1910 - Ray Lewis was born (d. 2003). Canadian runner.
• 1912 - First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against Turkey.
• 1913 - Robert Rowe Gilruth was born (d. 17 Aug 2000). American aerospace scientist, engineer, and a pioneer of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs
• 1914 - Joseph Déchelette dies (b. 8 Jan 1862). French archaeologist who was an authority on Gallo-Roman and Celtic coins. He wrote Le Manuel d'archéologie préhistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine (1908-14) about the pre-history of France.
• 1915 - World War I - The Battle of Loos ended. Almost 430,000 French, British & Germans killed.
• 1917 - Billy Conn was born (d. 1993). American boxer.
• 1917 - Danny Murtaugh was born (d. 1976). Baseball player and manager.
• 1917 - Rodney Robert Porter was born (d. 7 Sep 1985). British biochemist who (with Gerald M. Edelman) was awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies.
• 1917 - Walter Lord was born (d. 2002). American author.
• 1918 - World War I - In the Argonne Forest in France, United States Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
• 1918 - Jens Christian Skou was born. Danish biophysicist who (with Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1997 for his discovery of the enzyme called sodium-potassium-activated adenosine triphosphatase.
• 1918 - Ron Randell was born. Film character actor.
• 1918 - Saturnino Hernán dies. Mexican painter.
• 1918 - Jens Christian Skou was born. Danish chemist, Nobel laureate.
• 1919 - Kiichi Miyazawa was born (d. 2007). 78th Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1920 - Frank Herbert was born (d. 1986). American writer.
• 1921 - Abraham Sarmiento was born. Filipino Supreme Court jurist.
• 1922 - Nils Liedholm was born (d. 2007). Swedish football midfielder and coach.
• 1924 - Alphons Egli was born. Member of the Swiss Federal Council.
• 1925 - Álvaro Alfredo Magaña Borja was born. President of S. Salvador (1982-1984).
• 1927 - In Game 4 of the 1927 Stanley Cup, Boston Bruins defenseman Billy Coutu starts a brawl, punching referee Jerry LaFlamme. As a result, Coutu becomes the first player to be suspended for life from the NHL.
• 1927 - Murderers' Row: the New York Yankees sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the 1927 World Series in four games.
• 1927 - César Milstein was born in Bahía Blanca (d. 24 Mar 2002). Argentine immunologist biochemist. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 shared with Niels K. Jerne and Georges J.F. Köhler "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".
• 1927 - Jim Elliot was born (d. 1956). American missionary.
• 1927 - Ricardo Güiraldes dies in Paris (d. 13 Feb 1886). Argentine writer "Don segundo sombra".
• 1928 - Joseph Szigeti debuted Alfredo Casella's Violin Concerto.
• 1928 - Bill Maynard was born. British actor.
• 1928 - M. Russell Ballard was born. LDS apostle.
• 1928 - Neil Harvey was born. Australian cricketer.
• 1928 - Larry Semon dies (b. 1889). American silent film comedian.
• 1929 - Franklin W. Stahl was born. U.S. geneticist who, in 1958, (with Matthew Meselson) elucidated the mode of replication of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA; the gene substance) a double-stranded helix that dissociates to form two strands, each of which directs the construction of a new sister strand.
• 1929 - Betty Boothroyd was born. British MP, the Speaker of the House of Commons.
• 1929 - Valdir Pereira was born (d. 2001). Brazilian footballer.
• 1930 - Tōru Takemitsu was born (d. 1996). Japanese composer.
• 1931 - Sir John Monash dies (b. 1865). Australian soldier general.
• 1932 - The Indian Air Force is established.
• 1932 - Ray Reardon was born. Welsh snooker player.
• 1933 - Martinez Barrios forms new Spanish government.
• 1935 - Ozzie Nelson marries Harriet Hilliard (Ozzie & Harriet).
• 1936 - David Carradine was born. Actor.
• 1936 - Rona Barrett was born. Entertainment reporter.
• 1936 - Red Ames dies (b. 1882). American baseball player.
• 1936 - William Henry Stark dies (b. 1851). American business leader.
• 1937 - Merle Park was born. British ballerina.
• 1938 - Fred Stolle was born. Australian tennis player.
• 1938 - Walter Gretzky was born. Father of Wayne Gretzky.
• 1939 - World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.
• 1939 - Clemente Padín was born. Uruguayan poet.
  
• 1939 - Harvey Pekar was born. American author.
• 1939 - Lynne Stewart was born. American civil liberties lawyer.
• 1939 - Paul Hogan was born. Australian actor (Crocodile Dundee series, Lightning Jack, Flipper).
• 1940 - Fred Cash was born. American singer (The Impressions).
• 1940 - Robert Emden dies (b. 4 Mar 1862). Swiss physicist and astrophysicist who developed a theory of expansion and compression of gas spheres and applied it to stellar structure.
• 1941 - World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
• 1941 - Jesse Jackson was born. American clergyman and civil rights activist.
• 1942 - Sergei Chaplygin dies (b. 1869). Soviet engineer.
• 1943 - Chevy Chase was born. American comedian and actor.
• 1943 - R. L. Stine was born. American author.
• 1944 - The radio show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet debuts.
• 1944 - The Battle of Crucifix Hill, a World War II battle, occurs on Crucifix Hill just outside of Aachen. Capt. Bobbie Brown wins a medal of Honor for his heroics in this battle.
• 1944 - Susan Raye was born. American singer.
• 1944 - Wendell Willkie dies (b. 1892). American politician and Presidential candidate.
• 1945 - Felix Salten dies (b. 1869). Austrian author.
• 1946 - Dennis Kucinich was born. American politician, U.S. congressman and presidential candidate.
• 1946 - Jean-Jacques Beineix was born. French film director.
• 1947 - Emiel Puttemans was born. Belgian athlete.
• 1947 - Tony Wilson was born. British bassist and singer.
• 1948 - Benjamin Cheever was born. American novelist and editor.
• 1948 - Claude Jade was born (d. 2006). French actress.
• 1948 - Johnny Ramone was born (d.2004). American guitarist (The Ramones)
• 1948 - Pedro López was born. Colombian serial killer.
• 1948 - Sarah Purcell was born. American television host
• 1949 - Sigourney Weaver was born. American actress (Gorillas in the Mist, Alien series, Working Girl, Dave, Ghostbusters series, Annie Hall, The Year of Living Dangerously); daughter of Sylvester Pat Weaver.
• 1950 - Robert Kool Bell was born. American musician (Kool & the Gang).
• 1951 - Jack O'Connell was born. American politician.
• 1952 - The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash: A three-train disaster in London kills 112 people.
• 1952 - Edward Zwick was born. American film director.
• 1952 - Jan Marijnissen was born. Dutch politician.
• 1952 - Joe Adams dies (b. 1877). American baseball player.
• 1953 - Nigel Bruce dies (b. 1895). British actor.
• 1953 - Kathleen Ferrier dies (b. 1912). British contralto.
• 1954 - Huub Rothengatter was born. Dutch racecar driver.
• 1954 - Michael Dudikoff was born. American actor: Virtual Assassin, Soldier Boyz, The Human Shield, American Ninja series, Platoon Leader, Avenging Force, Bachelor Party, I Ought to Be in Pictures, The Black Marble, Star of the Family, Cobra.
• 1955 - Bill Elliott was born. American racecar driver.
• 1955 – Darrell Hammond was born. American comedian (SNL).
• 1955 - Lonnie Pitchford was born. American blues musician.
• 1955 – Iry LeJeune dies (b. 1928). Cajun musician.
• 1956 - New York Yankees baseball pitcher Don Larsen pitches first (and only) perfect game in World Series history in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.
• 1956 - Jeff Lahti was born. American baseball player.
• 1956 - Stephanie Zimbalist was born. American actress.
• 1957 - Baseball: Walter O'Malley announces that the Dodgers are going to move from Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles, California.
• 1957 - Antonio Cabrini was born. Italian footballer.
• 1957 - Joe Castiglione was born. American college athletic director.
• 1958 - Steve Coll was born. American journalist.
• 1958 - Ran Bosilek dies (b. 1886). Bulgarian author and translator.
• 1959 - Mike Morgan was born. American baseball player.
• 1959 - Nick Bakay was born. American actor, voice actor and comedian.
• 1960 - François Pérusse was born. Quebec humorist.
• 1960 - Lorenzo Milá was born. Spanish newscaster.
• 1960 - Reed Hastings was born. American businessman and entrepreneur.
• 1961 - Ted Kooshian was born. American jazz pianist.
• 1962 - Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes the article "Bedingt. abwehrbereit" ("Conditionally prepared for defense") about a NATO manoeuver called "Fallex 62", which uncovered the sorry state of the Bundeswehr (Germany's army) facing the communist threat from the east at the time. The magazine was soon accused of treason.
• 1962 - Algeria admitted as 109th member of the UN.
• 1962 - Bruno Thiry was born. Belgian rally driver.
• 1962 - Solomon Linda dies (b. 1909). South African singer and composer.
• 1963 - João Baião was born. Portuguese TV presenter and actor.
• 1964 - CeCe Winans was born. American singer.
• 1964 – Igor Jijikine was born. Russian actor (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).
• 1965 - London's Post Office Tower, Britain's tallest building, opened.
• 1965 - Ardal O'Hanlon was born. Irish comedian.
• 1965 - C-Jay Ramone was born. American bassist (The Ramones).
• 1965 – Peter Greene was born. American actor.
• 1966 - Art Barr was born (d. 1994). American wrestler.
• 1966 – Camille Coduri was born. British actress.
• 1966 – Karyn Parsons was born. American actress.
• 1967 - Guerrilla leader Che Guevara (b. 14 Jun 1928) and his men are captured in Bolivia. He was executed next day.
• 1967 - Yvonne Reyes was born. Venezuelan actress.
• 1967 - Clement Attlee dies (b. 1883). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: Operation Sealords - United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
• 1968 - Ali Benarbia was born. Former Algerian footballer.
• 1968 - Emily Procter was born. American actress.
• 1968 - Karyn Parsons was born. American actress.
• 1968 - Leeroy Thornhill was born. British musician (The Prodigy).
• 1968 - Zvonimir Boban was born. Croatian football player.
• 1968 - Eng. António de Almeida dies (b. 5 Nov. 1891). Portuguese engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
• 1969 – The opening rally of the Days of Rage occurs, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago, Illinois.
• 1969 - Dylan Neal was born. Canadian actor.
• 1969 - Jeremy Davies was born. American actor.
• 1969 - Julia Ann was born. American pornographic actress.
• 1970 - Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion."
• 1970 - Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 11 Dec 1918) won the Nobel Prize in literature, “for the ethical force with which he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literature.”
• 1970 - Gauri Khan was born. Wife of Indian actor Shahrukh Khan.
• 1970 - Matt Damon was born. American actor (Saving Private Ryan, Courage Under Fire, Good Will Hunting, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ocean's Eleven).
• 1970 - Soon-Yi Previn was born. Korean American actress.
• 1970 - Tetsuya Nomura was born. Japanese video-game designer.
• 1970 - Jean Giono dies (b. 1895). French author.
• 1970 - Mitr Chaibancha dies (b. 1934). Thai film actor.
• 1971 - John Lennon releases his megahit "Imagine".
• 1972 – Kim Myung Min was born. Korean actor.
• 1972 - Stanislav Varga was born. Slovakian footballer.
• 1973 - Yom Kippur War: Gabi Amir's armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.
• 1973 - Rhys Evans was born. Renowned Welsh born raconteur and street performer.
• 1973 - LBC (London Broadcasting), Britain's first legal commercial radio station, began transmitting.
• 1973 - Gabriel Marcel dies (b. 1889). French philosopher.
• 1974 - Franklin National Bank collapses due to fraud and mismanagement; at the time it was the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
• 1974 - DJ Q-Ball was born. American musician (Bloodhound Gang).
• 1974 - Fredrik Modin was born. Swedish ice hockey player.
• 1974 - Koji Murofushi was born. Japanese hammer thrower.
• 1974 – Martin Henderson was born. New Zealand actor.
• 1976 - Galo Blanco was born. Spanish tennis player.
• 1976 - Karina Bacchi was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1976 - Renate Groenewold was born. Dutch speed skater.
• 1977 - Anne-Caroline Chausson was born. French down hill mountain bike rider.
• 1977 - Erna Siikavirta was born. Finnish musician (Lordi).
• 1977 – Jamie Marchi was born. American voice actor.
• 1977 - Giorgos Papasideris dies (b. 1902). Greek country singer, composer and lyricist.
• 1978 - Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.60 mph at Blowering Dam, Australia.
• 1978 - Antonino D'Agostino was born. Italian football player.
• 1978 - Mick O'Driscoll was born. Irish rugby player.
• 1979 - Gregori Chad Petree was born. American musician (Shiny Toy Guns).
• 1979 - Kristanna Loken was born. American actress and model.
• 1979 - Paul Burchill was born. English professional wrestler.
• 1980 - USSR & Syria sign peace treaty.
• 1980 - Mike Mizanin was born. American professional wrestler and host of Smackdown!.
• 1980 - Nick Cannon was born. American actor.
• 1981 - Raffi Torres was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1981 - Ruby (Egyptian Singer) was born. Egyptian singer.
• 1982 - Poland bans Solidarity. A new law in Poland banned Solidarity and forbid the setting up of new trade unions.
• 1982 - Fernando Lamas dies (b. 1916). Argentine actor.
• 1982 - Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker dies (b. 1889). English peace activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1983 – Mario Cassano was born. Italian footballer.
• 1983 - Michael Fraser was born. Scottish football goalkeeper.
• 1983 – Steve Cronin was born. American footballer, musician and actor.
• 1983 - Travis Pastrana was born. American motorsports competitor.
• 1983 - Joan Hackett dies (b. 1934). American actress.
• 1984 - Anne Murray won the Country Music Association’s Album of the Year Award this day for A Little Good News. Murray was the first woman to win this award.
• 1984 - I Just called to say I love you by Stevie Wonder is The #1 song in the U.S.A. on this date in history, according to Billboard magazine
  
• 1985 - Eiji Wentz was born. German-Japanese entertainer and singer.
• 1985 – Malcolm Ross dies (b. 1919). American balloonist and atmospheric physicist.
  
• 1986 - The Broadway musical Les Miserables has its world premiere in London's West End.
• 1987 - Dustin Breeding was born. American singer (B5).
• 1987 - Aya Hirano was born. Japanese Seiyuu.
• 1987 – Konstantinos Tsatsos dies (b.1899). 2nd President of Greece.
  
• 1989 - The Latvian Popular Front announced its intention to seek independence from the USSR.
• 1989 - Armand Traore was born. French footballer.
• 1990 - Britain's first full day in ERM Hectic trading in the City marks Britain's first day as a full member of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System.
• 1990 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount.
• 1990 - American doctors Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, “for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.”
• 1990 - B.J. Wilson dies (b. 1947). English musician (Procol Harum).
• 1991 - The Croatian Parliament cuts all remaining ties with Yugoslavia.
• 1992 - West Indian poet Derek Walcott was the winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in literature, “for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”
• 1992 - Willy Brandt dies (b. 1913). Chancellor of Germany, Nobel laureate.
• 1993 - Angus T. Jones was born. American actor.
• 1995 – Christopher Keene dies (b. 1946). American conductor.
  
• 1996 - American economist William Vickrey (Columbia University) and British professor James Mirrlees (Cambridge University) were winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, “for their fundamental contributions to the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information.” The 82-year-old Vickrey died October 11, 1996 (three days after the Nobel announcement).
• 1996 - US economist William Vickrey (b. 21 Jun1914 – d. 11 Oct 1996) and British professor James Mirrlees [05 Jul 1936~] are named co-winners of the 1996 Nobel economics prize.
• 1997 - Bertrand Goldberg dies (b. 1913). American architect.
• 1998 - Oslo's Gardermoen airport opens after the close down of Fornebu airport.
• 1998 - José Saramago (b. 16 Nov 1922), Portuguese novelist is laureate with The Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy said it gave the award to Saramago for work that “with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us to apprehend an illusory reality.”
• 1999 - New Coligny Calendar, NCC, The beginning of a new era of the Colignay Calendar, the oldest material Celtic calendar.
• 1999 - John McLendon dies (b. 1915). American basketball coach.
• 2000 – Sheila Holland (Sheila Coates, Charlotte Lamb, Sheila Lancaster, Victoria Wolf, Laura Hardy) dies (b. 1937). English writer.
  
• 2001 - A twin engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy killing 118.
• 2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security, which will be headed by Tom Ridge.
• 2001 - The main body of the Russian submarine Kursk, is raised from 108 m down on be Barents Sea floor where it had sunk on 12 August 2000, killing all 116 on board. The salvage operation is conducted from a giant barge with computer-controlled cables by the Dutch companies Mammoet and Smit International, contracted for some $65 million by the Russian government.
• 2001 - The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announces that the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2001 is awarded to Leland H. Hartwell (b. 30 Oct 1939~) (USA), Richard Timothy “Tim” Hunt (b.19 Feb 1943~) (UK) and Paul M. Nurse (b.25 Jan 1949~ ) (UK), for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle.
• 2002 - The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announces the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2002 with one half jointly to Raymond Davis Jr (USA) (b. 14 Oct 1914~), and Masatoshi Koshiba (Japan) (b.19 Sep 1926~) “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos” and the other half to Riccardo Giacconi (USA) (b. 06 Oct 1931~) “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources”.
• 2002 – Jacques Richard dies (b. 1952). French Canadian ice hockey player.
  
• 2003 - Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected governor of California, ousting the incumbent, Gray Davis, three years before the end of his term of office.
• 2003 - Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark's engagement to Australian lawyer Mary Donaldson is announced.
• 2003 - This year's Nobel Prize for Economics is announced to go to Robert F. Engle “for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility (ARCH)” and to Clive W. J. Granger (b. 1934~) “for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends (cointegration)”. Both laureates are from the US.
• 2003 - This year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry is announced to be awarded “for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes”, to Peter Agre [b. 1949, ~] “for the discovery of water channels” and to Roderick MacKinnon (b. 1956, ~) “for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels”. Both laureates are from the US.
• 2004 - Martha Stewart goes to jail.
• 2004 - Schapelle Corby is arrested for drugs smuggling in Bali.
• 2004 - It is announced that the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize will go to Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai [01 Apr 1940] “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” One of her achievements is the Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977.
• 2004 - Jacques Derrida dies (b. 1930). French philosopher.
• 2004 - James Chace dies (b. 1931). American historian.
• 2005 – Martha Stewart begins her prison sentence after being convicted of securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy in the ImClone stock trading case.
• 2005 - The Kashmir earthquake hits parts of northern South Asia at 03:50 UTC. Many hundreds of people die in Pakistan, north India and Afghanistan following a massive quake.
• 2005 – Alekos Alexandrakis dies (b. 1928). Greek actor.
• 2006 - Mark Porter dies (b. 1975). New Zealand racing driver.
• 2007 - Constantine Andreou dies (b. 1917). Greek artist.
• 2008 – Bob Friend dies (b. 1938). British newscaster.
• 2008 – Eileen Herlie dies (b. 1918). American actress.
• 2008 – George Emil Palade dies (b. 1912). Romanian cell biologist.
• Day of Independence in Croatia.
• Navy Day in Peru.
• Air Force Day (India)