• 996 - Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk, Bishop of Freising, which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi (Austria in Old High German).
• 1512 - The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
• 1520 - The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage.
• 1604 - William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
• 1611 - William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
• 1612 - (22 October O.S.) Time of Troubles in Russia: Moscow, Kitai-gorod, is captured by Russian troops under command of Dmitry Pozharsky
• 1683 - The British crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
• 1755 - Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon is destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty thousand and ninety thousand people.
• 1765 - The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the 13 colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.
• 1790 - Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster.
• 1800 - US President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
• 1802 - Delegates meet at Chillicothe, Ohio to form a state constitutional convention.
• 1805 - Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition.
• 1814 - Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars.
• 1848 - In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opens.
• 1859 - The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse was lit for the first time. Its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for about 19 miles (30 kilometers), in good conditions.
• 1861 - American Civil War: US President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott.
• 1870 - In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast.
• 1876 - New Zealand's provincial government system is dissolved.
• 1884 - The Gaelic Athletic Association is set up in Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary.
• 1886 - Ananda College, a leading Buddhist school in Sri Lanka was established with 37 students.
• 1894 - Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.
• 1896 - A picture showing the unclad (bare) breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time.
• 1901 - Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national men's collegiate fraternity is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, VA.
• 1911 - The first dropping of a bomb from an airplane in combat, during the Italo-Turkish War.
• 1914 - World War I: the first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific.
• 1915 - Parris Island is officially designated a Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
• 1916 - Paul Miliukov delivers in the State Duma the famous "stupidity or treason" speech, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government.
• 1918 - Malbone Street Wreck: the worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 deaths.
• 1918 - Western Ukraine gains its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• 1920 - American Fishing Schooner Esperanto defeats the Canadian Fishing Schooner Delawana in the First International Fishing Schooner Championship Races in Halifax.
• 1922 - The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates.
• 1928 - The Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, replacing the version of the Arabic alphabet previously used, comes into force in Turkey.
• 1937 - Stalinists executed by shooting Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community (including three women).
• 1938 - Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed "the match of the century" in horse racing.
• 1939 - The first rabbit born after artificial insemination is exhibited to the world.
• 1941 - American photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography.
• 1942 - Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on November 4.
• 1943 - World War II: Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, United States Marines, the 3rd Marine Division, land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
• 1943 - World War II: In support of the landings on Bougainville, U.S. aircraft carrier forces attack the huge Japanese base at Rabaul.
• 1944 - World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.
• 1945 - The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro. Australia joins the United Nations.
• 1946 - The New York Knicks played against the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens, in the first Basketball Association of America game. The Knicks would win 68-66.
• 1948 - Off southern Manchuria, 6,000 people are killed as a Chinese merchant ship explodes and sinks.
• 1950 - Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House.
• 1950 - Pope Pius XII witnesses "The Miracle of the Sun" while at the Vatican.
• 1950 - Pope Pius XII claims Papal Infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.
• 1951 - American soldiers are exposed to an atomic explosion for training purposes in Desert Rock, Nevada. Participation wasn't voluntary.
• 1952 - Operation Ivy - The United States successfully detonates the first large hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" ["M"for megaton], in the Eniwetok atoll, located in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The explosion had a yield of 10 megatons.
• 1954 - The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence.
• 1955 - The bombing of United Airlines Flight 629 occurs.
• 1956 - Formation of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with its capital as Hyderabad, formerly known as Nizam state.
• 1956 - Formation of the Indian state of Karnataka (1973), formerly known as Mysore State.
• 1956 - Formation of Kerala state in India.
• 1957 - The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at the time, opens to traffic connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.
• 1960 - While campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps.
• 1963 - The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opens.
• 1970 - A fire at a dance hall in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 144 young people.
• 1973 - Watergate Scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
• 1973 - The Indian state of Mysore was renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu .
• 1981 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1982 - Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of their factory in Marysville, Ohio. The Honda Accord is the first car produced there.
• 1991 - Three faculty, and one staff member of the department of physics and astronomy, were killed, along with one administrator, when physics graduate student Gang Lu went on a shooting rampage at the University of Iowa.
• 1993 - The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.
• 1998 - The European Court of Human Rights is instituted.
• 2005 - First part of the Gomery Report, which discusses allegations of political money manipulation, is released in Canada.

Births