October 7th
1903 - USA: Professor Simon Langley fails in his attempt to fly a heavier-than-air machine in Virginia.
1911 - Balkans: Many people are killed after an Italian bombardment of the Albanian town of Port Medua.
1916 - Western Front: The Allies break the Somme front along a ten mile stretch.
1920 - Oxford: The first 100 woman are admitted to study for full degrees.
1921 - Turin: The first International Sociology Conference opens.
1922 - Washington: Mrs W. H. Felton from Georgia is sworn in as the first woman US senator.
1926 - Paris: The 20th International Motor Show opens.
1936 - Spain: The government sets up an autonomous Basque government in Guernica.
1938 - Berlin: Jews are ordered to hand in their passports within a two week deadline.
1940 - Vichy: Marshal Petain repeals an 1870 decree giving Algerian Jews French citizenship.
1943 - USSR: The Soviet Army mounts a new thrust on German positions along the River Dnieper.
1946 - France: "Brief Encounter" wins the best British Film award at the Cannes Film Festival.
1947 - London: The Government proposes regular compulsory inspections for cars.
1952 - Kenya: A senior chief, Waruhui is murdered outside Nairobi; he had recently denounced the Mau Mau.
1959 - London: Louis Leaky exhibits the skull of the earliest known precursor of man.
1963 - Washington: President John F. Kennedy signs the nuclear test ban treaty.
1967 - London: Mama Cass Elliot spends the night in a London jail after being accused of stealing a TV from a hotel.
1971 - Tel Aviv: Israel bars entry to 21 black Jewish-Americans.
1976 - Washington: The US and Panama agree to renegotiate the 1903 Panama Canal Treaty.
1981 - Cairo: Hosni Mubarak becomes acting President.
1985 - Mediterranean: Arab gunmen hijack the Italian cruise liner "Achille Lauro."
1986 - Tunisia: Yasser Arafat announces the PLO will move headquarters from Tunis to Yemen.
1989 - Hungary: Communist leaders vote to become Social Democrats.
1991 - USA: Judge Clarence Thomas, a nominee for the Supreme Court, is accused of sexual harassment.
1993 - Stockholm: Toni Morrison becomes the first black American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
2001 - Afghanistan: The US invasion of the country takes place, with an air assault, and on the ground covert operations.
2010 - UK: A roman helmet unearthed in a field in Cumbrian field by a metal detector enthusiast sells at Christies for £2,281,250.
October 8th
1904: Berlin: Germany signs a treaty with Romania to improve trade relations.
1912 - Balkans: Montenegro declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
1917 - UK: The Labour Party announces it will field at least 300 candidates in the first post-war general election.
1921 - UK: 36 people are killed when the steamer "Rowan" sinks off the coast of Scotland.
1923 - London: Sir Edward Hulton sells the Evening Standard, Daily Sketch, Sunday Herald and other newspaper titles to Lords Rothermere and Beaverbrook for £6,000,000.
1925 - UK: Opera Singer Dame Nellie Melba announces her retirement.
1932 - London: The London Philharmonic Orchestra gives its first concert, under creator and director Sir Thomas Beecham.
1941 - USSR: German troops take the town of Orel, a strategically important part in their advance on Moscow.
1944 - London: Sir William Jowitt is appointed Britain's first minister of Social Insurance.
1948 - New York: Norway and Cuba are elected to the UN Security Council.
1951 - Montreal: Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip arrive on a Canadian Tour.
1954 - Vietnam: Viet Minh troops begin to occupy Hanoi, while US ships help move thousands of refugees to South Vietnam.
1955 - West Germany: Hans Bauer, Hitler's pilot, released by the USSR confirms Hitler's and Eva Braun's suicides.
1962 - London: Judge Elizabeth Lane becomes the first female judge to sit in the High Court.
1964 - Bonn: The West German government admits paying a ransom for the release of East German prisoners.
1965 - Scotland: The Who perform at the City Hall in Perth.
1969 - UK: Humble Pie play the Coventry Theatre supported by David Bowie.
1973 - London: Edward Heath announces Phase III of his pay policy, including a 7% limit on pay increases.
1974 - Stockholm: Former Eire foreign minister Sean McBride wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
1976 - UK: Building societies put up mortgage interest rates to 12.25%.
1978 - USA: American driver Mario Andretti becomes F1 world champion.
1980 - UK: British Leyland launches the Mini Metro.
1981 - USSR: A British salvage crew arrives in Murmansk with gold bars from HMS Edinburgh, which was sunk in 1943.
1982 - Brighton: Margaret Thatcher tells the Conservative conference "The National Health Service is safe with us."
1989 - Belfast: 28 UDR members are held in an inquiry into leaks about Republican suspects.
1993 - London: Viscount Lindley, son of Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon, marries Serena Stanhope, granddaughter of the Earl of Stanhope.
1998 - London: The Bank of England reduces the base interest rate as the global economy is threatened with recession.
2005 - Guatemala: A mudslide triggered by heavy rains buries the village of Panabaj. All 800 residents of the village are feared dead.
2011 - Manchester: Leeds Rhinos win the European Super League Rugby Grand final at Old Trafford defeating St. Helens 32-16.
October 9th
1812 - USA: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces under the command of Lt Jesse Duncan Elliott, capture two British brigs Detroit and Caledonia.
1858 - USA: The stage inaugurating the first overland mail service connecting the West and East coasts reached St. Louis from San Francisco after a trip of 23 days, 4 hours.
1902 - France: Two thirds of all French miners go out on strike.
1909 - New York: Newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst announces he will run for mayor.
1913 - Atlantic: 144 people drown and 521 are saved when the emigrant ship Volturno catches fire and sinks.
1917 - Washington: The government approves the creation of a black division of the US Army.
1918 - Irish Sea: 587 civilians are killed when a German submarine torpedoes the mailboat Leinster.
1928 - London: After a series of tests the BBC rejects the idea of a trial television service.
1935 - Geneva: Austria and Hungary refuse to impose sanctions on Italy.
1938 - New York: A new device for aircraft safety called an "altimeter" is demonstrated.
1940 - London: Winston Churchill is elected as Leader of the Tory party unanimously, following Neville Chamberlain's resignation.
1947 - London: The government cuts the bacon ration to one ounce a week.
1952 - UK: A servant runs wild at the Earl of Derby's home, shooting dead two butlers and wounding the Countess.
1959 - London: New women MP's include Margaret Thatcher for the Tories and Judith Hart for Labour.
1962 - Uganda: Independence is declared after 62 years of British rule.
1965 - USA: The Beatles begin a four week stint at No.1 on the US singles charts with "Yesterday."
1969 - Prague: The Czech government bans individuals from travelling to the West.
1975 - London: One person is killed and 20 are injured when a bomb goes off outside Green Park tube station in Piccadilly.
1978 - London: "Miss World" founder Eric Morley resigns from Mecca with a £200,000 "golden handshake."
1983 - Rangoon: South Korean foreign minister Lee Bum Suk and three other ministers are killed in a bomb blast.
1985 - London: Self-confessed terrorist Dominic McGlinchey wins an appeal against his conviction for murder.
1986 - London: An angry crowd converges on Notting Hill police station after a black male dies in police custody.
1991 - UK: The government choose a route to Stratford for the high-speed rail link to the Channel Tunnel.
1992 - New York: The UN imposes an air exclusion over Bosnia.
1998 - Rome: The Italian government headed by Romano Prodi resigns after 17 months in office.
2005 - UK: Southend Pier is devastated by fire.
2008 - North Korea: North Korea forbids ships to sail on an area of the Yellow Sea, as it prepares to launch 10 short-range missiles.
2011 - London: Sir Paul McCartney marries American heiress Nancy Shevell.
October 10th
1911 - UK: The government sets up an Industrial Council to settle future disputes between workers and employers.
1916 - Ireland: Irish Nationalists resolve unanimously to resist conscription.
1919 - UK: Teachers demand a 100% increase in their pre-war salaries.
1924 - USSR: 7 million people are reported suffering from famine after the failure of the years harvest.
1928 - Newcastle: The King opens the £100,000 Tyne Bridge, containing Britain's largest steel arch.
1930 - USA: Three airlines merge to form Transcontinental and Western Airlines, TWA.
1932 - UK: 19 people drown when a pit cage crashes into water at the bottom of Plank Lane Colliery in Lancashire.
1935 - Geneva: 50 nations agree to impose sanctions on Italy.
1939 - Finland: The Finns mobilise their Baltic Fleet.
1940 - London: A bomb destroys the high altar of St. Paul's Cathedral.
1944 - Germany: The Allies surround Aachen and order the Germans to surrender.
1945 - France: The head of the pro-Nazi French Militia, Joseph Darnand is executed.
1950 - Vietnam: French troops are overwhelmed by the Viet Minh at Kaobang.
1956 - Hong Kong: Mobs attack Europeans as anti-British riots break out in mainland Kowloon.
1962 - USA: The Mariner II space probe reveals the existence of solar winds.
1963 - Italy: 3,000 people are feared dead after a dam bursts in the Piave Valley.
1967 - Oxford: Six undergraduates are suspended for drug taking.
1970 - Fiji: The islands become independent of Britain.
1972 - London: John Betjeman is appointed poet laureate.
1976 - Belfast: The women's peace movement founders are attacked by a mob.
1980 - UK: Margaret Thatcher tells the Conservative Party conference she is "not for turning" on her economic policies.
1984 - London: The High Court fines the NUM £200,000 and Arthur Scargill £1,000 for contempt of court.
1993 - Athens: Veteran Socialist leader Andreas Papandreou 74, is elected Premier.
1996 - Afghanistan; Islamic Taleban guerrillas are forced to give up their positions in the mountains around Kabul after being overrun by troops loyal to former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
1998 - London: The England football team is booed off the pitch at Wembley in the European Championships after they draw 0-0 with Bulgaria.
2007 - New Delhi: Tibetan Exiles storm the embassy of the Peoples Republic of China to protest the lack of religious freedom in China.
2010 - Japan: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel wins the Japanese Grand Prix from fellow team mate Mark Webber.
(10-10-2013 14:09 )4evadionne Wrote: [ -> ]October 10th
1930 - USA: Three airlines merge to form Transcontinental and Western Airlines, TWA.
TWA had what was probably the most colourful history of any of the big American airlines, probably even more so than their great rivals Pan Am.
The merger was largely at the behest of then US Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown, who was looking for bigger airlines to be given the first airmail contracts. Transcontinental had the gravitas of having Charles Lindbergh on its board, but within a year of being formed they nearly went bankrupt after a damning report into a fatal crash near Kansas City revealed that the Fokker F.10 aircraft's wooden wing structure had deteriorated, leading it to fail. In the wake of the crash, the Fokker F.10 was temporarily grounded, and a more frequent and rigorous inspection and maintenance regime was put in place, making it more expensive to operate. The F.10's public image, and that of all wooden-structured aircraft, also suffered badly from the crash. It took a last minute deal with Boeing to obtain replacement aircraft to keep them afloat.
In 1934 they survived another crisis, as a Senate enquiry was set up to look into allegations of corruption over the awarding of the airmail contracts. As a result of the enquiry, the contracts were cancelled, given to the Army Air Corps and the merged company was ordered to be dissolved, but Transcontinental, the largest of the three original firms, kept the TWA name.
(Although well meant, the new arrangements were a PR disaster, as the Air Corps didn't have anywhere near enough planes or experienced pilots. In less than three months, 66 accidents resulted in 12 crew deaths, creating an intense public furore and the contracts were put back in the public sector.)
Lehmann Brothers came to their financial rescue in 1934 but before the end of the decade Howard Hughes had started taking an interest in their activities. By 1938 Hughes owned a 25% stake and by 1941 had taken full financial control, but his tenure was beset by costly and damaging boardroom battles.
In 1942 disaster struck again as a TWA scheduled flight en route from New York to Los Angeles crashed shortly after a stop-over in Las Vegas. All 22 people on board were killed including the Hollywood superstar Carole Lombard (the wife of Clark Gable) and her mother. Lombard had been on a promotional tour for the army to raise money via war bonds, and was originally due to return to Los Angeles by train, but they were running late so Lombard suggested flying back. Lombard's mother was afraid of flying and wanted to stick to the original plans but in the end agreed that they would make their decision based on the toss of a coin. The enquiry put the cause of the crash down to pilot error, but more than 40 years later Orson Welles revealed that he had strong information that Nazi agents had either sabotaged or shot down the plane, but he provided no solid evidence to support his claim and died shortly afterwards so the matter was not investigated further.
Despite boardroom battles it was Hughes who broke Pan Am's legal monopoly on international flights in 1946 and put TWA onto a firmer footing, but it wasn't until he relinquished power in 1961 that they became a global player under the chairmanship of Charles Tillinghurst, who also built up their subsidiary company which became Hilton Hotels.
TWA had almost two decades of considerable success. In 1967 they became the first all-jet major carrier, in 1969 they deposed Pan Am to become the number 1 carrier of transatlantic passengers and by 1972 were offering a genuine "round the world" service. But Tillinghurst's retirement in 1976 followed by deregulation of the US airline market in 1978 quickly saw their position go into decline. Although they maintained their position on the transatlantic route (as late as 1988 they had carried more than 50% of transatlantic passengers) they had neglected the US domestic market, their expansion plans had become unsustainable and they had to file for bankruptcy in 1992 and again in 1995.
They staged a minor recovery for several years in the late 1990s but the writing was on the wall and the end came on December 1st 2001 when they were taken over by American Airlines. The last TWA flight was from St Louis to Kansas City, replicating the first flight over 70 years before. Overnight, all TWA signage and logos were removed from every office, airport and aeroplane and replaced by those of AA.
October 11th
1865 - USA: Fort Fletcher was established as a military outpost in central Kansas. The Fort was eventually renamed Fort Hays, and became the home of the Seventh Cavalry for a short period during the Indian Wars of the late 1860's.
1903 - Spain: Seven people are killed and 33 are injured in violent clashes between Catholics and Republicans in Bilbao.
1912 - USA: Leopold Stokowski conducts his first concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
1922 - Turkey: The treaty of Mudania is signed by Turkey and the Allies, recognising Turkish occupation of eastern Thrace.
1927 - Ireland: W.T. Cosgrave is re-elected President of the Irish Free State.
1931 - Belfast: A curfew and cordon is imposed following clashes between police and unemployed workers.
1934 - Yugoslavia: Anti-Italian and anti-Hungarian riots occur after the assassination of King Alexander two days earlier by Croatian Nationalist Petrus Kellerman.
1939 - Moscow: The USSR signs a pact ceding the former Polish village of Vilna to Lithuania.
1943 - Atlantic: The Allies torpedo the battleship "Tirpitz" in the first reported use of a midget submarine.
1946 - London: MP's approve a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt in in Grosvenor Square.
1947 - Palestine: Syrian troops begin massing on the border as the US agrees to partition.
1948 - London: The BBC broadcasts from Downing Street for the first time.
1951 - London: Lord Mountbatten is appointed commander-in chief of British forces in the Mediterranean.
1952 - Vietnam: Viet Minh forces under General Giap launch an offensive in the Thai highlands.
1958 - USA: In a lunar exploration mission, a Pioneer rocket was launched in an attempt to circle the moon. The mission failed the next day, but the vehicle obtained a record maximum altitude of 79,193 miles - 30 times the altitude of any previous man-made object.
1962 - India: 50 people are killed as fighting breaks out along the border with China.
1966 - UK: Car maker Jensen introduces its latest models, the FF and the Interceptor.
1968 - USA: The first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7, manned by Commander Walter M. Schirra Jr, Donn F. Eisle, and Walter Cunningham was successfully launched and began an 11-day Earth orbit during which the crew transmitted live TV broadcasts from the spaceship, and successfully performed a docking manoeuvre with the lunar module.
1972 - North Vietnam: A US bombing raid destroys the French Embassy in Hanoi.
1974 - London: IRA bombs explode in Pall Mall and Marble Arch.
1976 - Peking: Mao Tse-tung's widow Chiang Ching and three radicals in the Chinese Politburo are arrested and charged with plotting a coup to take over the government.
1979 - UK: Godfrey Hounsfield who never went to university, is named joint winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine for his invention of the EMI body scanner, AKA Cat Scanner.
1980 - USSR: A team of cosmonauts return to earth after a record 185 days in space aboard Salyut 6.
1983 - Blackpool: Home Secretary Leon Brittan announces child or police murderers face a minimum of 20 years in jail.
1987 - Scotland: A huge sonar exploration of Loch Ness, fails to reveal any trace of the legendary monster.
1989 - Poland: England draw 0-0 with Poland to reach the 1990 World Cup finals.
1992 - Rumania: Ion Iliescu is elected President.
1996 - Washington: An AIDS Memorial quilt is laid along Washington's Mall in memory of those killed by the disease.
2005 - UK: Divers off Portsmouth harbour raise part of the bow and the anchor of the Tudor warship "Mary Rose" which sank in 1545.
2008 - Russia: An Earthquake strikes southern Russia with tremors being felt across five regions, with Chechnya being the epicentre. 12 people are reported killed.
2010 - USA: Surgeons at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, carry out an experiment approved by US food and drug administrators, injecting a spinal cord injury patient with embryonic stem cells.
October 12th
1792 - USA: The first celebration of Columbus Day is held in New York City.
1870 - USA: General Robert Edward Lee passes away in Lexington Virginia, after a bout of pneumonia aged 63. A graduate of West Point and a brilliant military strategist, he offered his services to the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War, and rose to become commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army.
1903 - UK: An Amalgamation is announced between shipbuilders Cammell and Laird.
1906 - South West Africa: German troops crush an uprising by native Hottentot tribesmen.
1912 -UK: "HMS Iron Duke" the world's largest and most powerfully armed battleship is launched.
1917 - Berlin: The head of the German Navy, Admiral von Capelle resigns.
1928 - London: The City of London Corporation throws out a scheme for a new bridge over the Thames at St. Pauls.
1933 - Washington: Plans are unveiled to turn the island of Alcatraz, in San Francisco into a prison.
1935 - Berlin: Jewish and black American Jazz is banned from German radio.
1936 - UK: Two trains are ferried between Dover and Dunkirk, beginning the London to Paris through service.
1941 - USSR: Bryansk, another key town on the way to Moscow, falls to the Germans.
1943 - Atlantic: Allied forces land on the Azores; Portugal grants them permission to maintain a garrison.
1954 - South Africa: Prime Minister Daniel Malan, chief architect of apartheid, announces his retirement for the end of November.
1957 - Canada: The Queen arrives to open the Canadian parliament.
1961 - UK: Smaller ten shilling notes come into circulation.
1963 - France: 36 British Tourists are killed in a plane crash in the Pyrenees.
1973 - Vienna: OPEC begins oil price negotiations with the oil companies.
1974 - Washington: Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski resigns.
1978 - New York: Ex-Sex Pistols guitarist Sid Vicious is arrested and charged with murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen.
1982 - Mustique: Prince Andrew cuts short a holiday with actress Koo Stark owing to excessive media attention.
1983 - USA: Ronald Regan approves a bill to keep the US Marines in Beirut for another 18 months.
1986 - Beijing: The Queen arrives on the first visit to China by a British Monarch.
1990 - UK: Inflation reaches 10.9%
1992 - Cairo: An earthquake leaves around 400 people dead.
1999 - Isle of Man: Six stamps honouring the Bee Gees are issued by the island of their birth. Their mother had run a post office on the island.
2007 - USA: 3 people are killed at the Newhall Pass Interchange on Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles after a 31 vehicle collision in a highway tunnel, closing the entire freeway.
2009 - USA: Edgar Allen Poe receives a funeral in Baltimore, 160 years after his death, and 200 years after his birth.
October 13th
1831 - USA: Riots occurred at the Park Theatre in New York, when Joshua R. Anderson, an English actor who had strongly criticized America, made his appearance on stage.
1914 - USA: Thomas Edison's miners electric safety lamp is patented.
1918 - Washington: The Administration issues strict new regulations for saving food.
1923- Berlin: The government assumes dictatorial powers, with the approval of the Reichstag.
1927 - UK: The first horse race solely for women jockeys takes place at Newmarket.
1928 - UK: Ten days of official mourning are declared on the death of the Dowager Empress Marie of Russia, Queen Alexandra's sister.
1930 - Berlin: A meeting of the new Reichstag is marked by rowdy scenes inside the chambers and violent anti-Jewish demonstrations on the streets.
1937 - Berlin: Hitler pledges to defend Belgium.
1939 - Washington: President Roosevelt rejects a plea by Hitler for mediation between Britain, France, and Germany.
1940 - UK: 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth makes her radio debut in a broadcast to child evacuees.
1943 - USSR: The town of Melitopol falls to the Russians cutting off rail links to the Germans in Crimea.
1944 - Latvia: The Soviet Army enter the capital Riga.
1950 - Korea: UN forces push the North Koreans back almost as far as the capital Pyongyang.
1954 - USA: The first supersonic bomber, the B-58, is ordered into production by the Air Force.
1955 - Moscow: The USSR establishes relations with West Germany.
1963 - London: The Beatles make their debut at the top of the bill on ITV's "Sunday Night at the London Palladium."
1966 - North Vietnam: The heaviest air strike on North Vietnam to date is made by 173 US bombers.
1973 - USA: The Rolling Stones begin a four week stint at No.1 on the US album charts with "Goat's Head Soup."
1974 - India: The country has it's worst famine in 20 years.
1976 - Bolivia: 102 people are killed when a Boeing 707 crashes onto a main street in Santa Cruz.
1984 - UK: U2 have their second UK No.1 album with "The Unforgettable Fire" produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.
1987 - UK: Heron boss Gerald Ronson is charged with the theft of £6 million from Guinness.
1992 - London: The Booker Prize is awarded to Michael Ondaatje for "The English Patient" and Barry Unsworth for "Sacred Hunger."
1994 - Northern Ireland: Three main loyalist terrorist groups announce a cease-fire to match that of the IRA.
1999 - UK: BBC Radio 2 DJ Johnny Walker is convicted of possessing cocaine and fined £2,000. He had been set up by the "News of the World who had filmed Walker with the drug.
2009 - USA: American singer and actor Al Martino dies at his home in Springfield, Pennsylvania aged 82.
October 14th
1865 - USA: The Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians sign a treaty with the US. The Little Arkansas River was included in tribal lands. The US was represented by William W. Bent, Kit Carson, William Harney, Jesse Leavenworth, Thomas Murphy, John Sanborn, and James Steele.
1905 - St. Petersburg: The Emperor of Japan and the Czar sign the final peace treaty ending all hostilities in the Far East.
1912 - Balkans: Turkey invades Serbia.
1914 - Belgium: French and British Troops occupy Ypres.
1920 - Russia: The Soviet government recognises the independence of Finland.
1922 - USA: The first mechanical switchboard was installed in the New York City telephone system. The exchange was called "Pennsylvania."
1925 - London: Police raid the headquarters of the British Communist Party, seizing documents, and arresting six people.
1930 - New York: George Gershwin's musical "Girl Crazy" opens across the city, it included the song "I Got Rhythm."
1932 - Berlin: The government unveils plans for direct presidential rule in the state of Prussia.
1935 - USA: Bruno Hauptmann the killer of Charles Lindbergh's baby son gets 30 days "grace" to appeal to the US Supreme Court.
1937 - London: The first London Motor Show open's at Earl's Court.
1943 - Italy: The Allies break through German defence lines along the River Volturno.
1945 - South-East Asia: Nationalists declare war on the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies.
1949 - USA: 11 American communist leaders are convicted of conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the government after a long bitter trial marked by personal attacks on the presiding judge Harold Medina.
1951 - London: Britain offers Egypt a new defence pact, under which Britain would give up its Suez Canal rights.
1954 - UK: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia begins a state visit.
1963 - Washington: Pan Am and TWA place orders for 21 supersonic passenger planes.
1964 - Tokyo: Mary Rand wins Britain's first gold medal of the Olympics in the woman's long jump.
1967 - USA: North Vietnamese mistreatment of US prisoners of war, in violation of the 1949 Geneva convention, is charged by the US.
1969 - UK: The New seven-sided 50 pence coin comes into circulation.
1975 - London: Peers approve a state-sponsored maternity pay fund as part of the Employment Protection Bill.
1979 - Bonn: 100,000 demonstrators march against nuclear power stations.
1980 - UK: British biochemist Dr Frederick Sanger wins his second Nobel Prize for his work on the hereditary material DNA.
1985 - UK: Sir Clive Sinclair's crisis-ridden company TPD makers of the C5 electric tricycle, calls in a receiver.
1989 - New York: Wall Street shares suffer their second biggest fall on record.
1994 - John o' Groats: Ffyona Campbell, the first woman to circle the globe on foot, completes her 11-year, 19,586 mile walk.
1995 - Rome: A judge orders former prime minister Silvio Burlusconi to stand trial on corruption charges.
2006 - UK: A re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings takes place in Sussex to mark the 940th Anniversary of the event.
2009 - Iraq: Iraq's human right's ministry announces at least 85,000 Iraqi's have been killed by bombs, murders, and fighting, between 2004 and 2008.
2011 - USA: Microsoft completes its acquisition of Internet phone company Skype for $8.5 billion.
October 15th
1878 - USA: The first electric light company, the Edison Electric Light Company is formed, located at 65th Avenue, New York City.
1900 - China: Anti-imperial forces under Sun Yat-Sen capture Mu-chan.
1908 - UK: A new harbour is opened at Dover, which is considered vital to the UK's defences.
1910 - London: Somerset Maugham's "Grace" has it's premiere at the Duke of York Theatre.
1915 - Washington: President Woodrow Wilson approves plans to extend the US Army.
1924 - USA: Dirigible ZR-3, a German Airship, completes its flight from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to Lakehurst New Jersey. It was renamed Los Angeles when taken over by the US navy.
1926 - Wales: 47 people are injured when police clash with striking Welsh miners at Glencymmer Colliery, near Port Talbot.
1933 - Manchester: Sir Oswald Mosley and Fascist sympathisers are stoned by a angry mob.
1939 - UK: Theatre managers approve a minimum weekly wage of £2 10/- for Equity members.
1942 - Stalingrad: The Germans start a new offensive on Soviet positions.
1951 - Cairo: Egypt rejects a defence pact with Britain.
1954 - USA: Hurricane Hazel, the most violent hurricane of the year, kills 99 people in the US and 249 in Canada. Combined US and Canadian property losses were put at $100,000,000.
1954 - UK: William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies" is published.
1956 - UK: The RAF withdraws from service its last Lancaster bomber, used for training.
1957 - Moscow: Nikita Khrushchev writes to socialist parties in Europe, urging action to end US and Turkish aggression.
1962 - London: Amnesty International is created to investigate human rights abuses.
1964 - USA: Craig Breedlove sets a world land speed record of 526.28 mph.
1965 - Rome: The Vatican Council announces that all Jews cannot be blamed for the death of Christ.
1969 - USA: The first Vietnam Moratorium Day was observed by millions, with prayer vigils, candlelight processions, mass meetings, and black armbands. President Richard Nixon ignored it.
1970 - Melbourne: 33 people are killed when the West Gate Bridge, Australia's biggest, collapses.
1973 - South Africa: The government extends racial segregation to all private gatherings.
1974 - USA: Many students are injured in racial fighting after a court order is passed for integration in Boston's schools.
1979 - El Salvador: A military coup topples President Carlos Romero.
1985 - Jerusalem: A soldier is killed and 70 are injured in a grenade attack at the Wailing Wall.
1994 - Port-au-Prince: President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to Haiti after three years in exile.
1995 - Johannesburg: Winnie Mandela states she will contest divorce proceedings brought by her husband Nelson Mandela.
1996 - Los Angeles: Pop star Madonna gives birth to a baby girl, naming it Lourdes Maria Ciccione Leon.
1997 - Saudi Arabia: Frank Gilford, the brother of murdered nurse Yvonne Gilford, reportedly accepts "blood money" to lift the threat of execution from British nurse Deborah Parry.
2007 - UK: Richard Brunstrom, the chief constable of North Wales police, calls for all classified drugs to be legalised in the UK.
2009 - Finland: Finland becomes the first country in the world to declare internet broadband access as a legal right.
2010 - Berlin: A museum in Berlin opens an exhibition on Adolf Hitler and his relationship with the German people, the first museum in Germany to do so.