365 – The Alemanni cross the Rhine and invade Gaul. Emperor Valentinian I moves to Paris to command the army and defend the Gallic cities.
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).
1141 – Empress Matilda’s reign as ‘Lady of the English’ ends with Stephen of Blois regaining the title of King of England.
1179 – Philip II is crowned King of France.
1214 – The port city of Sinope surrenders to the Seljuq Turks.
1348 – The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus “royalists”.
1503 – Pope Julius II is elected.
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 discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage.
1555 – French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1604 – William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1611 – Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is performed for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.
1612 – During the Time of Troubles, Polish troops are expelled from Moscow’s Kitay-gorod by Russian troops under the command of Dmitry Pozharsky (22 October O.S.) .
1683 – The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties.
1688 – William III of Orange sets out a second time from Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands to seize the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland from King James II of England during the Glorious Revolution.
1755 – In Portugal, Lisbon is totally devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between 60,000 and 90,000 people.
1765 – The British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the Thirteen 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 – John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).
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.
1861 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing 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.
1894 – Nicholas II becomes the new (and last) Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies.
1897 – The first Library of Congress building opens its doors to the public; the library had previously been housed in the Congressional Reading Room in the U.S. Capitol.
1901 – Sigma Phi Epsilon, the largest national male collegiate fraternity, is established at Richmond College, in Richmond, Virginia.
1911 – The first dropping of a bomb from an aircraft 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, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth.
1914 – World War I: The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) departed by ship in a single convoy from Albany, Western Australia bound for Egypt.
1916 – Pavel Milyukov delivers in the State Duma the famous “stupidity or treason” speech, precipitating the downfall of the government of Boris Stürmer.
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 102 deaths.
1918 – Western Ukraine gains 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, Nova Scotia.
1922 – Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate: 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 with the Latin alphabet, comes into force in Turkey.
1937 – Stalinists execute Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan’s Lutheran community.
1938 – Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in an upset victory during a match race deemed “the match of the century” in horse racing.
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 – World War II: Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends three days later with an American victory.
1943 – World War II: In the 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.
1944 – World War II: A United States Army Air Forces F-13 Superfortress conducted the first flight by an Allied aircraft over the Tokyo region of Japan since the 1942 Doolittle Raid.
1945 – The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name Chongro.
1948 – Off southern Manchuria, 6,000 people die as a Chinese merchant ship explodes and sinks.
1948 – Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is enthroned.
1950 – Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House.
1950 – Pope Pius XII claims papal infallibility when he formally defines the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.
1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.
1952 – The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device, at the Eniwetok atoll. The explosion had a yield of ten megatons TNT equivalent.
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 near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.
1956 – The Indian states Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Mysore are formally created under the States Reorganisation Act; Kanyakumari district is joined to Tamil Nadu from Kerala.
1956 – The Springhill mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia kills 39 miners; 88 are rescued.
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.
1959 – Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wears a protective mask for the first time in an NHL game.
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.
1963 – The 1963 South Vietnamese coup begins
1968 – The Motion Picture Association of America’s film rating system is officially introduced, originating with the ratings G, M, R, and X.
1970 – Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France kills 146 young people.
1973 – Watergate scandal: Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor.
1973 – The Indian state of Mysore is renamed as Karnataka to represent all the regions within Karunadu.
1979 – In Bolivia, Colonel Alberto Natusch executes a bloody coup d’état against the constitutional government of Wálter Guevara.
1981 – Antigua and Barbuda gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1982 – Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, Ohio; a Honda Accord is the first car produced there.
1984 – After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India on 31 October 1984, by two of her Sikh bodyguards, anti-Sikh riots erupts.
1993 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.
2000 – The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro joins the United Nations.
2012 – A fuel tank truck crashes and explodes in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh killing 26 people and injuring 135.
2013 – A gunman opens fire at Los Angeles International Airport, killing a US Transportation Security Administration employee, and wounding seven other people.
