1138 – Lý Anh Tông is enthroned as emperor of Vietnam at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign.
1605 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested.
1688 – William III of England lands with a Dutch fleet at Brixham.
1757 – Seven Years’ War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach.
1768 – Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the purpose of which is to adjust the boundary line between Indian lands and white settlements set forth in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in the Thirteen Colonies.
1780 – French-American forces under Colonel LaBalme are defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle.
1811 – Salvadoran priest José Matías Delgado, rings the bells of La Merced church in San Salvador, calling for insurrection and launching the 1811 Independence Movement.
1898 – Filipinos on Negros Island revolt against Spanish rule and establish the short-lived Republic of Negros.
1911 – After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica.
1913 – King Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III.
1914 – World War I: France and the British Empire declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
1916 – The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by the Act of 5th November of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
1917 – October Revolution: In Tallinn, Estonia, Communist leader Jaan Anvelt leads revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government (As Estonia and Russia are still using the Julian calendar, subsequent period references show an October 23 date).
1925 – Secret agent Sidney Reilly, the first “super-spy” of the 20th century, is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union.
1940 – World War II: The British armed merchant cruiser, HMS Jervis Bay, is sunk by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
1943 – World War II: Bombing of the Vatican.
1950 – Korean War: British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade successfully halted the advancing Chinese 117th Division during the Battle of Pakchon.
1955 – After being destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio.
1970 – The Military Assistance Command, Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24).
1983 – Byford Dolphin diving bell accident kills five and leaves one severely injured.
1986 – USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China – the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.
1996 – Pakistani President Farooq Leghari dismisses the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolves the National Assembly of Pakistan.
2006 – Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for their roles in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shi’a Muslims.
2007 – China’s first lunar satellite, Chang’e 1, goes into orbit around the Moon.
2013 – India launches the Mars Orbiter Mission, its first interplanetary probe.