October 5th
 

1805 ~ Death of Charles Cornwallis, British general.

1813 ~ Death of Tecumseh, American Indian leader.

1882 ~ Birthday of Robert Goddard, rocket scientist.

1902 ~ Birthday of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation.

1936 ~ Birthday of Václav Havel, playwright, president of the Czech Republic.

1947 ~ President Harry Truman gave the first televised White House address.

1994 ~ Forty eight members of a Swiss cult die in a mass suicide.

1969 ~ “Monty Python's Flying Circus” made its debut on BBC Television.

1972 ~ Montreal, Quebec: British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

2000 ~ Mass demonstrations in Belgrade led to the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic.

October 6th
 

1600 ~ Jacopo Peri's “Euridice”, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in Florence.

1846 ~ Birthday of George Westinghouse, Engineer & Inventor.

1892 ~ Death of Alfred Tennyson, British poet laureate.

1914 ~ Birthday of Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer, leader of the “Kon-Tiki” expedition.

1927 ~ Opening of “The Jazz Singer”, the first talking movie.

1948 ~ Birthday of Gerry Adams, Irish politician.

1973 ~ Egyptian troops cross the Suez Canal, starting the Yom Kippur War.

1981 ~ Anwar al-Sadat was assassinated.

1887 ~ Death of Bette Davis, Actress.

1995 ~ The first extrasolar planet was discovered orbiting 51 Pegasi, in the constellation of Pegasus.

1887 ~ Death of Bette Davis, Actress.

I knew she'd been gone for a while.

Ooops! :o

:starwars:

October 7th
 

1571 ~ The Ottoman Empire was defeated at the battle of Lepanto.

1849 ~ Death of Edgar Allan Poe, American writer.

1885 ~ Birthday of Niels Bohr, Physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1922.

1908 ~ Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.

1931 ~ Birthday of Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

1955 ~ Birthday of Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist.

1985 ~ The “Achille Lauro” was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists.

1986 ~ Birthday of Bree Olson, Porn Actress.

2001 ~ The U.S. began its air offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan.

2003 ~ California governor Gray Davis was recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Quote the raven, "Nevermore." :(

October 8th
 

1871 ~ The Great Chicago Fire destroyed about 17,450 buildings, killed about 250 people and left another 90,000 homeless.

1949 ~ Birthday of Sigourney Weaver, Actress.

1952 ~ The UK suffered its worst peacetime rail accident.

1961 ~ In London, the Post Office Tower opened.

1969 ~ Birthday of Julia Ann, Porn Actress.

1982 ~ Solidarity, and all other labor organizations in Poland, were banned.

1992 ~ Death of Willy Brandt, German politician.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California.

2004 ~ Martha Stewart went to jail.

2004 ~ Death of Jacques Derrida, French philosopher.

October 9th
 

1804 ~ Hobart, Tasmania, was founded.

1835 ~ Birthday of Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer.

1940 ~ Birthday of John Lennon, Musician & Songwriter.

1942 ~ The Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalized Australian autonomy.

1948 ~ Birthday of Jackson Brown (Doctor My Eyes, The Pretender, Running On Empty).

1961 ~ Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" reached #1.

1967 ~ Guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia.

1970 ~ Birthday of Savannah, Porn Actress.

1974 ~ Death of Oskar Schindler, businessman.

1999 ~ The last flight of the SR-71, "Blackbird".

October 10th
 

1813 ~ Birthday of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer.

1845 ~ In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opened with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.

1875 ~ Death of Aleksey Tolstoy, Novelist & Poet.

1966 ~ Simon and Garfunkel released the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

1970 ~ A crisis hit Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier Pierre Laporte became the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1971 ~ London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

1973 ~ Vice President Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion and resigned.

1975 ~ Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor remarried.

1980 ~ UK PM Margaret Thatcher gave a defiant speech at the Tory party conference "… I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!"

1985 ~ U.S. Navy F-14s intercepted the plane carrying the “Achille Lauro” cruise ship hijackers and forced it to land at a NATO base in Sicily where they were arrested.

October 11th
 

1844 ~ Birthday of Henry Heinz, food manufacturer.

1896 ~ Death of Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer.

1899 ~ In South Africa, a war between the UK and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State began.

1961 ~ Death of Chico Marx, comedian.

1962 ~ Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council.

1968 ~ Launch of Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission.

1971 ~ Death of Chesty Puller, the most decorated U.S. Marine.

1975 ~ Saturday Night Live debuted with George Carlin as the host.

1976 ~ China's "Gang of Four" was arrested.

2002 ~ The U.S. Senate joined the House in approving the use of America's military against Iraq.

October 12th
 

1864 ~ Death of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, author of the Dred Scott decision.

1870 ~ Death of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Leader.

1968 ~ Summer Olympics open in Mexico City.

1977 ~ Four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demanded release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.

1984 ~ UK PM Margaret Thatcher narrowly escaped an IRA bomb attack.

1970 ~ Birthday of Julian, Porn actor.

1986 ~ Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev failed to agree on Star Wars at a disarmament summit in Reykjavik.

1999 ~ Death of Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player.

2000 ~ Terrorists attacked the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

2002 ~ A terrorist bomb at a Bali nightclub killed 202 people, mainly Australians.

October 13th
 

54 ~ Death of Claudius, Roman Emperor.

1307 ~ All Knights Templar in France were arrested by agents of the French king, to be later tortured into admitting heresy.

1812 ~ Death of Sir Isaac Brock, British general (killed in the Battle of Queenston Heights).

1925 ~ Birthday of Margaret Thatcher, UK PM.

1943 ~ Italy changes alliances from the Axis to the Allies.

1954 ~ Birthday of Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli nuclear technician.

1982 ~ Birthday of Ian Thorpe, Australian swimmer.

1988 ~ The UK government lost the Spycatcher battle

1990 ~ Death of Lê Ðức Thọ, Vietnamese general & politician, awarded one half of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize.

1992 ~ The UK government announced plans to close one third of the coal mines.

October 14th
 

1066 ~ Battle of Hastings: The Norman army of William the Conqueror defeated the Saxon army and killed King Harold II of England.

1894 ~ Birthday of E. E. Cummings, American poet.

1944 ~ Given the choice between a public treason trial and a certain death by firing squad or suicide with honor, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel chose the latter.

1947 ~ Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.

1964 ~ Civil Rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1977 ~ Death of Bing Crosby, Actor & Singer.

1983 ~ Birthday of Vanessa Lane, Porn Actress.

1990 ~ Death of Leonard Bernstein, Composer & Conductor.

1991 ~ Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1994 ~ PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

October 15th
 

70 BC ~ Birthday of Virgil, Roman poet.

1844 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosopher.

1917 ~ Mata Hari was executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.

1946 ~ Death of Hermann Göring, German air force commander.

1964 ~ Death of Cole Porter, Composer.

1964 ~ Nikita Khrushchev “retired” as head of USSR.

1990 ~ Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1991 ~ The Senate confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

1993 ~ Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2003 ~ China launched its first manned spacecraft into orbit, becoming the third country to do so.

October 16th
 

1793 ~ Death of Marie Antoinette – guillotined.

1854 ~ Birthday of Oscar Wilde, Irish writer.

1859 ~ In one of the developments towards the American Civil War, John Brown led a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1916 ~ Planned Parenthood founded by Margaret Sanger.

1925 ~ Birthday of Angela Lansbury, actress.

1964 ~ China detonated its first nuclear weapon.

1970 ~ Anwar Sadat was elected President of Egypt.

1978 ~ Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II. He was the first non Italian to be elevated to the position since 1522.

1981 ~ Death of Moshe Dayan, Israeli general.

1984 ~ Birthday of Melissa Lauren, French Porn Actress.

October 17th
 

1777 ~ British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y.

1915 ~ Birthday of Arthur Miller, Playwright.

1931 ~ Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.

1935 ~ Death of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish neuroscientist.

1956 ~ Queen Elizabeth opened the first commercial nuclear power station, at Calder Hall.

1972 ~ Birthday of Eminem, rap music performer.

1973 ~ Arab oil-producing nations announced they would cut back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.

1977 ~ West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers.

1979 ~ Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta.

1989 ~ Loma Prieta earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area.

October 18th
 

1851 ~ Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as The Whale.

1871 ~ Death of Charles Babbage, mathematician and inventor of computing machines.

1919 ~ Birthday of Pierre Trudeau, fifteenth PM of Canada.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Company wass founded.

1939 ~ Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, Assassin.

1954 ~ The Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates announced the first Transistor radio.

1962 ~ Dr. Watson of the United States, and Drs. Crick and Wilkins of the UK, were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.

1976 ~ Birthday of Azlea Antistia, Porn Actress.

1989 ~ Erich Honecker was forced to step down as leader of East Germany after 18 years in power.

2006 ~ Death of Anna Russell, English music satirist.

October 19th
 

1745 ~ Death of Jonathan Swift, Author.

1781 ~ Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, effectively ending the American War of Independence.

1931 ~ Birthday of John Le Carré, Author.

1937 ~ Death of Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist, father of nuclear physics.

1950 ~ Death of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poet.

1954 ~ Metal fatigue was identified as the cause of Comet crashes.

1969 ~ U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew referred to anti-Vietnam War protesters “an effete corps of impudent snobs.”

1983 ~ Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, was overthrown and executed in a military coup d'état led by Bernard Coard. He had become Prime Minister of Grenada by staging a revolution and deposing Prime Minister Eric Gairy, who was out of the country addressing the United Nations at the time.

1987 ~ The DJI fell by 22% (Black Monday).

2005 ~ The trial of Saddam Hussein began.

October 20th
 

1740 ~ Maria Theresa took the throne of Austria.

1803 ~ The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

1891 ~ Birthday of Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya.

1983 ~ Grenada's Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop, was assassinated.

1973 ~ In the “Saturday Night Massacre”, President Nixon abolished the office of special Watergate prosecutor, accepted the resignation of the Attorney General, and fired Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus.

1973 ~ The Sydney Opera House opened.

1984 ~ Death of Paul Dirac, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1933.

1989 ~ Death of Anthony Quayle, English Actor.

1992 ~ The Toronto Blue Jays win the first World Series game outside the U.S.

1994 ~ Death of Burt Lancaster, American actor.

October 21st
 

1772 ~ Birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Poet.

1805 ~ A British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain.

1805 ~ Death of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and benefactor of the Nobel Prize.

1854 ~ Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.

1879 ~ Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light.

1917 ~ Birthday of Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz Musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Ursula K. Le Guin, Science Fiction Author.

1944 ~ The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg bomb.

1983 ~ The meter was defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

October 22nd
 

1746 ~ Princeton University in New Jersey received its charter.

1836 ~ Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1844 ~ Birthday of Sarah Bernhardt, Actress.

1906 ~ Death of Paul Cezanne, Painter.

1920 ~ Birthday of Timothy Leary, writer, psychedelic drug advocate.

1943 ~ The RAF air raid on Kassel, a city of 236,000 people, killed 10,000, and left 150,000 homeless.

1962 ~ US President Kennedy announced that American spy planes had discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the island nation.

1973 ~ Death of Pablo Casals, Cellist & Conductor.

1990 ~ The region around the Aral Sea assessed as the world’s worst ecological disaster.

2009 ~ Death of Don Lane, American-born Australian television personality.

October 23rd
 

4004 BC ~ The start of the universe, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.

1892 ~ Birthday of Gummo Marx, actor, comedian (Marx Brothers).

1940 ~ Birthday of Pelé, soccer player Extraordinaire.

1956 ~ Hungarians took to the streets in to demand an end to Soviet rule. Thousands died.

1974 ~ Birthday of Jasmin St. Claire, Porn Actress.

1983 ~ U.S. & French barracks in Beirut hit by truck bombs, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and 58 French.

1993 ~ Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Joe Carter became the second player to end a World Series with a home run - three-run shot that gave Toronto an 8-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6.

1998 ~ Death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, physician.

2001 ~ Apple introduced the iPod.

2004 ~ Death of Robert Merrill, Baritone.

October 24th
 

1632 ~ Birthday of Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the “Father of Microbiology".

1799 ~ Death of Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1929 ~ Death of George Cadbury, Chocolate Manufacturer & Philanthropist.

1929 ~ "Black Thursday" crash of the New York Stock Exchange.

1945 ~ Founding of the United Nations Organisation.

1947 ~ The expression “Cold War” was first used by Bernard Baruch to the U.S. Senate War Investigation Committee.

1992 ~ In the first real "World" Series, the Toronto Blue Jays became the first non-US team to win the World Series.

2002 ~ John Muhammad and Lee Malvo were arrested in connection with the Washington D.C. area sniper attacks.

2003 ~ The Concorde completed its last commercial flight.

2006 ~ Death of William Watt, Islamic studies scholar & historian.

October 25th
 

1400 ~ Death of Geoffrey Chaucer, Poet.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.

1881 ~ Birthday of Pablo Picasso, Painter & Sculptor.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie”.

1943 ~ Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, and the last battleship to battleship firefight.

1971 ~ The UN General Assembly seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China.

1983 ~ U.S. troops invade Grenada.

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

October 26th
 

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti, Composer.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 ~ Norway became independent from Sweden.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1947 ~ The Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to allow his kingdom to join India.

1965 ~ The Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

1994 ~ Israel and Jordan made peace.

2001 ~ The USA Patriot Act passed into law.

October 27th
 

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British Captain and explorer.

1787 ~ The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published.

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1904 ~ New York’s first rapid transit subway opened.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer.

1932 ~ Birthday of Sylvia Plath, American poet.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2002 ~ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected President of Brazil.

2005 ~ Riots begin in Paris after the deaths of two Muslim teenagers.

October 28th
 

1485 ~ Le Morte D'Arthur was published.

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba.

1726 ~ Gulliver's Travels published.

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft.

1962 ~ Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1980 ~ Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with Jimmy Carter in Cleveland ''are you better off than you were four years ago?''.

1980 ~ Birthday of Kanzi, most literate non-human Earthling.

October 29th
 

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929 ~ New York Stock Exchange stock prices collapsed amid panic selling.

1947 ~ Birthday of Richard Dreyfuss, American actor.

1948 ~ Birthday of Kate Jackson, American actress.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

1969 ~ The first computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET.

1975 ~ General Franco’s dictatorship of Spain came to an end.

1982 ~ Lindy Chamberlain was found guilty of the murder of her nine-week-old daughter.

2004 ~ In a videotaped statement, Osama bin Laden directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks.

October 30th
 

1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history.

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley, one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1939 ~ Birthday of Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonated the 58 megaton hydrogen bomb "Tsar Bomba".

1945 ~ Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers to break the baseball color barrier.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1975 ~ Death of Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.

2003 ~ Wicked opened on Broadway.

2005 ~ The reconsecration of the Dresden Frauenkirche, which was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II.

October 31st
 

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique insight to this happening, click here.

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats, Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes".

1926 ~ Death of Harry Houdini, Magician.

1930 ~ Birthday of Michael Collins, the 3rd astronaut of Apollo 11.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The UK and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1986 ~ Birthday of Brent Corrigan, Porn actor

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Author and expert on mythology.

November 1st
 

1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon, Portugal was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player, South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Mike, at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

1999 ~ Death of Theodore Alvin Hall, Soviet Spy.

2007 ~ Death of Paul Tibbets, US Air Force, ret.

November 2nd
 

1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1976 ~ Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1981 ~ Birthday of Avy Scott, Porn Star.

1983 ~ President Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

1988 ~ The Morris worm was launched from MIT.

November 3rd
 

1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1838 ~ The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1936 ~ Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over Republican Alfred M. ''Alf'' Landon.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse, French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika.

1964 ~ Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson defeated challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1978 ~ Birthday of Julia Taylor, European Porn Star.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair : The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeated incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush & independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

November 4th
 

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1900 ~ Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1979 ~ Students storm the US embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages.

1979 ~ Birthday of Audrey Hollander, Porn Actress

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

November 5th
 

1605 ~ A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament was foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time. She was fined $100 for the privilege.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Roy Rogers, American actor.

1913 ~ Birthday of Vivien Leigh, English actress.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1942 ~ The Second Battle of El Alamein was won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

1999 ~ Federal Judge Thomas Jackson declared Microsoft Corp. a monopoly, saying the software giant's aggressive actions were ''stifling innovation'' and hurting consumers.

November 6th
 

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever (requires RealPlayer)

1861 ~ Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1975 ~ Birthday of Anastasia Blue, former Porn actress.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.

November 7th
 

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1917 ~ Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm.

1981 ~ Birthday of Lily Thai, Porn Star.

1989 ~ Protests force the resignation of East Germany’s Communist government.

"1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" at Baltimore, Maryland."

I love that piece of music, especially #18.

Using the weak segue that they are both Russian composers, I was again struck by how lyrical Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is. (After 1:21)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATK_pj2iMqg