On October 9th...

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1047 Pope Clement II died.

1446 The Korean alphabet was first published.

1635 Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1701 The Collegiate School of Connecticut (now Yale University) was chartered.

1757 King Charles X of France was born.

1776 The mission at San Francisco was formally dedicated.

1779 Casimir Pulaski, a Polish cavalry officer aiding the American fight for independence, was mortally wounded at Savannah.

1806 Benjamin Banneker, astronomer, surveyor and almanac publisher, died.

1813 Composer Giuseppe Verdi was born.

1835 Composer Camille Saint-Saëns was born.

1837 The U.S. Naval Institute was established.

1839 Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley was born.

1855 Isaac Singer patented a sewing machine motor.
1855 Joshua Stoddard patented the calliope.

1860 U.S. General Leonard Wood was born.

1863 The Battle of Brady Station, Virginia, was fought.
1863 Journalist Edward W. Bok was born.

1865 The first underground pipeline for carrying oil in the United States was laid in Pennsylvania.

1870 Rome was incorporated into Italy by royal decree.

1872 Aaron Montgomery started his mail-order business.

1873 Businessman Charles Walgreen was born.

1874 The World Postal Union was formed in Bern, Switzerland.

1876 The first two-way telephone conversation over outdoor wires took place.

1877 The American Humane Association was organized in Cleveland.

1888 The public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.

1890 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was born.

1906 Joseph Glidden, the inventor of barbed wire, died.

1909 Ty Cobb stole home during a World Series game.

1915 Woodrow Wilson became the first U.S. President to attend a World Series game.

1918 Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt was born.

1922 Actor Fyvush Finkel was born.

1926 The National Broadcasting Corporation was formed.

1928 The New York Yankees became the first team ever to sweep consecutive World Series.

1930 Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field, New York, to Glendale, California.

1934 King Alexander of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou, Foreign Minister of France, were assassinated in Marseilles, France.

1936 Hoover Dam began transmitting electricity to the city of Los Angeles for the first time.

1940 Singer-musician John Lennon was born.

1941 U.S. Senator Trent Lott was born.

1944 Bassist John Entwistle was born.

1945 Singer Jeannie C. Riley was born.

1946 The Eugene O'Neill drama The Iceman Cometh opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York.

1948 Rock singer Jackson Browne was born.

1950 Actor Gary Frank was born.

1951 Actor Richard Chaves was born.
1951 Actor Robert Wuhl was born.

1952 Sharon Osbourne, actress-television personality, was born.

1953 Actor Tony Shalhoub was born.

1954 Actor Scott Bakula was born.
1954 Musician James Fearnley was born.
1954 Actor John O'Hurley ws born.
1954 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson died.

1958 Football player Mike Singletary was born.
1958 Pope Pius XII died.

1959 Actor Michael Pare was born.

1960 Jazz musician Kenny Garrett was born.

1961 Tanganyika became an independent member of the British Commonwealth.
1961 Rock musician Kurt Neumann was born.

1962 Uganda became independent of the United Kingdom.
1962 An express train rammed a derailed express in foggy weather about 90 miles southwest of Warsaw, Poland, killing 34 persons and injuring 59.

1964 Country singer Gary Bennett was born.
1964 Movie director Guillermo del Toro was born.

1967 Ché Guevara, Latin American revolutionary leader, was executed.

1969 Singer P.J. Harvey was born.

1970 The Khmer Republic (Cambodia) declared its independence.
1970 Golfer Annika Sörenstam was born.

1973 Elvis and Priscilla Presley were divorced.
1973 Country singer Tommy Shane Steiner was born.
1973 Actor Steve Burns was born.

1974 Frankie Robinson became the first black manager of a Major League team, the Cleveland Indians.
1974 Oskar Schindler, immortalized in the film Schindler's List, died.

1975 Singer Sean Lennon was born.

1978 Actor Randy Spelling was born.

1979 Actor Zachery Ty Bryan was born.

1980 Princess Caroline of Monaco divorced Philippe Junot.

1981 Capital punishment was abolished in France.

1984 Kathy Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space.

1985 Central Park's "Strawberry Fields" was dedicated.

1987 Clare Boothe Luce, playwright, Congresswoman, and stateswoman, died.

1988 Dennis Eckersley became the first Major League pitcher to save all four games in a championship series.

1992 Actor Tyler James Williams was born.

1995 Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of Great Britain, died.

2000 American politician Robert Bennett died.
2000 Actor David Dukes died.

2005 Actor Louis Nye died.

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This page was last updated on November 10, 2018.