On October 4th...

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1289 King Louis X of France was born.

1537 The first complete English-language Bible (the Matthew Bible) was printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1626 Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, was born.

1648 Peter Stuyvesant established America's first volunteer fire fighting force.

1777 General George Washington's troops attacked and were defeated by the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania.

1809 Spencer Perceval became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1810 Eliza McCardle, future wife of President Andrew Johnson, was born.

1814 Painter Jean François Millet was born.

1822 Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th President of the United States, was born.

1824 Mexico became a republic.

1830 Belgium gained its independence from the Netherlands.

1859 Kansas voters approved the Wyandotte Constitution.

1861 Artist Frederic Remington was born.

1880 The University of California was founded.

1881 Edward Leveaux patented the automatic player piano.

1883 The Orient Express departed on its first official journey from Paris, France, to Istanbul, Turkey.

1895 Silent movie star Buster Keaton was born.

1901 Italian Premier Francesco Crispi was born.

1904 Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi died.

1910 Portugal became a republic.

1915 Dinosaur National Monument was established.

1921 Riccardo Zanella became the first elected President of the Free State of Fiume.
1921 Francisco Morales Bermúdez, President of Peru, was born.

1923 Actor Charlton Heston was born.

1931 The comic strip "Dick Tracy" debuted.

1933 The first issue of Esquire magazine was published.

1937 Author Jackie Collins was born.

1941 Novelist Anne Rice was born.
1941 Actress Lori Saunders was born.

1944 Tony LaRussa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, was born.
1944 Politician Alfred E. Smith died.

1946 Actress Susan Sarandon was born.

1947 Physicist Max Planck died.

1949 The United Nations headquarters in New York City was dedicated.
1949 Actor Armand Assante was born.

1956 The last edition of the Boston Post was published.

1957 James R. Hoffa was elected president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
1957 Russia fired Sputnik I into space.
1957 "Leave It to Beaver" debuted on CBS-TV.

1958 Jet airliner commercial passenger service across the Atlantic was inaugurated by British Overseas Airway Corporation.
1958 The Fifth French Republic was formed.

1959 Russia launched Luna 3.
1959 Keyboardist Chris Lowe was born.

1960 An Eastern Air Lines Electra struck a flock of starlings soon after taking off from Boston, Massachusetts, and crashed into Boston Harbor, killing 61 of the 72 persons aboard.
1960 The U. S. Army launched Courier I B, the world's first active communications satellite, into orbit.

1961 Singer Jon Secada was born.

1964 Three cars of a commuter train derailed in South Africa, killing 81 persons.

1966 Lesotho gained its independence from Great Britain.

1970 Folk/rock singer Janis Joplin died.

1974 Poet Anne Sexton died.

1976 Actress Alicia Silverstone was born.

1989 Comedian Graham Chapman died.
1989 Triple Crown winner Secretariat died.

1990 "Beverly Hills, 90210" premiered on Fox TV.

1992 An El Al cargo plane crashed at Amsterdam Bijlmer, Netherlands, killing 43 persons.

1993 Troops loyal to Russian President Boris Yeltsin occupied the Russian Parliament House.

2001 A Sibir Airlines passenger jet crashed into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian missile, killing 78 persons.

2003 A suicide bomber killed 21 persons and injured another 51 at a Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel.

2004 Astronaut Gordon Cooper died.
2004 Actress Janet Leigh died.

2006 Julian Assange launched WikiLeaks.

2012 A landslide killed 19 persons in Yunnan, China.

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This page was last updated on October 16, 2018.