On October 10th...

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Republic Day (Taiwan)

1684 Painter Antoine Watteau was born.

1731 Chemist Henry Cavendish was born.

1733 France declared war on Emperor Charles VI.

1738 Painter Benjamin West was born.

1795 Samuel Fraunces, proprietor of historic Fraunces Tavern in New York City, died.

1813 Opera composer Giuseppe Verdi was born.

1845 The United States Naval Academy opened at Annapolis, Maryland.

1846 Astronomer William Lassell discovered Triton, the largest moon of Neptune.

1858 The first Overland Mail Company coach arrived in San Francisco, California.

1861 Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen was born.

1872 William Seward, U. S. Secretary of State who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia, died.

1886 Yoho National Park, in British Columbia, Canada, was created.
1886 The first dinner jacket (tuxedo) was worn to an autumn ball at Tuxedo Park, New York.

1899 IsaacR. Johnson patented the bicycle frame.

1900 Actress Helen Hayes was born.

1902 Outlaw Tom Horn went on trial for murder.

1903 Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women's Social and Political Union to fight for women's rights in Britain.

1911 The Chinese Revolution began.
1911 Businessman Jack Daniel died.

1913 Yuan Shikai was installed as the first President of China.
1913 Businessman Adolphus Busch died.

1914 German forces routed the Belgians at Antwerp, Belgium.

1917 Jazz pianist Thelonius Monk was born.

1924 Film director Ed Wood was born.

1927 Actor Dana Elcar was born.

1844 Inventor Elijah McCoy died.

1933 The first synthetic detergent, "Dreft" by Procter & Gamble, went on sale.

1946 Actor Ben Vereen was born.

1954 Ho Chi Minh entered Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1954 Rock singer David Lee Roth was born.

1957 The USS Sargo was launched.

1958 Country singer Tanya Tucker was born.

1959 The world's first nuclear reactor to use boiling heavy water and uranium to produce power was started in Halden, Norway.
1959 The multipurpose Dalles Dam, on the Columbia River, was officially opened.

1960 Sixteen California Poly football team members died in a plane crash at Toledo, Ohio.
1960 About 4,000 persons were killed when a cyclone hit the coast of the Gulf of Bengal.

1963 From Russia With Love premiered in London, England.

1964 Singer Eddie Cantor died.

1969 Football player Brett Favre was born.

1970 The Fiji Islands gained independence from the United Kingdom.

1971 The musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" premiered in New York City, New York.

1973 U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned from office and pled no contest to failing to report income for tax purposes.

1974 Auto racer Dale Earhart, Jr., was born.

1978 The U.S. Congress approved a dollar coin honoring Susan B. Anthony.

1979 Panama assumed sovereignty over the Canal Zone.

1980 The Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network was dedicated.
1980 A pair of earthquakes killed about 4,500 persons in northwest Algeria.

1985 Actor Yul Brynner died.
1985 Orson Welles, radio, movie, and television producer and actor, died.

1986 Shimon Peres resigned as Prime Minister of Israel.

1997 An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashed and exploded near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74 persons.

1998 Clark McAdams Clifford, U. S. presidential advisor and Secretary of Defense, died.

2000 Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, died.

2004 Actor Christopher Reeve died.

2005 Milton Obote, President of Uganda, died.

2010 The Netherlands Antilles were dissolved.

2012 Football player Alex Karras died.

2013 Astronaut Scott Carpenter died.

2015 A bombing at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey, killed at least 95 persons and injured another 200.

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This page was last updated on October 10, 2018.