October 15

October 16

478 entries in history

October 17
Events
63
Births
256
Deaths
134
Holidays
25

⭐ Featured

2017

The Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb attack in Bidnija.

2013

In Laos's deadliest air accident, Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashed into the Mekong River, resulting in the deaths of all 49 people aboard.

1991

A man drove his vehicle through the window of a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, and opened fire, killing 23 people before fatally shooting himself.

63 results

2017

Storm Ophelia strikes the U.K. and Ireland causing major damage and power loss.

2013

Lao Airlines Flight 301 crashes on approach to Pakse International Airport in Laos, killing 49 people.

2002

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Egypt, commemorating the ancient library of Alexandria.

1999

The magnitude 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake strikes Southern California

1998

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.

1996

Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.

1995

The Million Man March takes place in Washington, D.C. About 837,000 attend.

1995

The Skye Bridge in Scotland is opened.

1991

George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.

1984

Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1978

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

1975

Indonesian troops kill the Balibo Five, a group of Australian journalists, in Portuguese Timor.

1975

Three-year-old Rahima Banu, from Bangladesh, is the last known case of naturally occurring smallpox.

1975

The Australian Coalition sparks a constitutional crisis when they vote to defer funding for the government's annual budget.

1973

Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1970

Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act during the October Crisis.

1968

Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.

1968

Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.

1968

Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1964

China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

1964

Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party, while Alexei Kosygin becomes the head of government.

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).

1953

Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro delivers his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Fulgencio Batista government for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks.

1951

The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

1949

The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War.

1947

The Philippines takes over the administration of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.

1946

Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal are executed by hanging.

1943

Holocaust in Italy: Raid on the Roman Ghetto.

1940

Holocaust in Poland: The Warsaw Ghetto is established.

1939

World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.

1934

Chinese Communists begin the Long March to escape Nationalist encirclement.

1923

Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as The Walt Disney Company.

1919

Adolf Hitler delivers his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.

1916

Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

1909

William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.

1905

The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.

1891

A diplomatic incident between the United States and Chile occurred after U.S. sailors were attacked in Valparaíso, nearly leading to war.

1882

The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.

1875

Brigham Young University is founded in Provo, Utah.

1869

The Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, is "discovered".

1869

Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.

1859

Origins of the American Civil War: Abolitionist John Brown and his supporters launch a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

1846

William T. G. Morton administers ether anesthesia during a surgical operation.

1843

William Rowan Hamilton invents quaternions, a three-dimensional system of complex numbers.

1841

Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.

1836

Great Trek: Afrikaner voortrekkers repulse a Matabele attack, but lose their livestock.

1834

Much of the ancient structure of the Palace of Westminster in London burns to the ground.

1817

Italian explorer and archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni, uncovered the Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.

1817

Simón Bolívar sentences Manuel Piar to death for challenging the racial-caste in Venezuela.

1813

The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon in the four-day Battle of Leipzig.

1805

War of the Third Coalition: Napoleon surrounds the Austrian army at Ulm.

1793

French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.

1793

War of the First Coalition: French victory at the Battle of Wattignies forces Austria to raise the siege of Maubeuge.

1780

American Revolutionary War: The British-led Royalton raid is the last Native American raid on New England.

1780

The Great Hurricane of 1780 finishes after its sixth day, killing between 20,000 and 24,000 residents of the Lesser Antilles.

1736

Mathematician William Whiston's predicted comet fails to strike the Earth.

1590

Prince Gesualdo of Venosa murders his wife and her lover.

1384

Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman.

1311

The Council of Vienne convenes for the first time.

955

King Otto I defeats a Slavic revolt in what is now Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

912

Abd ar-Rahman III becomes the eighth Emir of Córdoba.

690

Empress Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire.

456

Ricimer defeats Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the Western Roman Empire.