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1851 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published on October 18, 1851 by Richard Bentley, London.

1862 - American Civil War: President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.

1889 - Pioneer woman journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days.

1910 - Aviation pioneer Eugene Ely performs the first take-off from a ship in Hampton Roads, VA. He took off from a makeshift deck on the light cruiser USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher.

1918 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic.

1921 - The Communist Party of Spain is founded.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom.

1940 - World War II: In England, the city of Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers.

1941 - World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS ''Ark Royal'' sinks due to torpedo damage from U 81 sustained on November 13.

1952 - First regular UK singles chart published by the New Musical Express.

1965 - Vietnam War: Battle of the Ia Drang begins - the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.

1969 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.

1970 - Southern Airways DC-9 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including members of the Marshall University football team.

1971 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 reaches Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.

1971 - His Holiness Shenouda III was concescrated as the 117th Patriarch of Alexandria and the See of St. Mark, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time.

1973 - In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey.

1975 - Spain abandons Western Sahara.

1979 - Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.

1982 - Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.

1990 - After German reunification, the (extended) Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder-Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland.

1991 - American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

1991 - Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile.

1991 - In Royal Oak, Michigan, a fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five before committing suicide.

1995 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs.

1997 - 14-year-old Reena Virk is beaten and then murdered by fellow teenagers Kelly Ellard and Warren Glowatski.

2000 - Netscape Navigator version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development.

2001 - Attack on Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters takeover the capital Kabul.

2002 - Argentina defaults on an $805 million World Bank payment.

2002 - The US House of Representatives votes to not create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks.

2003 - Planetoid 90377 Sedna is discovered.

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1567 - Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange (d. 1625)

1650 - King William III of England (d. 1702)

1719 - Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1787)

1746 - Giulio Gabrielli the Younger, Italian Cardinal

1765 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (d. 1815)

1771 - Marie François Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and pysiologist (d. 1802)

1776 - Henri Dutrochet, French physiologist (d. 1847)

1779 - Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (d. 1850)

1797 - Charles Lyell, British geologist (d. 1875)

1803 - Jacob Abbott, American writer (d. 1879)

1805 - Fanny Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (d. 1847)

1812 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (d. 1878)

1828 - James B. McPherson, American Civil War general (d. 1864)

1838 - August Senoa, Croatian writer (d. 1881)

1840 - Claude Monet, French painter (d. 1926)

1859 - Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (d. 1938)

1875 - Jakob Schaffner, Swiss novelist (d. 1944)

1878 - Leopold Staff, Polish poet (d. 1957)

1883 - Fred Quimby, American film producer (d. 1965)

1889 - Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India (d. 1964)

1891 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1941)

1896 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (d. 1979)

1898 - Benjamin Fondane, Romanian-French Surrealist writer, essayist, and filmmaker (d. 1944)

1900 - Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)

1904 - Harold Larwood, English cricketer (d. 1995)

1904 - Dick Powell, American actor (d. 1963)

1905 - John Henry Barbee, American guitarist and singer (d. 1964)

1906 - Louise Brooks, American actress (d. 1985)

1907 - Howard W. Hunter, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1995)

1907 - Astrid Lindgren, Swedish writer (d. 2002)

1907 - William Steig, American cartoonist and children's book author (d. 2003)

1908 - Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator and anti-communist (d. 1957)

1910 - Eric Malpass, English novelist (d. 1996)

1912 - Barbara Hutton, American socialite (d. 1979)

1912 - T. Y. Lin, Chinese-born civil engineer (d. 2003)

1915 - Martha Tilton, American singer

1916 - Roger Apéry, French mathematician (d. 1994)

1916 - Sherwood Schwartz, American television writer and producer

1919 - Veronica Lake, American actress (d. 1973)

1919 - Lisa Otto, German soprano

1921 - Brian Keith, American actor (d. 1997)

1922 - Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian UN Secretary-General

1924 - Leonid Borisovitch Kogan, Russian violinist (d. 1982)

1927 - Bart Cummings, Australian race horse trainer

1929 - Jimmy Piersall, baseball player

1930 - Edward White, astronaut (d. 1967)

1930 - Shirley Crabtree, Professional wrestler better known as Big Daddy (d. 1997)

1934 - Catherine McGuinness, Irish Supreme Court Justice

1935 - King Hussein of Jordan (d. 1999)

1939 - Wendy Carlos, American composer

1939 - McLean Stevenson, American actor (d. 1996)

1943 - Peter Norton, American software engineer and businessman

1945 - Stella Obasanjo, Nigerian First Lady

1947 - P. J. O'Rourke, American writer

1948 - Charles, Prince of Wales

1951 - Stephen Bishop, American musician

1953 - Dominique de Villepin, Prime Minister of France

1954 - Bernard Hinault, French cyclist

1954 - Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State

1954 - Yanni, Greek musician

1955 - Koichi Nakano, Japanese cyclist

1959 - Paul McGann, British actor

1961 - Gordon Jennison Noice, American actor, director, writer

1964 - Bill Hemmer, American television news reporter

1966 - Curt Schilling, baseball player

1966 - Petra Roßner, German cyclist

1967 - David Sheridan, American Industralist

1967 - Letitia Dean, British actress

1967 - Nina Gordon, American singer and songwriter

1969 - Butch Walker, recording artist, songwriter, and record producer

1971 - Adam Gilchrist, Australian cricketer

1972 - Martin Pike, Australian footballer

1972 - Edyta Górniak, Polish singer

1972 - Matthew Bloom, American wrestler

1973 - Lawyer Milloy, American football player

1973 - Dana Snyder, American voice actor

1973 - Moka Only, Canadian musician

1974 - Matt Bloom, American professional wrestler

1974 - Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh (d. 1981)

1975 - Travis Barker, American drummer (Blink 182) ((+44))

1977 - Obie Trice, American rapper

1978 - Xavier Nady, baseball player

1978 - Mersing Nguyen, American actress

1979 - Mavie Hörbiger, German actress

1979 - Tobin Esperance, musician (Papa Roach)

1982 - Stephen Hughes, Scottish footballer

1983 - Lil Boosie, American rapper

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565 - Justinian the Great, Byzantine Emperor (b. 483)

1226 - Frederick of Isenberg, German politician (executed) (b. 1193)

1263 - Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir

1359 - Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica (b. 1296)

1522 - Anne of France, Princess and Regent of France (b. 1461)

1556 - Giovanni della Casa, Italian poet (b. 1504)

1633 - William Ames, English philosopher (b. 1576)

1687 - Nell Gwynne, English mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1650)

1691 - Tosa Mitsuoki, Japanese painter (b. 1617)

1716 - Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician (b. 1646)

1734 - Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, French-born mistress of Charles II of England (b. 1649)

1746 - Georg Steller, German naturalist (b. 1709)

1825 - Jean Paul, German writer (b. 1763)

1829 - Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, French pharmacist and chemist

1831 - Georg Hegel, German philosopher (b. 1770)

1832 - Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the American Declaration of Independence and U.S. Senator (b. 1732)

1844 - John Abercrombie, British physician (b. 1780)

1866 - King Miguel of Portugal (b. 1802)

1872 - Pavel Kiselyov, Russian general and politician (b. 1788)

1907 - Andrew Inglis Clark, Australian politician (b. 1848)

1908 - The Guangxu Emperor of China, (b. 1871)

1914 - Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, Malayali Journalist and Short story writer (b. 1861)

1915 - Booker T. Washington, American inventor, educator, and author (b. 1856)

1916 - Saki, British writer (b. 1870)

1937 - Jack O'Connor, baseball player (b. 1869)

1944 - Carl Flesch, Hungarian violinist (b. 1873)

1946 - Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer (b. 1876)

1972 - Martin Dies, Jr., American politician (b. 1900)

1977 - A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acarya of ISKCON (b. 1896)

1981 - Robert Bradford, Northern Irish footballer and politician (assassinated} (b. 1941

1992 - Ernst Happel, Austrian football coach (b. 1925)

1994 - Tom Villard, American actor (b. 1953)

1997 - Eddie Arcaro, American jockey (b. 1916)

2000 - Robert Trout, American journalist (b. 1908)

2003 - Gene Anthony Ray, American actor (b. 1962)

2004 - Margaret Hassan, Irish-born aid worker (b. 1945)

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Roman festivals - Equorum Probatio

India - Birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru: Children's Day

United States - National Children's Book Week begins