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539 BC - King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration.

1244 - Battle of La Forbie: Crusaders are defeated by Khwarezmians and Egyptians.

1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.

1448 - Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army lead by John Hunyadi fought an Ottoman army lead by Murad II.

1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation. Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

1610 - French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims.

1660 - Ten Regicides - men who signed the death warrant of Charles I - are drawn and quartered, a process which includes their being disemboweled and their entrails burned in front of their eyes.

1662 - Charles II of England sells Dunkerque to France for 40,000 pounds.

1777 - American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga.

1781 - General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionaries at Yorktown, Virginia.

1797 - Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria.

1800 - England takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.

1806 - Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti was assassinated after an oppressive rule.

1860 - First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).

1888 - Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1912 - Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

1917 - First British bombing of Germany in World War I.

1931 - Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.

1933 - Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the US.

1937 - Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip.

1941 - For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.

1945 - A massive number of people, headed for CGT and Evita, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty) or San Perón (Saint Perón). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.

1961 - Approximately 200 Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police

1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.

1966 - A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters, the FDNY's deadliest day until September 11, 2001.

1967 - The musical Hair opens at the Anspacher Theater on Broadway.

1970 - Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1973 - OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.

1977 - German Autumn: Four days after it was hijacked, Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a team of German GSG 9 commandos later rescues all remaining hostages on board.

1979 - Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979 - The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services. Both replace the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area.

1992 - The United Nations General Assembly declares October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to be observed beginning in 1993. Resolution 47/196 of 22 December 1992.

1994 - Draft peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

1994 - Peace treaty between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.

2000 - Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.

2003 - Carlos Mesa becomes President of Bolivia.

2003 - The pinnacle was fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.

2003 - Eunuchs in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh float the political party Jiti Jitayi Politics.

2006 - The United States population reaches 300 million.

2006 - The Irish Airline Eirjet suspend all operations and stop trading on the Irish Market.

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1253 - Ivo of Kermartin, French saint (d. 1303)

1563 - Jodocus Hondius, Flemish cartographer (d. 1611)

1577 - Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (d. 1621)

1582 - Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran leader (d. 1637)

1623 - Francis Turretin, Swiss theologian (d. 1687)

1688 - Domenico Zipoli, Italian composer (d. 1726)

1711 - Jupiter Hammon, American writer

1719 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer (d. 1792)

1813 - Georg Büchner, German playwright (d. 1837)

1817 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian Muslim intellectual (d. 1898)

1864 - Elinor Glyn, British writer (d. 1943)

1865 - James Rudolph Garfield, American politician (d. 1950)

1886 - Spring Byington, American actress (died 1971)

1890 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (d. 1928)

1898 - Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese violin teacher (d. 1998)

1898 - Simon Vestdijk, Dutch writer (d. 1971)

1900 - Jean Arthur, American actress (d. 1991)

1902 - Irene Ryan, American actress (d. 1973)

1903 - Nathanael West, American writer (d. 1940)

1906 - Paul Derringer, baseball player (d. 1987)

1912 - Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)

1914 - Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist, co-creator of Superman (d. 1996)

1915 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)

1917 - Sumner Locke Elliott, Australian (later American) novelist (d. 1991)

1918 - Rita Hayworth, American actress (d. 1987)

1919 - Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov, Russian physicist

1920 - Miguel Delibes, Spanish writer

1920 - Montgomery Clift, American actor (d. 1966)

1921 - Tom Poston, American actor and comedian

1921 - Maria Gorokhovskaya, Soviet gymnast (d. 2001)

1922 - Pierre Juneau, Canadian film and broadcast executive

1922 - Luiz Bonfá, Brazilian guitarist and composer (d. 2001)

1923 - Charles McClendon, LSU Tigers head football coach (d. 2001)

1923 - Barney Kessel, American jazz guitarist (d. 2004)

1926 - Julie Adams, American film actress

1930 - Robert Atkins, American nutritionist (d. 2003)

1930 - Jimmy Breslin, American writer

1931 - Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer

1933 - Jeanine Deckers, Belgian nun and singer (d. 1985)

1936 - Hiroo Kanamori, Japanese seismologist

1938 - Evel Knievel, American daredevil

1940 - Peter Stringfellow, British nightclub owner

1941 - Earl Thomas Conley, American country music singer

1941 - Jim Seals American singer/songwriter (Seals and Crofts)

1942 - Gary Puckett, American musician

1946 - Sir Cameron Mackintosh, British stage producer and director

1946 - Adam Michnik, Polish activist

1946 - Bob Seagren, American athlete and actor

1946 - Michael Hossack, American rock drummer (The Doobie Brothers)

1947 - Gene Green, American politician

1947 - Michael McKean, American actor and comedian

1948 - Margot Kidder, Canadian actress

1948 - George Wendt, American actor

1950 - Howard Rollins, American actor (d. 1996)

1956 - Mae Jemison, astronaut

1957 - Steve McMichael, American football player and professional wrestler

1958 - Alan Jackson, American singer and songwriter

1959 - Ron Drummond, American writer, editor, and independent scholar

1959 - Russell Gilbert, Australian comedian and actor

1960 - Rob Marshall, American theater and film director

1962 - Mike Judge, Ecuadoran-born cartoonist and writer

1963 - Norm MacDonald, Canadian comedian and actor

1965 - Aravinda de Silva, Sri Lankan cricketer

1966 - Mark Gatiss, English actor

1968 - Ziggy Marley, Jamaican musician

1969 - Ernie Els, South African golfer

1969 - Rick Mercer, Canadian comedian

1970 - Anil Kumble, Indian cricketer

1970 - John Mabry, baseball player

1971 - Chris Kirkpatrick, American singer ('N Sync)

1972 - Eminem, American rapper

1972 - Wyclef Jean, Haitian-born singer

1972 - Joe McEwing, baseball player

1974 - Matthew Macfadyen, British actor

1974 - John Rocker, baseball player

1975 - Francis Bouillon, National Hockey League defenseman

1976 - Sebastián Abreu, Uruguayan footballer

1977 - Dudu Aouate, Israeli footballer

1979 - Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish race car driver

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532 - Pope Boniface II

1174 - Queen Petronila of Aragon (b. 1135)

1586 - Philip Sidney, English courtier, soldier, and writer (killed in battle) (b. 1554)

1660 - Adrian Scrope, English regicide (b. 1601)

1673 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (b. 1630)

1757 - René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (b. 1683)

1776 - Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian (b. 1681)

1780 - William Cookworthy, English chemist (b. 1705)

1786 - Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss artist (b. 1723)

1806 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian independence leader (b. 1758)

1836 - Orest Kiprensky, Russian painter (b. 1782)

1837 - Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian pianist and composer (b. 1778)

1849 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)

1868 - Laura Secord, Canadian heroine of the war of 1812 (b. 1775)

1887 - Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist (b. 1824)

1889 - Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher (b. 1828)

1910 - Julia Ward Howe, American composer and abolitionist (b. 1819)

1931 - Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist (b. 1884)

1934 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ( b. 1852)

1958 - Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (b. 1876)

1962 - Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter (b. 1882)

1963 - Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician (b. 1865)

1967 - Henry Pu Yi, last Emperor of China (b. 1906)

1970 - Pierre Laporte, Vice-Premier of Quebec (assassinated) (b. 1921)

1970 - Vola Vale, American actress (b. 1897)

1972 - Prince George of Yugoslavia (b. 1887)

1972 - Turk Broda, National Hockey League goaltender (b. 1914)

1973 - Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian writer (b. 1926)

1979 - S. J. Perelman, American writer (b. 1904)

1981 - Albert Cohen, Swiss author (b. 1895)

1984 - Henri Michaux, French painter and poet (b. 1899)

1991 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and television performer (b. 1919)

1992 - Herman Johannes, Indonesian professor, scientist and politician (b. 1912)

1998 - Hakim Mohammed Said, Pakistani scholar and philanthropist

1998 - Joan Hickson, British actress (b. 1906)

2000 - Leo Nomellini, wrestler (b. 1924)

2001 - Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli politician (b. 1926)

2001 - Jay Livingston, American songwriter (b. 1915)

2002 - Derek Bell, Irish harpist (The Chieftans) (b. 1935)

2004 - Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer (b. 1952)

2005 - Ba Jin, Chinese writer (b. 1904)

2005 - Franky Gee, European techno artist (b. 1962}

2006 - Daniel Emilfork, French actor (b. 1924)

2006 - Christopher Glenn, American newscaster (b. 1938)

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R.C. Saints - Saint Ignatius of Antioch; translation of Saint Audrey (Æthelthryth); Saint Richard Gwyn

Haiti - Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1806), State holiday

United States - Black Poetry Day

French Republican Calendar - Aubergine (Eggplant) Day, twenty-sixth day in the Month of Vendémiaire

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty