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1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.

1016 - The Danes defeat the Saxons in the Battle of Ashingdon.

1210 - Pope Innocent III excommunicates German leader Otto IV

1561 - Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima -- Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts

1648 - Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.

1685 - Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, which has protected French Protestants

1748 - Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.

1767 - Mason-Dixon line, survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania is completed.

1851 - Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1860 - The Second Opium War finally ends at the Convention of Peking with the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, an unequal treaty.

1867 - United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

1898 - United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.

1908 - Belgium annexes the Congo Free State.

1912 - The First Balkan War begins.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) is founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1925 - The Grand Ole Opry opens.

1944 - Adolf Hitler orders the establishment of a German national militia.

1944 - Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia

1945 - The USSR's nuclear program receives plans for the USA's plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

1945 - A group of the Venezuelan Armed Forces, led by Mario Vargas, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, staged a coup d'etát against then president Isaías Medina Angarita, who was definitely overthrown by the end of the day.

1954 - Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.

1964 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes for its first season after a six-month run.

1968 - A police raid on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's flat finds 168 grams of marijuana. They later plead guilty and are fined £150.

1968 - The U.S. Olympic Committee suspends two black athletes for giving a "black power" salute during a victory ceremony at the Mexico City games.

1968 - Bob Beamon sets a world record of 8.90m in the long jump at the Mexico City games. This becomes the longest unbroken track and field record in history, standing for 23 years, and is later named by Sports Illustrated magazine as one of the five greatest sporting moments of the 20th century.

1969 - Jefferson Airplane member Paul Kantner is charged with possession of marijuana in Hawaii.

1977 - German Autumn: a set of events revolving around the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of a Lufthansa flight by the Red Army Faction (RAF) comes to an end when Schleyer is executed and various RAF members allegedly commit suicide. The West German government states that it would never again negotiate with terrorists.

1977 - Reggie Jackson hits three consecutive home runs, each on the first pitch, off three different Dodgers pitchers in World Series game 6.

1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States.

1988 - Green Day plays their first show.

1989 - East German leader Erich Honecker resigns.

1991 - Azerbaijan declares independence from USSR

1993 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.

2003 - Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.

2006 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average surpasses the 12,000 point mark for the first time in its history.

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1127 - Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan (d. 1192)

1405 - Pope Pius II (d. 1464)

1517 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (d. 1570)

1547 - Justus Lipsius, Flemish humanist (d. 1606)

1569 - Giambattista Marini, Italian poet (d. 1625)

1595 - Edward Winslow, Plymouth Colony founder (d. 1655)

1634 - Luca Giordano, Italian artist (d. 1705)

1653 - Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1713)

1662 - Matthew Henry, English non-conformist minister (d. 1714)

1668 - John George IV, Elector of Saxony (d. 1694)

1679 - Ann Putnam, Jr., American accuser in the Salem Witch Trials (d. 1716)

1701 - Charles le Beau, French historian (d. 1778)

1706 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (d. 1785)

1741 - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (d. 1803)

1777 - Heinrich von Kleist, German writer (d. 1811)

1785 - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (d. 1866)

1854 - Billy Murdoch, Australian cricketer (d. 1911)

1859 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1941)

1868 - Ernst Didring, Swedish author (d. 1931)

1870 - Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Japanese scholar (d. 1966)

1873 - Ivanoe Bonomi, Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1951)

1882 - Lucien Petit-Breton, Argentine-French cyclist (d. 1917)

1893 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese founder of Macrobiotics (d. 1966)

1894 - H. L. Davis, American author (d. 1960)

1897 - Isabel Briggs Myers, American pyschological theorist (d. 1980)

1898 - Lotte Lenya, Austrian singer and actress (d. 1981)

1902 - Miriam Hopkins, American actress (d. 1972)

1902 - Pascual Jordan, German physicist (d. 1980)

1903 - Lina Radke, German athlete (d. 1983)

1904 - A. J. Liebling, American journalist (d. 1963)

1906 - James Brooks, American painter (d. 1992)

1909 - Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher and legal theorist (d. 2004)

1913 - Robert Gilruth, American aviation and space pioneer (d. 2000)

1915 - Victor Sen Yung, American actor (d. 1980)

1918 - Bobby Troup, American musician (d. 1999)

1919 - Anita O'Day, American singer

1919 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau, fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)

1920 - Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and political activist (d. 1994)

1921 - Jesse Helms, U.S. Senator from North Carolina

1924 - Hugh Allan "Buddy" MacMaster, Canadian musician

1925 - Ramiz Alia, political leader of Albania

1926 - Chuck Berry, American musician

1926 - Klaus Kinski, German actor (d. 1991)

1927 - George C. Scott, American actor (d. 1999)

1928 - Keith Jackson, American football commentator

1929 - Violeta Chamorro, President of Nicaragua

1931 - Chris Albertson, American jazz historian

1932 - Vytautas Landsbergis, Lithuanian politician, one of the political destroyers of the Soviet Union

1933 - Forrest Gregg, American football player

1934 - Inger Stevens, Swedish actress (d. 1970)

1934 - Chuck Swindoll, American evangelist

1935 - Peter Boyle, American actor

1939 - Mike Ditka, American football player, coach, and commentator

1939 - Lee Harvey Oswald, purported American assassin of John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)

1939 - Flavio Cotti, member of the Swiss Federal Council

1940 - Cynthia Weil, American songriter (with husband, Barry Mann)

1942 - Larry Pickering, Australian newspaper cartoonist

1945 - Huell Howser, American TV host

1945 - Yıldo, Turkish famous showmen ,football player

1946 - James Robert Baker, American novelist, screenwriter

1946 - Howard Shore, Canadian film composer

1947 - Joe Morton, American actor

1947 - Laura Nyro, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)

1948 - Ntozake Shange, American author

1949 - Joe Egan, British musician (Stealers Wheel)

1949 - George Hendrick, baseball player

1949 - Gary Richrath, American musician (REO Speedwagon)

1950 - Om Puri, Indian actor

1950 - Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright (d. 2006)

1951 - Terry McMillan, American author

1951 - Pam Dawber, American actress

1952 - Bảo Ninh, Vietnamese novelist

1954 - Liz Burch, Australian actress

1955 - Timmy Mallett, British TV presenter

1956 - Martina Navrátilová, Czech-born tennis player

1956 - Craig Bartlett, American animator

1958 - Kjell Samuelsson, National Hockey League defenseman

1959 - Milčo Mančevski, Macedonian film director and screenwriter

1960 - Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgian actor

1961 - Wynton Marsalis, American musician

1961 - Rick Moody, American author

1961 - Erin Moran American actress

1962 - Vincent Spano, American actor

1968 - Basil White, American comedian

1970 - Jose Padilla, American gang member and suspected terrorist

1970 - Doug Mirabelli, baseball player

1974 - Robbie Savage, Welsh footballer

1974 - Peter Svensson, Swedish musician (The Cardigans)

1975 - Alex Cora, baseball player

1977 - Ryan Nelsen, New Zealander footballer

1979 - Ryan Thompson, American graphic designer

1987 - Zac Efron, American actor

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707 - Pope John VII

1035 - Sancho III of Navarre

1101 - Hugh of Vermandois, son of Henry I of France (b. 1053)

1141 - Margrave Leopold IV of Austria

1417 - Pope Gregory XII

1503 - Pope Pius III (b. 1439)

1545 - John Taverner, English composer

1558 - Maria of Austria, wife of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1505)

1564 - Johannes Acronius Frisius, German physician and mathematician (b. 1520)

1570 - Manoel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit in Brazil (b. 1517)

1604 - Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (b. 1528)

1646 - Isaac Jogues, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1607)

1667 - Fasilides, Emperor of Ethiopia

1678 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (b. 1593)

1739 - Antônio José da Silva, Brazilian-born dramatist (b. 1705)

1744 - Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, English friend of Anne of England (b. 1660)

1770 - John Manners, Marquess of Granby, British soldier (b. 1721)

1775 - Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (b. 1715)

1817 - Etienne-Nicolas Méhul, French composer (b. 1763)

1871 - Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor (b. 1791)

1865 - Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)

1886 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (b. 1796)

1889 - Antonio Meucci, Italian inventor (b. 1808)

1893 - Charles Gounod, French composer (b. 1818)

1911 - Alfred Binet, French psychologist (b. 1857)

1921 - King Ludwig III of Bavaria (b. 1845)

1931 - Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)

1942 - Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (b. 1862)

1948 - Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (b. 1881)

1959 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete

1961 - Tsuru Aoki, Japanese-born American actress (b. 1892)

1966 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (b. 1878)

1966 - Sebastian S. Kresge, American merchant (Kmart) (b. 1867)

1973 - Leo Strauss, German-American philosopher (b. 1899)

1975 - Al Lettieri, American actor (b. 1928)

1978 - Ramón Mercader, Assassin of Leon Trotsky (b. 1914)

1982 - Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States (b. 1885)

1982 - Dwain Esper, American film director (b. 1892)

1982 - Pierre Mendès-France, French politician (b. 1907)

1982 - John Robarts, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario (b. 1917)

1983 - Willie Jones, baseball player (b. 1925)

2000 - Julie London, American singer and actress (b. 1926)

2000 - Gwen Verdon, American dancer and actress (b. 1925)

2001 - Micheline Ostermeyer, French athlete and musician (b. 1922)

2002 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov, cosmonaut (b. 1932)

2002 - Roman Tam, Hong Kong singer (b. 1950)

2003 - Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Spanish writer (b. 1939)

2003 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (b. 1912)

2004 - Veerappan, Indian bandit and smuggler (b. 1945)

2005 - John Hollis, British actor (b. 1931)

2005 - Johnny Haynes, English footballer (b. 1934)

2006 - Mario Francesco Cardinal Pompedda (b. 1929)

2006 - Anna Russell, English music satirist (b. 1911)

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R.C. Church, Anglican communion, et alii - Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist

Also see October 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

USA

Alaska: Alaska Day

French Republican Calendar - Piment (Chili Pepper) Day, twenty-seventh day in the Month of Vendémiaire