1066 – William the Conqueror landed in England and began the Norman conquest.
1106 – King Henry I of England defeated his brother Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebray.
1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington was elected President of the Continental Congress after succeeding John Jay.
1781 – American Revolution: French and American forces backed by a French fleet began the siege of Yorktown.
1787 – The Congress of the Confederation voted to send the newly written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire was drafted. It was made public on 13 October.
1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passed a law that freed all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves.
1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defined the length of a meter.
1892 – The first night game for American football took place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.
1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas killed more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.
1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army became the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
1919 – Race riots began in Omaha, Nebraska.
1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation was completed by a team from the US Army.
1928 – Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory and discovered what later became known as penicillin.
1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on a division of Poland.
1941 – Ted Williams achieved a .406 batting average for the season and became the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.
1944 – World War II: Soviet Army troops liberated Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.
1951 – CBS made the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product was discontinued less than a month later.
1958 – “To Know Him Is To Love Him” by the Teddy Bears was released. The song was written and composed by 18-year old Phil Spector.
1963 – “She Loves You” by the Beatles was played on the radio by Murry The K in New York. It is believed that this was the first time a Beatles song was played in the U.S.
1968 – Janis Joplin’s manager announced that she had left Big Brother and the Holding Company.
1972 – David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars made their debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall. It was his first sell out in the U.S.
1973 – The ITT Building in New York City was bombed in protest at ITT’s alleged involvement in the coup d’état in Chile.
1973 – The Rolling Stones appeared on U.S. television for the first time since 1967.
1975 – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people were taken hostage, took place in London.
1976 – A&M Records sued George Harrison for failing to deliver his LP “33 1/3” on time.
1987 – Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson were guests on the television show $10,000 Pyramid.
1991 – The Garth Brooks album Ropin’ the Wind became the first country album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart.
1994 – The cruise ferry MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea and killed 852 people.
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