EVENTS:
- 1846 – Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, is discovered by English astronomer William Lassell.
- 1933 – United Airlines Boeing 247 mid-air explosion: A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
- 1942 – The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
- 1957 – The Windscale fire in Cumbria, U.K. is the world’s first major nuclear accident.
- 1964 – The opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.
- 1970 – Fiji becomes independent.
- 1980 – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs in the Algerian town of El Asnam. Around 3,500 die and 300,000 are left homeless.
- 1986 – An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
- 2015 – Twin bomb blasts in the Turkish capital Ankara near the main train station leave at least 102 people dead and over 400 wounded.
- 2018 – Hurricane Michael makes landfall in the Florida Panhandle as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. It kills 57 people in the United States, 45 in Florida, and causes an estimated $25.1 billion in damage.
- 2022 – Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig are jointly awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
BIRTHS:
- 1861 – Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, scientist, and humanitarian, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1930)
- 1902 – K. Shivaram Karanth, Indian journalist, author, and activist (d. 1997)
- 1906 – R. K. Narayan, Indian author (d. 2001)
- 1913 – Claude Simon, Malagasy-French author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Merv Pregulman, American football player (d. 2012)
- 1927 – Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Indian singer (d. 2014)
- 1930 – Yves Chauvin, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 – Harold Pinter, English actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
- 1936 – Gerhard Ertl, German physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1954 – Rekha, Indian actress and singer
- 1966 – Tony Adams, English footballer and manager
- 1969 – Brett Favre, American football player
- 1971 – Ian Bennett, English footballer
- 1975 – Ramón Morales, Mexican footballer and manager
- 1982 – Amon Buchanan, Australian footballer
- 1990 – Geno Smith, American football player
- 1993 – Jayden Stockley, English footballer
- 2002 – Josh Giddey, Australian basketball player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
