EVENTS:
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: The First Siege of Missolonghi begins.
- 1828 – St Katharine Docks open in London.
- 1945 – The Republic of China takes over administration of Taiwan following Japan’s surrender to the Allies.
- 1962 – Uganda joins the United Nations.
- 1962 – Nelson Mandela is sentenced to five years in prison.
- 1971 – The United Nations seats the People’s Republic of China and expels the Republic of China.
- 1977 – Digital Equipment Corporation releases OpenVMS V1.0.
- 1995 – A commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
- 2009 – The October 2009 Baghdad bombings kills 155 and wounds at least 721.
- 2010 – Mount Merapi in Indonesia begins a month-long series of violent eruptions that kill 353 people and cause the evacuation of another 350,000 people.
- 2010 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, triggering a tsunami that kills at least 400 people.
- 2023 – A mass shooting occurs in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. 18 people are killed and 13 more injured.
BIRTHS:
- 1949 – Hans-Georg Kraus, German footballer
- 1952 – Ioannis Kyrastas, Greek footballer and manager (d. 2004)
- 1962 – Steve Hodge, English footballer and manager
- 1969 – Oleg Salenko, Russian footballer
- 1971 – Simon Charlton, English footballer and manager
- 1975 – Ryan Clement, American football player
- 1976 – Brett Kirk, Australian footballer and coach
- 1979 – Rob Hulse, English footballer
- 1981 – Shaun Wright-Phillips, English footballer
- 1994 – Jack Payne, English footballer
- 1999 – Romeo Langford, American basketball player
- 2001 – Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Armed Forces Day (Romania)
- Constitution Day (Lithuania)
- Day of the Basque Country (Basque Country)
- Earliest day on which Nevada Day can fall, while October 31 is the latest; celebrated on last Friday in October. (Nevada)
- Republic Day (Kazakhstan)
- Retrocession Day (Taiwan)
- Thanksgiving Day (Grenada)
