On this day

October 16th

1846 - USA: Anesthesia was given it's first public demonstration before doctors by William T. G. Morton, a Boston dentist. Morton administered sulfuric ether during an operation performed by John Collins Warren at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

1901 - China: Russia signs a new agreement with the Imperial government over Manchuria.

1906 - Australia: British New Guinea becomes part of Australia.

1913 - Portsmouth: "HMS Queen Elizabeth" the world's first oil driven battleship is launched.

1916 - New York: Margaret Sanger and her sister Ethel Byrne open the first birth control clinic in the US.

1925 - USA: Evolutionary theory is prohibited by the Texas State Text Book Board in all of it's school text books.

1927 - UK: Mona Maclennan who claimed to have swam the English Channel in 13 hours 12 mins, admits it was a hoax.

1930 - France: A line of defences known as the Maginot Line is announced to be built along France's frontier with Germany.

1932 - Berlin: Albert Einstein puts the Earth's age at ten billion years.

1936 - London: Lord Beaverbrook calls on the King and agrees to arrange press silence on his relationship with Mrs Wallis Simpson.

1938 - Italy: Many Jews are rounded up and charged with plotting against the government.

1942 - London: The Allies take the first steps towards setting up a commission to investigate war crimes.

1946 - Nuremberg: Hermann Goering commits suicide shortly before he is due for execution by taking a cyanide pill.

1950 - Vietnam: The French abandon 250 miles of the Chinese frontier zone to the Viet Minh.

1955 - Sinai: Egyptian and Israeli troops clash near the El Auja demilitarised zone.

1957 - USA: Leonard Bernstein is appointed to serve as one of the two principal conductors of the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York.

1968 - UK: Labour MP Robert Maxwell launches a £26 million bid for the News of the World organisation.

1970 - Cairo: Anwar Sadat becomes UAR President.

1975 - Morocco: King Hassan announces he will lead an army of 350,000 unarmed Moroccans to claim the Spanish Sahara.

1979 - Ireland: Desmond O'Hare, one of the most wanted men in Ulster is captured.

1983 - London: Norman Tebbit succeeds Cecil Parkinson as Trade and Industry Secretary.

1984 - Oslo: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Bishop Desmond Tutu.

1991 - UK: A further 99 hospitals and health units become self-governing trusts.

1994 - Virginia Water: Ernie Els wns the World Matchplay Golf Championship.

1995 - Washington: Louis Farakhan, the black Muslim leader, leads 400,000 men in the biggest march of it's kind in US History.

1996 - London: The British government announces plans to outlaw the private possession of hand guns in the wake of the Dunblane massacre.

2005 - China: The re-entry module of the Chinese manned spacecraft "Shenzhou 6" lands safely in Inner Mongolia.

2009 - Uruguay: The country becomes the first to provide a laptop for every child attending state primary school.

2010 - Pacific: Scientists discover a new type of Snailfish in the Peru-Chile trench of the South-East part of the ocean.

October 17th

1829 - USA: The Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was formally opened. Linking the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay, the canal was 14 miles long, and cost $2,250,000, which was shared by the US government, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

1902 - USA: The first Cadillac motor car is made in Detroit and sold in Buffalo, New York State.

1907 - Canada: Guglielmo Marconi opens a transatlantic wireless service from Nova Scotia to Ireland.

1910 - Portugal: The provisional government banishes the royal family, and abolishes nobility.

1913 - Germany: The world's biggest airship "Zeppelin L2" explodes with the loss of all 28 people on board.

1918 - Budapest: Hungary declares independence from the Habsberg Empire.

1920 - Ireland: Sinn Feiner Michael Fitzgerald is the first imprisoned hunger striker to die, after a 68 day fast.

1922 - London: David Lloyd George opens the headquarters of the Port of London Authority, on Tower Hill.

1929 - Kabul: The Afghan national assembly elects rebel leader Nadir Khan, King of Afghanistan.

1931 - Germany: 100 people are hurt in clashes between Nazi's and Communists in the city of Brunswick.

1937 - France: Rheims Cathedral is reopened and re-consecrated following its restoration after Great War damage.

1941 - Iceland: The US destroyer Kearney is torpedoed and damaged by a German submarine off the coast of Iceland.

1947 - Rangoon: Britain grants Burmese independence from January 1948.

1950 - London: 28 people are killed when a BEA DC-3 Dakota crashes at Mill Hill, North London.

1956 - UK: The Queen opens Britain's first full-scale nuclear power station at Calder Hall.

1960 - London: An announcement is issued that the newspaper "The News Chronicle" is to close and merge with the "Daily Mail."

1962 - London: Hyde Park underpass opens, creating huge traffic jams.

1963 - Algeria: 10,000 Moroccan troops launch a fresh offensive against Algeria.

1965 - UK: A body found in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor in the Pennines is identified as missing schoolgirl Lesley Anne Downey.

1969 - London: The Divorce Reform Bill is passed, making total breakdown of marriage sole grounds for divorce.

1973 - London: England draw 1-1 with Poland and fail to qualify for the World Cup Finals.

1978 - UK: The environmentalist group Greenpeace prevents a cull of grey seals with its boat Rainbow Warrior.

1980 - Rome: The Queen meets the Pope on the first state visit to the Vatican by a British Monarch.

1985 - London: The Law Lords reject a ban on giving the Pill to under-16's, won after a campaign by Mrs Victoria Gillick.

1989 - Lausanne: A 103 nation conference votes for a global ban on ivory trading.

1994 - Tehran: Iran's production of caviar drops by 10% for the third year running, due to pollution and poaching.

1995 - Paris; A terrorist bomb explodes on an underground train, injuring 26 people.

2003 - Taiwan: A 197ft spire is inserted on Taipei 101, unseating Malaysia's Petronas Towers as the Worlds tallest building.

2008 - India: Cricketer Sachin Tendulker becomes the highest aggregate run scorer in test cricket, and the first to pass 12,000 in scoring 88 during the second test against Australia at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali.

2010 - China: Andy Murray defeats Roger Federer 6-3,6-2 to win the Shanghai Rolex Masters 1000.

October 18th

1648: USA: The first Labor Organisation in America was authorised by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. "The shoomakers of Boston" were permitted to meet whenever they wanted to choose officers and clerks.

1891 - USA: The first international six-day bicycle race in the US was run in Madison Square Garden, New York City. Riders used high-wheelers and worked alone, pumping until exhausted, then resting and starting again for 142 hours. The first winner was "Plugger" Bill Martin.

1904 - Far East: The Russians win a 13-day battle on the river Sha-Ho, but lose, 40,000 troops against 20,000 Japanese dead.

1905 - London: King Edward VII opens Kingsway and Aldwych, two new roads to ease congestion between Holborn and the Strand.

1913 - New York: Emmeline Pankhurst arrives in the US, but is ordered to be deported on grounds of "moral turpitude."

1920 - UK: A nationwide Miners Strike begins.

1922 - London: The British Broadcasting Company is formed.

1929 - China: 12,000 troops mutiny, and begin looting the city of Wuhu.

1932 - London: Britain ends its trade treaty with the USSR.

1937 - Rome: Italy admits that around 40,000 Italians are aiding Spain's General Franco.

1940 - Vichy: Marshal Petain bans Jews from the public service, and from high positions in industry and the press.

1944 - Czechoslovakia: The Russians sweep across the border along a 170 mile front.

1946 - New York: The city offers the UN a 350- acre site at Flushing Meadow for its permanent home.

1951 - USA: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Dr Max Theiler of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Institute for the development of vaccine 17-D to combat yellow fever.

1955 - USA: The Antiproton, a new atomic sub-particle, is discovered at the University of California.

1960 - Moscow: Pravda prints its first attack on the Chinese Communists.

1966 - USA: 12 fireman are killed in New York City and 9 more are injured in a fire that destroyed an old commercial building. It was the worst disaster in the fire department's 100-year history.

1968 - UK: John Lennon appears in his first solo film role in "How I Won The War."

1974 - USA: The acting deputy commissioner of Indian affairs authorises an election to approve the revised constitution and bylaws of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

1976 - Manchester: The Buzzcocks make their first recordings at the Revolution Studios in Cheadle.

1979 - UK: The Buggles reach No.1 in the UK Singles Charts with "Video Killed the Radio Star.

1984 - UK: Veteran Labour peer Manny Shinwell celebrates his 100th birthday.

1986 - UK: Former "Eastenders star Nick Berry is No.1 on The Uk Singles Charts with "Every Loser Wins."

1993 - Poland: Waldemar Pawlak is appointed Premier, by President Walesa.

2005 - Australia: William Evan Allan, the last surviving Australian First World War veteran dies in Melbourne aged 106.

2008 - USA: NASA launches the Interstellar Boundary Explorer Satellite, with its mission to study the edge of the Solar System.

2011 - New Mexico: Spaceport America officially opens as the worlds first purpose built commercial spaceport.

October 19th

1901 - France: Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont flies a dirigible airship for 30 minutes and wins the $50,000 Deutsch de la Meurthe Award.

1904 - USA: The American Tobacco Company was formed by a merger of its two subsidiaries, the Consolidated and the American and Continental tobacco companies.

1915 - Mexico: General Venustiano Carranza is recognised as President of Mexico by the US. The following day an embargo was placed on the shipment of arms to Mexico, except to territories controlled by Carranza.

1920 - New York: A judge rules that Communist party membership is sufficient grounds for deportation from the US.

1925 - Algeria: A Franco-US expedition discover ancient sea shells, proving the Sahara desert was once partly submerged.

1933 - Australia: Charles Ulm flies from Britain to Australia in a record of 6 days, 18 hours.

1934 - Germany: The German Army is reported to be 300,000 strong, which is three times the size allowed by the Treaty of Versailles.

1938 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler decorates American aviator Charles Lindbergh with the Service cross.

1939 - Ankara: Turkey signs a mutual assistance pack with the UK and France.

1943 - Sweden: 4,200 British POW's are exchanged for Germans in the first major exchange of the war.

1952 - London: The government announces it is to send troops to Kenya to assist in their fight against the Mau Mau.

1954 - Cairo: Britain and Egypt sign the Suez Canal agreement.

1958 - Morocco: British Racing Driver Mike Hawthorn finishes second to Sterling Moss in the Moroccan Grand Prix, and becomes by a single point the first British World Grand Prix champion.

1961 - South Africa: The Nationalists win the whites-only general election.

1964 - UK: The Supremes become the first all girl group to have a UK No.1 single when "Baby Love" goes to the top of the charts.

1967 - London: A gig at the Saville Theatre sees performances from The Bee Gees, The Flowerpot Men, and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

1972 - Paris: Henry Kissinger holds peace talks with North Vietnam envoys.

1973 - Washington: President Richard Nixon refuses to surrender Watergate tapes, despite an Appeal Court order to do so.

1976 - Beirut: "Black September" leader Ali Hassan Salameh is found dead.

1979 - Brighton: A 2-Tone Records 40 date tour begins in Brighton with ska bands The Selector, The Specials, and Madness.

1980 - UK: AC/DC kick off a 20 date UK tour at Bristol Colston Hall.

1982 - Los Angeles: John De Lorean is arrested and charged with possession of cocaine.

1983 - Washington: The Senate approves a bill to make Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday.

1985 - UK: Nottinghamshire and South Derbyshire miners vote to set up a Union of Democratic Mineworkers.

1991 - UK: Oasis play the Boardwalk, in Manchester. It was the groups first gig with guitarist Noel Gallagher in the band.

1994 - London: Over a 1,000 people escape serious injury after a section of seating collapses during a concert by Pink Floyd at Earl's Court.

1997 - Bilbao: The futuristic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, northern Spain is inaugurated by King Juan Carlos.

1998 - USA: Mike Tyson's licence to box is returned to him after his suspension for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear.

2005 - Iraq: Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity, charged with ordering the killing of 143 Shi'a men in the town of Dujail in 1982.

2007 - USA: Two US Marines including a battalion commander face a court martial in connection with the killing of 24 civilians in Hadithia in 2005.

2011 - Australia: Queen Elizabeth II commences her 16th visit to Australia in the capital Canberra.

October 20th

1905 - Russia: The Czar permits the teaching of Polish in Polish schools after a 15 year ban.

1911 - North Africa: Italian Forces bombard Benghazi and land 4,000 troops.

1916 - USA: The US Army makes an order for 375 new aeroplanes.

1917 - London: Eight Zeppelins kill 27 people in an air raid; four are shot down over France on the homeward journey.

1920 - London: King George V approves the burial of an unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day.

1921 - Lisbon: Portuguese premier Antonio Granjo is assassinated during an attempted military coup.

1928 - Washington: Inventor Thomas Edison receives a special Congressional Medal for his life's work.

1932 - Berlin: A decree orders schools to teach Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty, saying that Germany caused the War.

1938 - Uk: Imperial Airways, 42-passenger Ensign plane makes its maiden flight.

1942 - Pacific: Two US destroyers are lost during fighting in the Solomon Islands.

1943 -London: The Allies reach a final agreement on the creation of a United Nations war crimes commission.

1944 - Philippines: General Douglas Macarthur lands on the central Philippine island of Leyte.

1946 - Berlin: Voters go the polls in the city's first free election in 14 years.

1949 - New York: Yugoslavia is elected to the UN Security Council.

1954 - UK: An estimated 51,000 port workers go on strike in a national dispute which halts half of Britain's sea trade.

1958 - Thailand: Military chief Sarit Thanarat seizes power in a bloodless coup.

1960 - USA: An embargo on exports to Cuba is declared by the US State Department.

1962 - USA: Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the vault Kickers begin a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with "Monster Mash"

1969 - USA: The Who play the first of their six night stint at New York's Fillmore East, performing a two hour show featuring songs from "Tommy."

1976 - USA: A ship collision on the Mississippi River, 20 miles above New Orleans, kills 78 people after the ferryboat "George Prince" strikes the Norwegian tanker "Frosta"

1977 - USA: Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd are killed along with manager Dean Kilpatrick, after their rented plane runs out of fuel and crashes into a swamp in Gilsburg Missouri.

1983 - Grenada: The Armed forces seize power following the murder of prime minister Maurice Bishop.

1986 - Tel Aviv: Shimon Peres hands over the premiership to his coalition partner Yitzhak Shamir.

1993 - The Hague: The Dutch government announces it will ban the sale of cannabis to foreign tourists.

1994 - New York: The dollar falls to a two-year low against major currencies.

2006 - UK: Clare Short, the former British cabinet minister, leaves the Labour Party to sit as an Independent.

2010 - France: The French government sends in security forces to lift blockades in 3 oil depots at Donges, La Rochelle, and Le Mans.

2011 - Libya: Deposed dictator Muammar Gadaffi is killed in a crossfire between loyalist and rebel fighters in his hometown of Sirte.

October 21st

1861 - USA: Union Troops are ambushed at Ball's Bluff, Leesburg, in Virginia, with around 1900 being killed.

1879 - USA: The first practical incandescent electric lamp was perfected by Thomas A. Edison in his laboratories at Menlo Park, New Jersey. He found that a carbonised filament of cotton would last for about 40 hours.

1908 - Vienna: The government bans the export of arms and equipment to Serbia.

1915 - USA: The first transatlantic radiotelephone communication was made from Arlington, Virginia to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1918 - USA: A new typewriting speed record was established by Margaret B. Owen in New York City. She typed 170 words a minute with no errors.

1921 - Hungary: Ex-Habsburg Emperor Karl, launches a bid to regain the throne of Hungary.

1924 - Istanbul: 3,500 arrests are made as Turkey begins the expulsion of Greeks.

1930 - Germany: 240 people are reported killed after a colliery explosion at Alsdorf in Prussia.

1935 - Geneva: Germany officially quits the League of Nations.

1940 - New York: Ernest Hemingway's novel "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is published.

1941 - France: 50 French hostages are shot by the Germans for the killing of a German officer in Nantes.

1948 - UK: 34 people out of 40 are killed when a KLM airliner crashes in Ayrshire.

1951 - Egypt: Britain stations four warships in Port Said, and sends more troops to the Suez Canal zone.

1959 - USA: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is opened. It was the only building in New York City designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

1960 - UK: The Queen launches HMS Dreadnought, Britain's first nuclear submarine.

1965 - USA: Bill Black, one of the original musicians who along with Scotty Moore backed Elvis Presley during his rise to fame, dies from a brain tumour a month after his 39th birthday.

1969 - West Germany: Willy Brandt becomes the first German Social Democrat Chancellor for 39 years.

1972 - USA: Kansa City International Airport was dedicated in Missouri. Parking lots located inside its three doughnut shaped terminals enabled passengers to park within 400ft of the planes.

1979 - New York: Norway's female trailblazing long-distance runner Grete Waitz breaks the New York Marathon record in her second attempt winning in a time of 2hrs 27mins 32.6 secs.

1982 - Northern Ireland: Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams are elected in the first Ulster Assembly poll.

1984 - Portugal: Niki Lauda becomes F1 world champion for the third time.

1986 - UK: Prince Charles admits on TV that he talks to his plants.

1989 - USA: Polygram Inc. purchase A&M Records from founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss for between $400 and $500 million.

1992 - Egypt: Islamic militants attack British tourists, killing one and wounding two others.

1996 - USA: Executive Order 13021 was issued by President Bill Clinton, to deal with Indian Education. It established in the department of education a presidential advisory committee entitled the President's Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities.

2007 - UK: Marco Fu wins the Royal London Watches Grand Prix Snooker Tournament beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 9 frames to 6.

2009 - France: Armed men take six people captive at a Lidl supermarket in Sevran.

2011 - London: St Paul's Cathedral is forced to close to visitors for the first time since the Second World War after protestors set up camp on its doorstep.

1966: Double-agent breaks out of jail
One of Britain's most notorious double-agents, George Blake, has escaped from prison in London after a daring break-out believed to have been masterminded by the Soviet Union.
Wardens at Wormwood Scrubs prison last saw him at the evening roll call, at 1730 GMT.

An hour-and-a-half later, his cell was discovered to be empty.

After a short search, the escape route was found. Bars in a window at the end of a landing had been sawn away and a rope ladder hung down inside the prison wall.

False sense of security

Blake is believed to have taken advantage of the free association allowed between prisoners on Saturday afternoons in the long-term wing, where he had his cell.

He had served a little over five years of his 42-year sentence.

He was not under high security at the prison, and the privileges he enjoyed have been heavily criticised in the wake of his escape.

He was removed from the list of likely escapers after only a year, and wardens were said to have been lulled into a false sense of security by his seeming acceptance of his exceptionally long sentence.

Blake was charged under the Official Secrets Act in May 1961. During his trial, part of which was held in camera, he pleaded guilty to five counts of passing on secrets to the Soviet authorities.

He was sentenced to the maximum of 14 years on each of three counts, to run consecutively - a total of 42 years. It was the longest jail term any British court had handed down to an individual to date.

Nine years of betrayal

He spent nine years as a double-agent after being converted to Communism while a prisoner of war in Seoul, during the Korean War.

During this time, he is believed to have betrayed the names of more than 40 British agents to the Soviets. Many disappeared, and were thought to have been executed.

His actions devastated British secret service operations in the Middle East. He is believed to have passed on the names of almost every British agent working in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut.

Lord Parker, Lord Chief Justice, the judge sentencing him, likened his actions to treason, and said, "It is one of the worst that can be envisaged other than in a time of war."


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George Blake
George Blake's Soviet spymasters are thought to be behind the breakout






In Context
After escaping from Wormwood Scrubs, George Blake made his way to Moscow, where he has lived ever since in a state-owned flat.
He left his three children behind, divorcing his wife and starting a new family in Russia. Once in the USSR, he was treated as a national hero.

He published his autobiography, No Other Choice, in 1990. He received about £60,000 from the book's British publisher before the government stepped in to freeze the remaining £90,000 he had been promised.

In May 2003, he accused the British government of breaching his human rights by confiscating the money. He was awarded £5,000 compensation in September 2006.

In a television interview broadcast by the state television channel in 2002 to celebrate his 80th birthday, he described the years he has spent in Russia as "the happiest of my life".

He has always insisted that none of the spies he betrayed was executed.


Stories From 22 Oct
1966: Double-agent breaks out of jail
1990: Aral Sea is 'world's worst disaster'
1974: Bomb blast in London club
1983: CND march attracts biggest ever crowd
2001: UK braced for more flooding




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/853872.stm

October 22nd

1836 - USA: Sam Houston is sworn in as the first president of the Republic of Texas.

1906 - USA: Henry Ford succeeds John S. Grey as president of the Ford Motor Company.

1910 - London: Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, brought back from Canada to face a murder trial at the Old Bailey is convicted to the death sentence for poisoning his wife.

1921 - Berlin: The Germany government resigns, as the economic crisis deepens.

1924 - London: The Ministry of Health bans preservatives in cream, butter, and margarine.

1925 - Balkans: Greek troops enter Bulgaria over a border dispute.

1931 - Chicago: Al Capone is jailed for 11 years for tax dodging, the longest term ever given in the US for the offence.

1932 - Moscow: Stalin threatens trade reprisals against Britain for ending the Anglo-USSR trade agreement.

1939 - Berlin: Josef Goebbels calls Winston Churchill a liar in a radio broadcast.

1940 - Rhineland: 5,000 German Jews are deported to camps in France.

1941 -Odessa: A delayed-action bomb blows up General Glugoscianu, commander of the Romanian corps, and 50 of his staff; 5,000 Jews are slaughtered both in and outside the city in retaliation.

1942 - New Guinea: Australian troops land on Goodenough Island.

1944 - East Prussia: Soviet forces stop short of Insterburg, 45 miles from Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters.

1951 - UK: The government halts arms exports to Egypt.

1957 - Saigon: Terrorist bombs injure 13 US servicemen and 5 civilians.

1958 - London: Labour minister Iain Macleod announces that compulsory arbitration in industrial disputes is to end.

1960 - USA: Olympic boxing gold medallist Cassius Clay fights his first bout as a professional in Louisville, Kentucky.

1962 - USA: The Cuban Missile Crisis was the subject of a television address by President J. F. Kennedy. He said that the USSR contrary to its assurances had been building missile and bomber bases in Cuba. Kennedy authorised a blockade of Cuba effective Oct 24, to halt shipping of offensive weapons to Cuba.

1964 - Paris: Jean Paul Sartre rejects a Nobel prize saying it would reduce the impact of his writing.

1972 - UK: England goalkeeper Gordon Banks damages his eyesight in a car accident.

1979 - London: The Pretenders begin a run of four consecutive Mondays nights at the Marquee Club.

1983 - UK: Culture Club hit No.1 on the UK album chart with "Colour By Numbers.

1986 - UK: Kingsley Amis wins the Booker Prize for his novel "The Old Devils."

1988 - UK: U2 score their fourth UK No.1 album with "Rattle and Hum."

1992 - Dresden: During a visit, Queen Elizabeth is jeered by anti-British demonstrators.

1995 - Japan: Michael Schumacher retains the F1 world drivers championship by winning the Pacific Grand Prix in Aida.

1997 - UK: Elton John's Diana tribute single "Candle in the Wind" is declared the best selling single ever, selling 31.8 million copies in just over a month.

2005 - UK: The first form of avian influenza (bird flu) is discovered in Britain from a south American parrot, which died in quarantine.

2008 - India: The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches "Chandrayaan - 1, the country's first unmanned lunar exploration mission.

2010 - Burma: Cyclone Giri rapidly intensifies with 144mph winds as it makes landfall in Western Burma.

October 23rd

1904 - Far East: General Kuropatkin, the victor at Sha-Ho, is appointed Russian commander-in-chief in the war with Japan.

1911 - Manchester: The First Model T Ford produced outside the US rolls off the production line.

1912 - Balkans: The Greeks rout the Turks at Sarandaporos.

1914 - South Africa: Louis Botha takes personal command of South African troops in German South West Africa.

1917 - Petrograd: Two days after Lenin's return to the city, the Bolshevik Central Committee votes to start an armed uprising against Alexander Kerensky's government.

1926 - Rome: A decree bans women holding public office.

1933 - Paris: Edouard Daladier resigns as premier.

1936 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler orders the "Condor" legion to Spain to fight alongside General Franco.

1941 - New York: Walt Disney's "Dumbo" has it's premiere.

1942 - Egypt: Montgomery launches the second battle of El Alamein with a heavy artillery barrage.

1943 - English Channel: German torpedo boats sink the British destroyer Limbourne.

1944 - Leyte Gulf: The US submarines Dace and Darter sink the Japanese heavy cruisers Atago and Maya.

1947 - London: 12 year-old Julie Andrews steals the show in the revue "Starlight Roof."

1953 - Italy: Heavy flooding wrecks 12 villages in the south of the country.

1956 - Hungary: Demonstrator's throughout the country call for independence and the withdrawal of the USSR.

1961 - USA: Dion begins a two week stint at No.1 on the US singles charts with "Runaround Sue."

1966 - London: The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded the single "Hey Joe" at the De Lane Lea Studios.

1968 - UK: News Ltd, owned by Australian Rupert Murdoch, enter the battle to the News of the World.

1972 - UK: Access credit cards are introduced.

1974 - Russia: Moscow is chosen as the site for the 1980 Olympics.

1978 - London: The government publishes plans to replace GCE "O" Levels and CSEs with a single exam.

1980 - London: Depeche Mode appear at The Bridge House, Canning Town, tickets cost 60p.

1987 - London: Madonna's Film "Who's That Girl" opens in the capital.

1989 - UK: Nirvana play their first ever European show at the Riverside Club in Newcastle.

1992 - Paris: The former head of France's National Blood Transfusion Centre is sentenced to four years in prison, for his role in the distribution of blood contaminated with the AIDS virus.

1993 - Belfast: An IRA bomb planted in a fish and chip shop in the Protestant Shankhill Road kills nine people, including two girls aged 9 and 13 and one of the bombers.

2007 - UK: Nike agrees to buy UK Sportswear firm Umbro for £285 million.

2009 - Switzerland: The Swiss government states the US has formally requested the extradition of film director Roman Polanski for having unlawful sex with an underage girl in 1977.

2011 - UK: Manchester City inflict a 6-1 drubbing on the local rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford.

October 24th

1904 - USA: 62 people are killed in a head-on train crash in Tennessee.

1907 - London: David Lloyd George approves plans for a Channel ferry from Dover to Calais.

1911 - Mexico City: Rebel supporters of Emiliano Zapata carry out raids around the capital.

1925 - Balkans: Bulgaria and Greece agree to let the League of Nations decide the best course of action in their border confrontation.

1929 - Brussels: The visiting Italian Crown Prince Umberto and his fiancée escape an assassination attempt.

1933 - France: 37 people are killed and 87 are injured when the Cherbourg to Paris express derails and plummets over a precipice.

1939 - France: The first casualty clearing station is set up by the British Expeditionary Force

1941 - Berlin: Adolf Eichmann approves a scheme to use exhaust fumes in specially adapted vans to step up the killing of Jewish prisoners.

1942 - Guadalcanal: US marines repel Japanese attempts to cross the Mataniku river.

1943 - Austria: The Allies carry out their first air raid on the Reich from Italian soil.

1944 - Philippines: US troops land on Samar, a Japanese dive bomber destroys the US carrier Princeton, and US aircraft sink the battleship Musashi, with over a thousand crewmen drowned.

1951 - USA: The state of war with Germany was officially declared ended by President Harry S. Truman.

1960 - UK: Bertrand Russell resigns as leader of the CND.

1961 - Malta: The island gains independence from Britain.

1964 - USA: The Rolling Stones start an 11 day North American tour playing two shows at the New York Academy of Music.

1967 - USA: Pink Floyd are forced to cancel a US tour after Syd Barrett refuses to move his lips in time to "Arnold Layne" on ABC-TV's American Bandstand.

1969 - Hanoi: Ton Duc Thang is elected to succeed Ho Chi Minh as President.

1973 - USA: John Lennon begins litigation against the US government, accusing them of tapping his telephone.

1979 - UK: Paul McCartney is presented with a medallion, made of rhodium, by the Arts Minister of the British government as the best-selling songwriter and recording artist in history. Between 1962 and 1978 he had been involved in 43 songs that had sold a million copies each. His sales were estimated to be over 100 million units each of singles and albums.

1983 - Pete Grange, the sound engineer for Dire Straits is killed in a road accident in Gloucestershire.

1986 - London: Syrian Nezar Hindawi is jailed for 45 years for plotting to blow up an El Al Airliner.

1987 - UK: Fleetwood Mac's album "Rumours" chalks up its 397th week on the UK album chart, breaking the record previously held by Meatloaf's "Bat Out Of Hell."

1990 - Northern Ireland: The IRA attacks two border posts forcing drivers to carry bombs in their cars, then blowing them up by remote control.

1995 - Asia: A total Eclipse of the sun occurs that is visible from India to Vietnam.

2007 - Outer Space: Comet 17P/Holmes becomes significantly brighter overnight, going from magnitude 17 to magnitude 3 in a few hours, while in the constellation of Perseus.

2009 - Egypt: At least 15 people are killed after two trains collide in Al-Ayyat near Cairo.

2011 - North America: A coronal mass ejection makes the Northern Lights visible over much of North America.