1616

Dutch Captain Dirk Hartog made the second recorded landing on Australian soil by a European. This island of the West Australian coast was later named Dirk Hartog Island after him.

1861

The Toronto Stock Exchange was founded.

1917

The day of the October Revolution in Russia according to the Old Style calendar in use at the time.

1920

After 74 days on hunger strike in Brixton prison in England, member of the Sinn Féin Irish political party and Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, died.

1927

Italian luxury cruise liner SS Principessa Mafalda is sunk of the coast of Brazil, 314 of her passengers dying.

1940

Benjamin O. Davis Sr. was named the first African American general in the United States Army.

1944

A crackdown was ordered on the Edelweiss Pirates, a scrapy, organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had helped many army deserters and others hide from the Third Reich.

1944

The battle of Leyte Gulf, between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States, occurred near the Philippines and is the largest naval battle in history.

1945

Administration of Taiwan was taken over by the Republic of China after Japan surrendered to the Allies.

1971

Suspicions regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis were reaffirmed when Adlai Stevenson showed photos during a United Nations Security Council meeting that proved the installation of soviet missiles.

1971

The United Nations seated the People’s Republic of China, taking the place of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

1973

The Yom Kippur War, a conflict between a group of Arab states headed by Egypt and Syria fought against Israel, was ended in a ceasefire.

1997

After President Pascal Lissouba was driven out of Brazzaville during a brief civil war, Denis Sassou Nguesso proclaimed himself the president of the Republic of the Congo.