Browse Historical Events by Month:
Explorations, great battles, and crowned leaders. Discover meaningful events and milestones from October throughout history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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President Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him incapacitated until the end of his presidential term in 1921. His wife and his physician controlled Wilson, and no significant decisions were made. Meanwhile, his policies alienated German- and Irish-American Democrats and the Republicans won a landslide in the 1920 election. M ore
Congress passed the Volstead Act providing for enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified nine months earlier. Known as the Prohibition Amendment, it prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the United States. More
Scientific American reports that radio will soon be used to transmit music to the home. More
King Alexander of Greece, dies from sepsis after developing infections from being bitten by a pet monkey about three weeks before. He had been walking through the grounds of the Tatoi estate.
After the incident he king's wounds had been promptly cleaned and dressed but not cauterized. In those times, there was nothing available to treat infected wounds. He was 27 years old when he died.
In the French town of Chalons-sur-Marne, U.S. Army Sgt. Edward F. Younger, a decorated World War I veteran, selects the "Unknown Soldier" to be interred in the planned Tomb at Arlington National Cemetery, by laying a spray of white roses upon one of four caskets. The following day, the Unknown Soldier’s casket departed from the port of Le Havre on board the USS Olympia.
On November 11, 1921, the Unknown Soldier was placed on a horse-drawn caisson and carried in a procession through Washington, D.C. and across the Potomac River. A state funeral ceremony was held at Arlington National Cemetery's new Memorial Amphitheater and buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. More
Benito Mussolini becomes Prime Minister of Italy on October 31, 1922, as King Victor Emmanuel III appoints him following the "March on Rome" by his Black-shirt paramilitary forces.
He went on to be the first of Europe's fascist dictators in the 20th century, serving as a model for other right-wing dictators and movements across Europe, including Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in Germany.
Walt Disney signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies — the date is used as the start of the Disney company, first known as “The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.” More
Proclamation of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the official dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The celebration also takes place on the half day in the afternoon of the previous day.
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Artist and sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, begins sculpting Mount Rushmore. Work on the monument finished 14 years later on October 31, 1941: when due to WWII, federal funding was pulled from Mount Rushmore and it was declared complete, although it did not match the original models made by Gutzon Borglum. Construction involved the efforts of nearly 400 men and women. The duties involved varied greatly from the call boy to drillers to the blacksmith to the housekeepers. More
Despite the colossal proportion and difficult nature of the project, there were no worker fatalities. Borglum died 7 months before the project was declared completed. His son Lincoln Borglum supervised the completion. More
The German airship Graf Zeppelin, lands in Lakehurst, New Jersey, on October 15, 1928, after a four-day transatlantic flight from Germany. The first commercial passenger flight across the Atlantic, began in Friedrichshafen, Germany, took 111 hours and 44 minutes and carried 20 passengers.
Albert B. Fall, who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G. Harding's cabinet and was previously a Senator from New Mexico, is found guilty on October 25, 1929, of accepting bribes while in office.
The Bribe investigation revealed that Fall received bribes for leases of publicly-owned Teapot Dome oil fields in Wyoming and Elk Hills in California to oil tycoons. Receiving roughly $400,000 in cash and bonds from Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny in 1921–1922 which he claimed were personal loans. He was sentenced to one year in prison. Despite Albert Fall's conviction for accepting bribes, Sinclair and Doheny were acquitted of paying them. More
"Black Tuesday" marks the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, leading to the Great Depression. It was preceded by the crash of the London Stock Exchange. It is considered the most disastrous market crash in the history of the United States characterized by panic sell-offs on the New York Stock Exchange and dramatic declines in major market indices. More
Notorious American gangster Al Capone is convicted of federal income-tax evasion. He was subsequently sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and was later transferred to the high-security Alcatraz prison. He was released early in 1939 due to health issues, including advanced syphilis. He died in 1947, suffering from the effects of his illness. More
Iraq Independence day - Britain ends its 17 year mandate and Iraq is admitted to the League of Nations, making Iraq an independent nation after centuries of Ottoman rule. More
The Red Army brakes through the first Nationalist enemy lines which were surrounding it and sets out on its Long March, a year-long trek to the west and to the north. More
Italy invades Ethiopia, initiating the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War begins as Italy invades Ethiopia on October 3, 1935, when Fascist Italy, led by Benito Mussolini, launched a full-scale invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) from its colonies in Eritrea and Somalia, marking a significant act of aggression.
The Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to Los Angeles, marking the start of its electrical generation and transmission service. The first generator at the dam had been officially activated by President Roosevelt. almost a month earlier on September 11, 1936.
"The War of the Worlds", the CBS Radio Network, 1938 Halloween episode, narrated and performed live by Orson Welles, incites a panic by convincing some members of the listening audience that a Martian invasion was taking place,
The scale of the panic is disputed by some, as the program had relatively few listeners. "The War of the Worlds" broadcast, was an adaptation, of H. G. Wells' 1898 novel of the same name, directed by Orson Welles, More
Italy declares war on Greece and starts the invasion. The people of Greece answer the call to defend the country and drive the Italian army back into Albania, placing Hitler in the position of having to delay his invasion of Russia to commit troops to attack and occupy Greece. More
