Fiji's Independence Day from the UK. (Fiji Day) Commemorates the signing of the Instruments of Independence.
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What Happened in October?
Explorations, great battles, and crowned leaders. Discover meaningful events and milestones from October throughout history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
Note: Sources for the historical content shown, include research and reviews of relevant Online History Resources or printed material. When possible, we show a link to a source which provides additional or unique perspective about the event.
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Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, which “restored” the People's Republic of China to the Chinese seat at the UN and “expelled” the Republic of China (Taiwan). Since then, Taiwan has sought to maintain its international space without the benefits of UN membership. More
The Kitty Hawk Race Riot - More than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk are involved in a race riot resulting in 46 sailors injured. in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk en route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. More
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, a chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashes in the Andes mountains at an elevation of (12,020 ft (3,660 meters ). It was carrying 45 passengers and crew, Three crew members and nine passengers died immediately and several more died soon after due to the frigid temperatures and the severity of their injuries.
During the 72 days following the crash, the survivors suffered from extreme hardships, including sub-zero temperatures, exposure, starvation, and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 13 more passengers. Only 16 survived the ordeal. The incident garnered international attention, especially after it was revealed that the survivors had resorted to cannibalism. More
The Clean Water Act is established as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 undergoes sweeping amendments in 1972. The amended law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). More
The Yom Kippur War begins as Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack against Israel. More
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U.S. Vice President, Spiro T. Agnew, during President Richard Nixon Administration, resigns after pleading “no contest” to a charge of income tax evasion connected with kickbacks he received during his tenure as Maryland’s governor following months of maintaining his innocence.
After his resignation Agnew left politics, was disbarred in 1974 and went to representing a variety of international clients, splitting his time between California and Maryland. Nixon replaced him with House Republican leader Gerald Ford.
Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposes an embargo against the United States, in retaliation for the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military and to gain leverage in the post-war peace negotiations during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. More
The deportation order by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service of John Lennon's and his wife, Yoko Ono, is reversed by U.S. Federal Appeals Court judge, Chief Judge Irving Kaufman; allowing them to legally remain in the United States.
Judge Kaufman, found that Lennon's 1968 conviction for marijuana possession in the UK (the reason given for the deportation order) not to violate U.S. immigration law. The Judge's order also warned "The courts will not condone selective deportation based upon secret political grounds" The deportation order was widely believed at the time, to be politically motivated due to Lennon's anti-Vietnam War activism. Lennon was eventually granted a green card in 1976.
Palestinian militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181. Boeing 737 carrying 86 passengers and five crew members. They demanded the release of 11 imprisoned members of the German Red Army Faction (RAF), an allied West German far-left militant group.
The hijackers diverted the flight to several locations, including a refueling stop in Aden, Yemen, where the hijackers executed Captain Jürgen Schumann. The plane ended in Mogadishu, Somalia, where on October 18, 1977, the West German counter-terrorism unit GSG 9, stormed the plane, killing 3 of the hijackers, capturing the fourth one, and rescuing all 86 passengers and four crew members; ending the hijacking. In response to the raid's success and the deaths of their comrades, the German Red Army Faction (RAF), murdered the kidnapped German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, whose abduction had preceded the hijacking.
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Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła of Poland was elected to be the 264th Pope; he assumed the name John Paul II and was the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years. More
Park Chung Hee, the third president of South Korea, was assassinated by Kim Jae Kyu, head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, during a dinner at the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) safe house near the presidential compound in Jongno District, Seoul, South Korea.
The head of the presidential security service, three bodyguards and a presidential chauffeur were also killed by Kim and his co-conspirators. Kim Jae Kyu, was sentenced to death for his actions. More
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained independence from the UK on October 27, 1979. This date is celebrated as Independence Day, marking the nation's final step in a process that began with associate statehood in 1969 and continued after the collapse of the West Indies Federation.
It was the last of the Windward Islands to gain independence from the UK. Eventually the country became a constitutional monarchy and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is assassinated by Islamic extremists during a military parade in Cairo. His death lead to the disastrous war in Lebanon the following year, the creation of Hezbollah, and the seeds of al-Qaida. More
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that it has awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize to Lech Walesa; a labor activist who helped form and lead communist Poland’s first independent trade union, Solidarity, from 1980 to 1990. Walesa became the first popularly elected president of Poland in 1990. View all Nobel Peace Prizes
On October 23, 1983, U.S. and French troops in Beirut were attacked by two suicide truck bombs during the Lebanese Civil War. The bombs exploded minutes apart. The first bomb struck the U.S. Marine barracks, killing 241 service members, and a second bomb hit the building housing French paratroopers, killing 58 soldiers.
The attacks, which claimed a total of 307 lives including civilians, were the deadliest single-day loss for the U.S. Marine Corps since World War II and were carried out by the group Islamic Jihad.
The United States invades Grenada, known as Operation Urgent Fury, in response to a coup. More
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carries out a bombing in Brighton, England, targeting the Conservative Party conference. Although Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher survives, five people are killed in the attack.
An infant known as "Baby Fae" received a baboon's heart in an experimental transplant at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California by Dr. Leonard Bailey and his team. Despite the surgery's initial success, Baby Fae's body began to reject the baboon heart and she died 21 days after the transplant on November 15.
The procedure sparked significant ethical debates and led to stricter regulations for cross-species transplants, though it also highlighted the critical need for more donor organs. More