What Happened in October?

The first official World Space Week was  celebrated in the year 2000, following the United Nations General Assembly's declaring it an annual event in 1999. The annual celebration runs from October 4th to 10th to commemorate the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, and the Outer Space Treaty's entry into force on October 10, 1967.

The USS Cole, on a refueling stop at Aden, Yemen. is attacked by two suicide pilots of a small bomb-laden boat, blasting a a 40-by-40-foot hole in the port side of the USS Cole, at midship. Seventeen sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the attack. Following investigations determined the attack had ben carried out by members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network. More

The U.S. led attack on Afghanistan begins as the United States, supported by its allies, launches military operations against the Taliban regime in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on New, York and Washington D.C. On September 18 2001, President Bush had signed into law a joint resolution authorizing the use of force against those responsible for attacking the United States on September. The war in Afghanistan lasted almost two decades.

The Office of Homeland Security is established on October 8, 2001, less than one month after the September 11 terrorist attack. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, was appointed as the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security in the White House.  Expand +

Apple introduces the First generation iPod, revolutionizing the way people listen to music. It had a monochrome LCD screen and a 5 GB hard drive and It was marketed with the slogan "1,000 songs in your pocket"; going on sale in the U.S. on November 10, 2001.

President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act. More

Terrorist bombings in Bali, Indonesia, kill over 200 people and injure hundreds more. More

Some 40 Chechen militants burst into the Dubrovka theater in Moscow, during the performance of a popular musical and take hundreds of audience members, actors, and staff hostage, demanding the withdrawal of troops from Russia's Chechnya region. It ended 57 hours later, when security forces stormed the building after pumping in toxic gas that neutralized the attackers but led to the deaths of as many as 174 hostages. More

China launches Shenzhou 5, the first Chinese manned space mission. Piloted by Yang Liwei orbiting Earth 14 times during the 21-hour and 23 minutes flight. He became the first Chinese launched into space with Chinese launch vehicle and spacecraft. The re-entry module landed safely in central Inner Mongolia making China the third country capable of sending humans to space and back independently, after Russia and the United States.

British Airways makes the final Concorde commercial flight on October 24, 2003 with a flight from New York's JFK Airport to London Heathrow. This was the last commercial passenger flight, although there was a later flight on November 26 2003  to a museum in Bristol, UK. More

The Boston Red Sox win their first World Series championship in 86 years, breaking the "Curse of the Bambino."

The 7.6 magnitude Kashmir earthquake strikes northern Pakistan and India, causing widespread destruction and killing at least 86,000 people. More

North Korea conducts its first nuclear test.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is signed into law in the United States, establishing the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to address the financial crisis.

Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission, was launched on October 22, 2008. The mission, using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard the spacecraft, found water molecules on the lunar surface, both as hydroxyl and water confirming the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous inventor of Bitcoin, releases the Bitcoin white paper. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” The nine-page thesis paper established the basic structure for the Bitcoin network and how it could be used. presenting the idea for a decentralized cryptocurrency network that can make transactions with low costs without using financial institutions or third parties. By design, only 21 million Bitcoins will ever be "mined," or released into the market. More

President Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation. View all Nobel Peace Prizes

Typhoon Morakot strikes Taiwan, causing significant flooding and landslides.

The Copiapó mining accident in Chile ends with the successful rescue of 33 trapped miners. who had been trapped underground for 69 days. Rescuers used a specialized equipment to pull the men, one by one, through a 2,300-foot shaft to the surface after a massive excavation and drilling effort. The accident at the San José copper-gold mine near Copiapó took place on August 5, 2010. All contact was lost for the first 17 days and many feared there were no survivors.

WikiLeaks, a website founded by Julian Assange, released thousands of U.S. documents provided by Chelsea Manning, relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan including field reports on civilian casualties and the treatment of prisoners, These "war logs" were made available to the public after by WikiLeaks and also released by some News organizations like The Guardian, Der Spiegel, and The New York Times. Expand +