What Happened in October?

The three- day Battle of Leipzig fought at Leipzig, Saxony from from October 16 to October 19, 1813 begins. The Grande Armée of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was decisively defeated by the Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia. Expand +

Mexico officially becomes a republic as the Plan of Iguala is accepted, ending Spanish rule and establishing Mexican independence.

The Erie Canal opens providing overland water transportation between the ­­ Hudson River on the east and Lake Erie at the western end. Popularly known as “Clinton’s Folly,” the eight-year construction project was the vision of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. More

The first commercial freight train, the "Granite Railway", begins operation in the United States on October 7, 1826 in Quincy, Massachusetts. The train had horse-drawn wagons on wooden rails to haul granite from quarries for the Bunker Hill Monument.

The Naval Battle of Navarino takes place, during which combined British, French, and Russian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire's fleet during the Greek War of Independence. The decisive battle effectively ended Ottoman naval power, leading to the independence of Greece and the rise of European nationalism.

The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales, a confrontation between Texian settlers and Mexican soldiers.

Sir James Young Simpson discovers the anesthetic properties of chloroform, revolutionizing surgery and pain management.

The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, England, destroys a large portion of both towns. More

The Charge of the Light Brigade takes place during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War, resulting in the loss of the Light Brigade, one of Britain’s most spectacular military disasters. It was memorialized by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s popular poem ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, written just a few weeks after the battle. More

The Second Opium War between Britain and France against China begins with the Battle of Canton.

John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters start their march toward the town of Harpers Ferry. In the early hours of October 17, they capture local residents and seized the federal armory and arsenal. Brown was captured two days later and quickly placed on trial and charged with treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and slave insurrection. Brown was sentenced to death for his crimes and hanged on December 2, 1859. More

During the Second Opium War, The British High Commissioner to China, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, orders the complete destruction of the Old Summer Palace in retaliation for the imprisonment and torture of several Anglo-French delegation members by the Qing government, with several of them being killed.  Expand +

The Second Opium War ends with the signing of the Convention of Peking. The Beijing Convention consists of three individual treaties signed by China, with Great Britain (October 24), France (October 25), and Russia (November 14). More

The first transcontinental telegraph system is completed by Western Union, making it possible to transmit messages rapidly from coast to coast. This technological advance, pioneered by inventor Samuel F. B. Morse, heralded the end of the Pony Express. More

The Pony Express, the horseback mail service that had provided the fastest means of communication between the eastern and western United States officially closes, after only one and one-half years of service, two days after the first Transcontinental Telegraph line is inaugurated.  Expand +

President Abraham Lincoln encourages Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving. More

Nevada is admitted into the Union becoming the 36th State.

The brothers John and Simeon Reno staged what is generally believed to be the first train robbery in American history. Their take was $13,000 from an Ohio and Mississippi railroad train in Jackson County, Indiana.  Expand +

The United States formally takes possession of Alaska from Russia in a ceremony known as the Alaska Purchase. The $7.2 million purchase, ended Russia’s presence in North America and ensured U.S. access to the Pacific northern rim.  Expand +

Cuba Independence Day. It Commemorates the beginning of the 10 years unsuccessful war of independence from Spain from 1868-78. and the the U.S. intervention in 1898 that ended the Spanish colonial presence in the Americas. Following the war, U.S. forces occupied Cuba until 1902, when the United States allowed a new Cuban government to take full control of the state’s affairs.  Expand +