October 10 has seen one of the deadliest hurricanes on record, the first sabotage of a commercial airliner, and a battle that changed the course of world history.
680. In the Battle of Karbala, Hussain bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. Ali and his followers were killed by the forces of Yazid during the one day battle. The captured women were tortured, mocked and made an example of. This is commemorated by Muslims as Aashurah, a day of mourning.
732. The Battle of Tours is fought near Poitiers, France. The leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.
As later chroniclers praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, pre-20th century historians began to characterize this battle as being the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam. "Most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe." Leopold Von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world."
Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin, the powerful mayor of the palace of Austrasia and effective ruler of the Frankish kingdom. After Pepin died in 714 (with no surviving legitimate sons), Charles beat out Pepin's three grandsons in a power struggle and became mayor of the Franks. He expanded the Frankish territory under his control and in 732 repulsed an onslaught by the Muslims.
Victory at Tours ensured the ruling dynasty of Martel's family, the Carolingians. His son Pepin became the first Carolingian king of the Franks, and his grandson Charlemagne carved out a vast empire that stretched across Europe.
1471. At the Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm, Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
1575. In the Battle of Dormans, Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeat the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.
1580. After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.
The Siege of Smerwick, during the Desmond rebellions, led to one of the most infamous massacres in 16th century Ireland. Italian and Spanish Papal troops, and Irish men and women, were beheaded and their bodies thrown into the sea.
According to folklore, the English spent two days decapitating their victims, lining them up one by one in a nearby field. Today the field is known locally as Gort a Ghearradh (the Field of the Cutting) while the field where the heads were buried bears the name Gort nag Ceann (the Field of the Heads).
1845. In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
1886. The tuxedo dinner jacket makes its American debut at Tuxedo Park, New Jersey.
1919. Richard Strauss' opera Die Frau ohne Schatten ("Woman without Shadows") makes its debut performance in Vienna.
1920. The Carinthian Plebiscite determines that the larger part of Carinthia should remain part of Austria.
The Duchy of Carinthia was located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire from 976 until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806, and a crownland of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918.
By the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain the main area of the duchy formed the Austrian state of Carinthia. A small southeastern part was included into the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while the Canale Valley with the municipality of Tarvisio was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy.
1933. In the United Airlines Chesterton Crash, a United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
Eyewitnesses on the ground reported hearing an explosion at about 9:15 p.m., and told of seeing the plane in flames at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. A second explosion followed after the plane crashed.
Although there was a report that a man was seen carrying a brown package onto the plane in Newark, no suspect was ever identified or charged in this incident. This is thought to be the first proven act of air sabotage in the history of commercial aviation.
1938. Under the terms of the Munich Agreement, Nazi Germany takes control of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The deal was reached on 29 September, and at about 1:30 AM on 30 September 1938, Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and French premier Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement.
Though the British and French were pleased, as were the Nazi military and German diplomatic leadership, Hitler was furious. He felt as though he had been forced into acting like a bourgeois politician by his diplomats and generals. He exclaimed furiously soon after the meeting with Chamberlain: "Gentlemen, this has been my first international conference and I can assure you that it will be my last." Hitler now regarded Chamberlain with utter contempt. A British diplomat in Berlin was informed by reliable sources that Hitler viewed Chamberlain as "an impertinent busybody who spoke the ridiculous jargon of an outmoded democracy." The umbrella, which to the ordinary German was the symbol of peace, was in Hitler's view only a subject of derision. Also, Hitler had been heard saying: "If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers."
1942. The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
1943. Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as president of China.
1957. The Milwaukee Braves defeat the New York Yankees to win their first World Series since 1914. (They played in Boston then; the team moved to Wisconsin in 1953.)
1957. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
1964. The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.
1967. The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than 60 nations, takes effect. The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications ( Art.IV). However, the Treaty does not expressly prohibit the placement or use of dual-use technologies in orbit so long as they are for peaceful purposes.
The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are common heritage of humanity. The Treaty states, in fact, that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."
1970. In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
1971. Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
1973. Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
1985. United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
1986. An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
1991. Former U.S. postal worker Joseph Harris shoots two former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The night before, Harris had killed his former supervisor, Carol Ott, with a three-foot samurai sword, and shot her fiance, Cornelius Kasten, in their home. After a four-hour standoff with police at the post office, Harris was arrested. His violent outburst was one of several high-profile attacks by postal workers that resulted in the addition of the phrase "going postal" to the American lexicon.
Harris was convicted of murder and sent to death row but died in prison of natural causes before the sentence was carried out.
1997. An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.
2002. The House votes 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraq. (The Senate follows suit the next day.)
2008. The Orakzai bombing occurs when a suicide bomber drives and detonates a pick-up truck packed with 300 kg of explosives into a meeting of 600 people, killing 40 instantly and injuring 81, although the toll later rose to 110 as many died in hospitals. The attack occurred in a remote region of Afghanistan where the injured could not get medical attention for several hours.
The attack was preceded by a row between Taliban militants and local Shia tribesmen. Angry tribesmen clashed with the Taliban the day before and destroyed the homes of militants in the area. At the time of the attack, the tribesmen had gathered to discuss ways to evict the Taliban from the region.
2011. Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr is sentenced to 90 lashes of the cane and a year's jail in Tehran for appearing in the film My Tehran For Sale which criticizes the government of Iran's harsh policies on the arts. (On 27 October 2011, Amnesty International reported that an Iranian appeals court had reduced Vafamehr's prison sentence to three months and overturned the flogging sentence.)
In the United States, Governor Rick Scott of Florida signs the death warrant for Oba Chandler, convicted of the murder of three women in 1989, with the execution set for November 15. Chandler was put to death by lethal injection for the June 1989 triple murders of a woman and her two daughters whose bodies were found in Tampa Bay, Florida. All three were discovered floating with their hands and feet bound, concrete blocks tied to their necks and duct tape over their mouths. Autopsies indicated the women had been thrown into the water one by one while still alive. The partially dressed bodies of all three victims indicated that the underlying motive was sexual assault.
680. In the Battle of Karbala, Hussain bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. Ali and his followers were killed by the forces of Yazid during the one day battle. The captured women were tortured, mocked and made an example of. This is commemorated by Muslims as Aashurah, a day of mourning.
732. The Battle of Tours is fought near Poitiers, France. The leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.
As later chroniclers praised Charles Martel as the champion of Christianity, pre-20th century historians began to characterize this battle as being the decisive turning point in the struggle against Islam. "Most of the 18th and 19th century historians, like Gibbon, saw Poitiers (Tours), as a landmark battle that marked the high tide of the Muslim advance into Europe." Leopold Von Ranke felt that "Poitiers was the turning point of one of the most important epochs in the history of the world."
Charles was the illegitimate son of Pepin, the powerful mayor of the palace of Austrasia and effective ruler of the Frankish kingdom. After Pepin died in 714 (with no surviving legitimate sons), Charles beat out Pepin's three grandsons in a power struggle and became mayor of the Franks. He expanded the Frankish territory under his control and in 732 repulsed an onslaught by the Muslims.
Victory at Tours ensured the ruling dynasty of Martel's family, the Carolingians. His son Pepin became the first Carolingian king of the Franks, and his grandson Charlemagne carved out a vast empire that stretched across Europe.
1471. At the Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm, Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
1575. In the Battle of Dormans, Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeat the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.
1580. After a three-day siege, the English Army beheads over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.
The Siege of Smerwick, during the Desmond rebellions, led to one of the most infamous massacres in 16th century Ireland. Italian and Spanish Papal troops, and Irish men and women, were beheaded and their bodies thrown into the sea.
According to folklore, the English spent two days decapitating their victims, lining them up one by one in a nearby field. Today the field is known locally as Gort a Ghearradh (the Field of the Cutting) while the field where the heads were buried bears the name Gort nag Ceann (the Field of the Heads).
1845. In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
1886. The tuxedo dinner jacket makes its American debut at Tuxedo Park, New Jersey.
1919. Richard Strauss' opera Die Frau ohne Schatten ("Woman without Shadows") makes its debut performance in Vienna.
1920. The Carinthian Plebiscite determines that the larger part of Carinthia should remain part of Austria.
The Duchy of Carinthia was located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire from 976 until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806, and a crownland of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918.
By the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain the main area of the duchy formed the Austrian state of Carinthia. A small southeastern part was included into the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while the Canale Valley with the municipality of Tarvisio was ceded to the Kingdom of Italy.
1933. In the United Airlines Chesterton Crash, a United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
Eyewitnesses on the ground reported hearing an explosion at about 9:15 p.m., and told of seeing the plane in flames at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. A second explosion followed after the plane crashed.
Although there was a report that a man was seen carrying a brown package onto the plane in Newark, no suspect was ever identified or charged in this incident. This is thought to be the first proven act of air sabotage in the history of commercial aviation.
1938. Under the terms of the Munich Agreement, Nazi Germany takes control of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The deal was reached on 29 September, and at about 1:30 AM on 30 September 1938, Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and French premier Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement.
Though the British and French were pleased, as were the Nazi military and German diplomatic leadership, Hitler was furious. He felt as though he had been forced into acting like a bourgeois politician by his diplomats and generals. He exclaimed furiously soon after the meeting with Chamberlain: "Gentlemen, this has been my first international conference and I can assure you that it will be my last." Hitler now regarded Chamberlain with utter contempt. A British diplomat in Berlin was informed by reliable sources that Hitler viewed Chamberlain as "an impertinent busybody who spoke the ridiculous jargon of an outmoded democracy." The umbrella, which to the ordinary German was the symbol of peace, was in Hitler's view only a subject of derision. Also, Hitler had been heard saying: "If ever that silly old man comes interfering here again with his umbrella, I'll kick him downstairs and jump on his stomach in front of the photographers."
1942. The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
1943. Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as president of China.
1957. The Milwaukee Braves defeat the New York Yankees to win their first World Series since 1914. (They played in Boston then; the team moved to Wisconsin in 1953.)
1957. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
1964. The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite.
1967. The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than 60 nations, takes effect. The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or to otherwise station them in outer space. It exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications ( Art.IV). However, the Treaty does not expressly prohibit the placement or use of dual-use technologies in orbit so long as they are for peaceful purposes.
The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, since they are common heritage of humanity. The Treaty states, in fact, that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."
1970. In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
1971. Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
1973. Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
1985. United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
1986. An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
1991. Former U.S. postal worker Joseph Harris shoots two former co-workers to death at the post office in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The night before, Harris had killed his former supervisor, Carol Ott, with a three-foot samurai sword, and shot her fiance, Cornelius Kasten, in their home. After a four-hour standoff with police at the post office, Harris was arrested. His violent outburst was one of several high-profile attacks by postal workers that resulted in the addition of the phrase "going postal" to the American lexicon.
Harris was convicted of murder and sent to death row but died in prison of natural causes before the sentence was carried out.
1997. An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.
2002. The House votes 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraq. (The Senate follows suit the next day.)
2008. The Orakzai bombing occurs when a suicide bomber drives and detonates a pick-up truck packed with 300 kg of explosives into a meeting of 600 people, killing 40 instantly and injuring 81, although the toll later rose to 110 as many died in hospitals. The attack occurred in a remote region of Afghanistan where the injured could not get medical attention for several hours.
The attack was preceded by a row between Taliban militants and local Shia tribesmen. Angry tribesmen clashed with the Taliban the day before and destroyed the homes of militants in the area. At the time of the attack, the tribesmen had gathered to discuss ways to evict the Taliban from the region.
2011. Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr is sentenced to 90 lashes of the cane and a year's jail in Tehran for appearing in the film My Tehran For Sale which criticizes the government of Iran's harsh policies on the arts. (On 27 October 2011, Amnesty International reported that an Iranian appeals court had reduced Vafamehr's prison sentence to three months and overturned the flogging sentence.)
In the United States, Governor Rick Scott of Florida signs the death warrant for Oba Chandler, convicted of the murder of three women in 1989, with the execution set for November 15. Chandler was put to death by lethal injection for the June 1989 triple murders of a woman and her two daughters whose bodies were found in Tampa Bay, Florida. All three were discovered floating with their hands and feet bound, concrete blocks tied to their necks and duct tape over their mouths. Autopsies indicated the women had been thrown into the water one by one while still alive. The partially dressed bodies of all three victims indicated that the underlying motive was sexual assault.