• 42 BC - Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi - Brutus's army is decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. Brutus commits suicide.
• 425 - Valentinian III is elevated as Roman Emperor, at the age of 6.
• 502 - The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theodoric the Great, discharges Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.
• 1086 - At the Battle of az-Zallaqah, the army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the forces of Castilian King Alfonso VI.
• 1157 - The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I restores the country.
• 1641 - Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 - anniversary commemorated by Irish Protestants for over 200 years.
• 1642 - Battle of Edgehill: First major battle of the First English Civil War.
• 1694 - American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phipps, fail to seize Quebec.
• 1707 - The first Parliament of Great Britain, for example, the United Kingdom, meets.
• 1739 - War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain.
• 1812 - Claude François de Malet, a French general, begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon Bonaparte, claiming that the Emperor died in Russia and that he was now the commandant of Paris. De Malet is executed on October 29.
• 1813 - The Pacific Fur Company trading post in Astoria, Oregon is turned over to the rival British North West Company (the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest was dominated for the next three decades by the United Kingdom).
• 1855 - Kansas Free State forces set up a competing government under their Topeka, Kansas, constitution, which outlaws slavery in the United States territory.
• 1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Westport - Union forces under General Samuel R. Curtis defeat Confederate troops led by General Sterling Price at Westport, near Kansas City.
• 1867 - 72 Senators are summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.
• 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: the Siege of Metz concludes with a decisive Prussian victory.
• 1906 - Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.
• 1911 - First use of aircraft in war: An Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian War.
• 1912 - First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
• 1915 - Woman's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.
• 1917 - Lenin calls for the October Revolution.
• 1929 - Great Depression: After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to show signs of panic.
• 1929 - The first North American transcontinental air service begins between New York City and Los Angeles, California.
• 1930 - The first miniature golf tournament was completed in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 1935 - Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz are fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.
• 1941 - World War II: Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov takes command of Red Army operations designed to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the German armies from capturing Moscow.
• 1941 - Burning of the Odessa, Ukraine, Jews: 19,000 Jews are burned alive at Dalnik in Odessa, by Romanian and German troops. The next day, another 10,000 Jews are killed. Romanian Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolae Deleanu administered the executions.
• 1942 - World War II: The Second Battle of El Alamein starts - At El Alamein in northern Egypt, the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal Montgomery begin a critical offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt, never to return.
• 1942 - All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner are killed when it's struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims is award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory", "Love in Bloom", "Blue Hawaii").
• 1942 - The Battle for Henderson Field begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on October 26.
• 1944 - World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins - The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines; and also, the Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.
• 1946 - The United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.
• 1956 - Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
• 1958 - The Springhill Mine Bump - An underground earthquake traps 174 miners in the No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, the deepest coal mine in North America at the time. By November 1, rescuers from around the world had dug out 100 of the victims, marking the death toll at 74.
• 1965 - Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (United States) (Airmobile), in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launch a new operation, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).
• 1973 - The Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations about the scandal.
• 1973 - A United Nations sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria.
• 1983 - Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
• 1989 - The Hungarian Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös, replacing the communist Hungarian People's Republic.
• 1989 - Phillips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas killed 23 and injured 314.
• 1992 - Emperor Akihito becomes the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.
• 1998 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land for peace" agreement.
• 2001 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks.
• 2001 - Apple releases the iPod.
• 2002 - Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen rebels seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
• 2004 - A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.

Births