17 October 1091
In London, a powerful tornado tears through the streets, badly damaging the church of St Mary-le-Bow and destroying London Bridge.
17 October 1777
British forces surrender to the Americans at Saratoga.
17 October 1849
Polish-born composer and pianist Frederic Chopin died of pulmonary tuberculosis in his Parisian flat in the Place Vendôme. He is buried in Paris’s Père-Lachaise cemetery.
17 October 1860
Britain’s first Open Golf Championship was held at Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire. Eight golfers competed, playing three rounds of the 12-hole course in the day. The first champion was Willie Park who beat the local favourite, Tom Morris, by two strokes.
17 October 1898
Eight people are killed and 26 injured as the Great Central Railway Cleethorpes-to-Manchester Express strikes an obstruction on the line at Wrawby Junction in Lincolnshire.
17 October 1912
At a public meeting in the Royal Albert Hall, suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst underlined the Women’s Social and Political Union’s opposition to all political parties, and its intention to continue its attacks on public and private property | Read more about the Suffragettes
17 October 1933
Horrified by the rise of Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein arrives in the US to begin a new life and career.
17 October 1961
At least 50 people were killed in Paris when police attacked demonstrators protesting at the curfew imposed on Algerian nationals. Many of those killed were thrown into the river Seine.
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