331 BC: Alexander the Great<\/a> slaughters Persian troops<\/h4>\nIt was a crushing Macedonian victory, with tens of thousands of Persians slaughtered in the chaos.<\/p>\n
2 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1501:\u00a0A Spanish princess joins the Tudor dynasty<\/h4>\n
Princess Catherine of Aragon<\/a> battled storms and bad omens before landing in England.<\/p>\n\u201cShe could not have been received with greater rejoicing,\u201d wrote her doctor a few days later, \u201chad she been the Saviour of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
3 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1990: East and West Germany are reunified<\/h4>\n
After 45 years of Cold War division, East and West Germany were reunified after East Berlin and the five states of the German Democratic Republic were incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany.<\/p>\n
4 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1957: Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth<\/h4>\n ![\"Soviet]( "\\"Soviet")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> Soviet technician working on sputnik 1, 1957. (Photo by: Sovfoto\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n5 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1795: Napoleon<\/a> gets his first taste of power<\/h4>\nAt the beginning of October 1795, fighting broke out in Paris. After rushing to the Convention \u2013 the country\u2019s governing assembly \u2013 in the small hours, a young Corsican officer called Napoleon Bonaparte found himself ordered to use all possible means to crush the insurrection. By 9am the next morning Napoleon had lined the streets with cannon, which were loaded with grapeshot \u2013 hundreds of metal balls packed into metal cases, which would cause devastating injury to a crowd of civilians. But Bonaparte was in no mood to compromise. \u201cThe rabble,\u201d he wrote later, \u201cmust be moved by terror.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carnage ensued. As the cannons roared out their bloody message, hundreds were killed. By 6pm the streets were clear and the uprising was mostly over. As for Napoleon, he was rewarded with promotion \u2013 to command the French army in Italy.<\/p>\n
6 October<\/a><\/h2>\nAD 23: China\u2019s usurping emperor Wang Mang is ousted<\/h4>\n
On 4 October, a rebel army stormed the capital, Chang\u2019an. The next morning, they burst into the palace. Wang took refuge in the highest tower, defended by his guards. But there, after a stretch of bitter fighting, his life reached its blood-soaked climax. His head was cut off and his body torn to pieces, while rebel soldiers literally fought and died to get hold of the scraps. Eventually his head was delivered to the rebel commanders, who stuck it on a wall.<\/p>\n
7 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1571: Catholics crush the Ottomans<\/h4>\n ![\"Ships]( "\\"The")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> An illustration of ships in the battle of Lepanto. (Photo by Heritage Art\/Heritage Images via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe Holy League prevailed in the battle of Lepanto<\/a>, one of Europe\u2019s great turning points. As the Ottomans fell back in disarray, the sea, wrote one onlooker, \u201cwas full of dead men, of planks, of clothing, of some who were drowning, of many shattered remains of ships that were burning and of others that were sinking\u201d.<\/p>\n\n- Read more | What if\u2026 the Ottomans had won at Lepanto?\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For the Ottomans, Lepanto was a disaster, shaking their air of invincibility and checking their advance through the Mediterranean. And what of Cervantes? Though stricken with fever, he fought gallantly and was hit three times by gunshots, one of which rendered his left hand permanently useless. He used his other hand to write his great book Don Quixote, published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615. He had \u201clost the movement of the left hand,\u201d he said later, \u201cfor the glory of the right\u201d.<\/p>\n
8 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1582: Pope Gregory XIII\u2019s new calendar (which we still use today) means that, spookily, this day never happens<\/h4>\n9 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1192: King Richard I<\/a> of England leaves the Holy Land at the end of the Third Crusade<\/h4>\nAfter bad weather drove him ashore near Venice he was seized by Duke Leopold of Austria, before being handed over to German emperor Henry VI, who ransomed the monarch.<\/p>\n
10 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1899: The British are issued with a Boer ultimatum<\/h4>\n
The news from South Africa was an ultimatum, in response to Joseph Chamberlain\u2019s increasing pressure, sent by the Boers\u2019 uncompromising leader, Paul Kruger. Probably drafted by the young Jan Smuts (a future South African prime minister), the message accused Britain of stirring up discontent inside the Transvaal, insisted that Chamberlain withdraw the troops massing on the border, and demanded that no British troops currently on the high seas should be landed in South Africa.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the ultimatum expired and the Boer War began. But it would be longer, bloodier and more difficult than anybody expected.<\/p>\n
11 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1649: Oliver Cromwell<\/a>\u2019s army ravages Wexford<\/h4>\nThousands were slaughtered despite promises of \u201cno violence\u201d by the English. Contrary to popular belief, Cromwell had not personally ordered the attack on the town, but he shed no tears for the town\u2019s victims \u2013 for this was the judgment of God. \u201cThey were,\u201d he wrote, \u201cmade with their blood to answer for the cruelties they had exercised upon diverse poor Protestants.\u201d<\/p>\n Births in October<\/h2>\n2 October 1452 <\/strong><\/h6>\nKing Richard III of England\u00a0<\/p>\n
2 October 1869 <\/strong><\/h6>\nMohandas Karamchand Ghandi\u00a0<\/p>\n
9 October 1940 <\/strong><\/h6>\nMusician John Lennon<\/p>\n
11 October 1872 <\/strong><\/h6>\nSuffragette Emily Davison\u00a0<\/p>\n
15 October 1880 <\/strong><\/h6>\nMarie Stopes, palaeobotanist and advocate of birth control<\/p>\n
15 October 1881 <\/strong><\/h6>\nPelham Grenville \u2018PG\u2019 Wodehouse, author of the Jeeves and Wooster series of novels<\/p>\n
24 October 1788 <\/strong><\/h6>\nSarah Hale, American editor and writer\u00a0<\/p>\n
31 October 1887 <\/strong><\/h6>\nChiang Kai-shek, Chinese Nationalist leader\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
12 October<\/a><\/h2>\n539 BC: Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great<\/a><\/h4>\nThe great Mesopotamian city came under Persian control. Resultantly, Cyrus was the master of Babylon and it belonged to his descendants for the next 200 years.<\/p>\n
![\"Illustration]( "\\"Illustration")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> Illustration of siege of Babylon by Cyrus the Great. (Photo by Stefano Bianchetti\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n13 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1908: Suffragettes<\/a> try to storm the House of Commons<\/h4>\nA \u2018Rush\u2019 arranged by Pankhurst and WSPU resulted in 36 arrests. \u201cWomen\u2019s Social and Political Union,\u201d began the advertising flyer. \u201cVOTES FOR WOMEN. Men and women \u2013 helped the suffragettes to rush the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, 13 October 1908, at 7:30.\u201d<\/p>\n
14 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1322: Edward II<\/a> is forced to escape from the battle of Byland in North Yorkshire<\/h4>\n15 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1764: Edward Gibbon finds unlikely inspiration in a crumbling city<\/h4>\n
A disappointing trip to the once-great city of Rome inspires the scholar to write his finest work: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/em>.<\/p>\nHe wrote: \u201cIt was at Rome, on 15 October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
16 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1793: Marie Antoinette<\/a> is executed<\/h4>\n ![\"Execution]( "\\"Execution")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> Execution of Marie-Antoinette. (Photo by Heritage Art\/Heritage Images via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe French Revolution claims one of its most famous victims. On the way up to the guillotine, she accidentally trod on Sanson\u2019s toe.<\/p>\n
\u201cPardon, monsieur,\u201d she politely apologised. Then, moving quickly and professionally, the executioner tied her to the plank, pulled off her neckerchief \u2013 and it was done. A heartbeat later, Sanson raised her severed head to show the crowd. The revolution had claimed one of its most famous victims, and certainly its most romantic.<\/p>\n
17 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1912: Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst underlines the Women\u2019s Social and Political Union\u2019s opposition to all political parties<\/h4>\n18 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1216: An attack of dysentery proves the death of \u2018Bad King John<\/a>\u2019<\/h4>\nSunk in misery, the king consoled himself by stuffing himself with peaches and sinking vast amounts of new cider \u2013 not, perhaps, the ideal diet for somebody suffering from dysentery. His stomach cramps worsened and, on the evening of 18 October, he died. At that time, dysentery was often a death sentence, so the famous \u201csurfeit of peaches\u201d probably had nothing to do with his demise. Still, it makes a good story.<\/p>\n
19 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1469: Ferdinand and Isabella tie the knot<\/h4>\n
On 19 October, roughly a week after they had met, the royal couple were married at Valladolid\u2019s Vivero Palace. Strapped for cash, they borrowed money from their aristocratic friends to pay for the ceremony, and some 2,000 people reportedly looked on as Ferdinand swore to uphold the laws of Castile. The royal couple even produced a papal bull, signed by Pope Pius II, to get around the awkward fact that they were so closely related. That it was a complete forgery was beside the point. The wedding was a triumph, and in that moment a united Spain was born.<\/p>\n
20 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1720: Luck runs out for notorious pirate gang<\/h4>\n ![\"Anne]( "\\"Anne")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> Anne Bonny and Mary Read. (Photo by Culture Club\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nA pirate who famously sailed alongside two fierce women, Mary Read and Anne Bonny<\/a>, Rackham had for weeks been cruising along the coast of Jamaica, attacking fishing vessels with impunity. But on this evening he made his fatal mistake.\n- Read more | The most famous and despicable pirates from history<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As the British sloop sailed back towards Port Royal, Rackham must have known what was coming. Tried a few weeks later, he was hanged on 18\u00a0November and his body displayed on an island known today as Rackham\u2019s Cay. Anne Bonny \u2013 who, like Mary Read, escaped the noose by revealing that she was pregnant \u2013 thought he had only himself to blame. \u201cIf he had fought like a man,\u201d she reportedly said, \u201che need not have been hanged like a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n Deaths in October<\/h2>\n3 October 1881 <\/strong><\/h6>\nOrson Pratt, mormon leader<\/p>\n
6 October 1688 <\/strong><\/h6>\nChristopher Monck, Governor of Jamaica<\/p>\n
6 October 1892 <\/strong><\/h6>\nAlfred Lord Tennyson, british Poet Laureate<\/p>\n
7 October 1849 <\/strong><\/h6>\nEdgar Allen Poe, american writer and poet<\/p>\n
8 October 1967 <\/strong><\/h6>\nClement Attlee, former Prime Minister<\/p>\n
16 October 1730 <\/strong><\/h6>\nAntoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, french explorer, adventurer and colonial governor<\/p>\n
17 October 1849 <\/strong><\/h6>\nFrederic Chopin, polish-born composer and pianist<\/p>\n
31 October 1918 <\/strong><\/h6>\nEgon Schiele, expressionist painter and prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Gustave Klimt.<\/p>\n
31 October 1961 <\/strong><\/h6>\nAugustus John, welsh painter, engraver and flamboyant bohemian<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
21 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1861: In the second major engagement of the American Civil War<\/a>, Union forces are decisively defeated at the battle of Ball\u2019s Bluff<\/h4>\nColonel Edward Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, was killed in the debacle.<\/p>\n
22 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1797: Andre-Jacques Garnerin jumps from a balloon above Paris to make the world\u2019s first recorded parachute jump<\/h4>\n23 October<\/a><\/h2>\n42 BC: Brutus takes his own life<\/h4>\n
According to some reports, Strato held Brutus\u2019s sword, upon which the commander \u201cfell with such force that it passed quite through his breast and brought him instant death\u201d.<\/p>\n
When Brutus\u2019s enemies discovered his body, they treated it with striking respect; Antony even ordered that it be covered with his own expensive cloak. Brutus was cremated and on Antony\u2019s orders, his ashes were sent to his mother in Rome.<\/p>\n
24 October<\/a><\/h2>\n1929: The American economy comes crashing down<\/h4>\n ![\"The]( "\\"Wall")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> The front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper with the headline \u2018Wall St. In Panic As Stocks Crash\u2019. (Photo by FPG\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nIt was the morning of Thursday 24 October 1929, and
1501:\u00a0A Spanish princess joins the Tudor dynasty<\/h4>\n
Princess Catherine of Aragon<\/a> battled storms and bad omens before landing in England.<\/p>\n \u201cShe could not have been received with greater rejoicing,\u201d wrote her doctor a few days later, \u201chad she been the Saviour of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n After 45 years of Cold War division, East and West Germany were reunified after East Berlin and the five states of the German Democratic Republic were incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany.<\/p>\n At the beginning of October 1795, fighting broke out in Paris. After rushing to the Convention \u2013 the country\u2019s governing assembly \u2013 in the small hours, a young Corsican officer called Napoleon Bonaparte found himself ordered to use all possible means to crush the insurrection. By 9am the next morning Napoleon had lined the streets with cannon, which were loaded with grapeshot \u2013 hundreds of metal balls packed into metal cases, which would cause devastating injury to a crowd of civilians. But Bonaparte was in no mood to compromise. \u201cThe rabble,\u201d he wrote later, \u201cmust be moved by terror.\u201d<\/p>\n Carnage ensued. As the cannons roared out their bloody message, hundreds were killed. By 6pm the streets were clear and the uprising was mostly over. As for Napoleon, he was rewarded with promotion \u2013 to command the French army in Italy.<\/p>\n On 4 October, a rebel army stormed the capital, Chang\u2019an. The next morning, they burst into the palace. Wang took refuge in the highest tower, defended by his guards. But there, after a stretch of bitter fighting, his life reached its blood-soaked climax. His head was cut off and his body torn to pieces, while rebel soldiers literally fought and died to get hold of the scraps. Eventually his head was delivered to the rebel commanders, who stuck it on a wall.<\/p>\n The Holy League prevailed in the battle of Lepanto<\/a>, one of Europe\u2019s great turning points. As the Ottomans fell back in disarray, the sea, wrote one onlooker, \u201cwas full of dead men, of planks, of clothing, of some who were drowning, of many shattered remains of ships that were burning and of others that were sinking\u201d.<\/p>\n For the Ottomans, Lepanto was a disaster, shaking their air of invincibility and checking their advance through the Mediterranean. And what of Cervantes? Though stricken with fever, he fought gallantly and was hit three times by gunshots, one of which rendered his left hand permanently useless. He used his other hand to write his great book Don Quixote, published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615. He had \u201clost the movement of the left hand,\u201d he said later, \u201cfor the glory of the right\u201d.<\/p>\n After bad weather drove him ashore near Venice he was seized by Duke Leopold of Austria, before being handed over to German emperor Henry VI, who ransomed the monarch.<\/p>\n The news from South Africa was an ultimatum, in response to Joseph Chamberlain\u2019s increasing pressure, sent by the Boers\u2019 uncompromising leader, Paul Kruger. Probably drafted by the young Jan Smuts (a future South African prime minister), the message accused Britain of stirring up discontent inside the Transvaal, insisted that Chamberlain withdraw the troops massing on the border, and demanded that no British troops currently on the high seas should be landed in South Africa.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the ultimatum expired and the Boer War began. But it would be longer, bloodier and more difficult than anybody expected.<\/p>\n Thousands were slaughtered despite promises of \u201cno violence\u201d by the English. Contrary to popular belief, Cromwell had not personally ordered the attack on the town, but he shed no tears for the town\u2019s victims \u2013 for this was the judgment of God. \u201cThey were,\u201d he wrote, \u201cmade with their blood to answer for the cruelties they had exercised upon diverse poor Protestants.\u201d<\/p>\n King Richard III of England\u00a0<\/p>\n Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi\u00a0<\/p>\n Musician John Lennon<\/p>\n Suffragette Emily Davison\u00a0<\/p>\n Marie Stopes, palaeobotanist and advocate of birth control<\/p>\n Pelham Grenville \u2018PG\u2019 Wodehouse, author of the Jeeves and Wooster series of novels<\/p>\n Sarah Hale, American editor and writer\u00a0<\/p>\n Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese Nationalist leader\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The great Mesopotamian city came under Persian control. Resultantly, Cyrus was the master of Babylon and it belonged to his descendants for the next 200 years.<\/p>\n A \u2018Rush\u2019 arranged by Pankhurst and WSPU resulted in 36 arrests. \u201cWomen\u2019s Social and Political Union,\u201d began the advertising flyer. \u201cVOTES FOR WOMEN. Men and women \u2013 helped the suffragettes to rush the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, 13 October 1908, at 7:30.\u201d<\/p>\n A disappointing trip to the once-great city of Rome inspires the scholar to write his finest work: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/em>.<\/p>\n He wrote: \u201cIt was at Rome, on 15 October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n The French Revolution claims one of its most famous victims. On the way up to the guillotine, she accidentally trod on Sanson\u2019s toe.<\/p>\n \u201cPardon, monsieur,\u201d she politely apologised. Then, moving quickly and professionally, the executioner tied her to the plank, pulled off her neckerchief \u2013 and it was done. A heartbeat later, Sanson raised her severed head to show the crowd. The revolution had claimed one of its most famous victims, and certainly its most romantic.<\/p>\n Sunk in misery, the king consoled himself by stuffing himself with peaches and sinking vast amounts of new cider \u2013 not, perhaps, the ideal diet for somebody suffering from dysentery. His stomach cramps worsened and, on the evening of 18 October, he died. At that time, dysentery was often a death sentence, so the famous \u201csurfeit of peaches\u201d probably had nothing to do with his demise. Still, it makes a good story.<\/p>\n On 19 October, roughly a week after they had met, the royal couple were married at Valladolid\u2019s Vivero Palace. Strapped for cash, they borrowed money from their aristocratic friends to pay for the ceremony, and some 2,000 people reportedly looked on as Ferdinand swore to uphold the laws of Castile. The royal couple even produced a papal bull, signed by Pope Pius II, to get around the awkward fact that they were so closely related. That it was a complete forgery was beside the point. The wedding was a triumph, and in that moment a united Spain was born.<\/p>\n A pirate who famously sailed alongside two fierce women, Mary Read and Anne Bonny<\/a>, Rackham had for weeks been cruising along the coast of Jamaica, attacking fishing vessels with impunity. But on this evening he made his fatal mistake. As the British sloop sailed back towards Port Royal, Rackham must have known what was coming. Tried a few weeks later, he was hanged on 18\u00a0November and his body displayed on an island known today as Rackham\u2019s Cay. Anne Bonny \u2013 who, like Mary Read, escaped the noose by revealing that she was pregnant \u2013 thought he had only himself to blame. \u201cIf he had fought like a man,\u201d she reportedly said, \u201che need not have been hanged like a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n Orson Pratt, mormon leader<\/p>\n Christopher Monck, Governor of Jamaica<\/p>\n Alfred Lord Tennyson, british Poet Laureate<\/p>\n Edgar Allen Poe, american writer and poet<\/p>\n Clement Attlee, former Prime Minister<\/p>\n Antoine Laumet de Lamothe Cadillac, french explorer, adventurer and colonial governor<\/p>\n Frederic Chopin, polish-born composer and pianist<\/p>\n Egon Schiele, expressionist painter and prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Gustave Klimt.<\/p>\n Augustus John, welsh painter, engraver and flamboyant bohemian<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Colonel Edward Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, was killed in the debacle.<\/p>\n According to some reports, Strato held Brutus\u2019s sword, upon which the commander \u201cfell with such force that it passed quite through his breast and brought him instant death\u201d.<\/p>\n When Brutus\u2019s enemies discovered his body, they treated it with striking respect; Antony even ordered that it be covered with his own expensive cloak. Brutus was cremated and on Antony\u2019s orders, his ashes were sent to his mother in Rome.<\/p>\n It was the morning of Thursday 24 October 1929, and 3 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1990: East and West Germany are reunified<\/h4>\n
4 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1957: Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth<\/h4>\n
![\"Soviet](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-170983510-1-e1695388067654.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"Soviet")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>5 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1795: Napoleon<\/a> gets his first taste of power<\/h4>\n
6 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
AD 23: China\u2019s usurping emperor Wang Mang is ousted<\/h4>\n
7 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1571: Catholics crush the Ottomans<\/h4>\n
![\"Ships](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1304441158-70ccef9-e1695388366511.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C411\" "\\"The")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
8 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1582: Pope Gregory XIII\u2019s new calendar (which we still use today) means that, spookily, this day never happens<\/h4>\n
9 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1192: King Richard I<\/a> of England leaves the Holy Land at the end of the Third Crusade<\/h4>\n
10 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1899: The British are issued with a Boer ultimatum<\/h4>\n
11 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1649: Oliver Cromwell<\/a>\u2019s army ravages Wexford<\/h4>\n
Births in October<\/h2>\n
2 October 1452 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
2 October 1869 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
9 October 1940 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
11 October 1872 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
15 October 1880 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
15 October 1881 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
24 October 1788 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
31 October 1887 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
12 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
539 BC: Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-526102596-55db440-e1695388283692.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C409\" "\\"Illustration")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>13 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1908: Suffragettes<\/a> try to storm the House of Commons<\/h4>\n
14 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1322: Edward II<\/a> is forced to escape from the battle of Byland in North Yorkshire<\/h4>\n
15 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1764: Edward Gibbon finds unlikely inspiration in a crumbling city<\/h4>\n
16 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1793: Marie Antoinette<\/a> is executed<\/h4>\n
![\"Execution](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1426050080-7954ce1-e1695388142657.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"Execution")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>17 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1912: Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst underlines the Women\u2019s Social and Political Union\u2019s opposition to all political parties<\/h4>\n
18 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1216: An attack of dysentery proves the death of \u2018Bad King John<\/a>\u2019<\/h4>\n
19 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1469: Ferdinand and Isabella tie the knot<\/h4>\n
20 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1720: Luck runs out for notorious pirate gang<\/h4>\n
![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-171102928-9f3909c-e1695388207610.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412\" "\\"Anne")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
Deaths in October<\/h2>\n
3 October 1881 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
6 October 1688 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
6 October 1892 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
7 October 1849 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
8 October 1967 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
16 October 1730 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
17 October 1849 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
31 October 1918 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
31 October 1961 <\/strong><\/h6>\n
21 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1861: In the second major engagement of the American Civil War<\/a>, Union forces are decisively defeated at the battle of Ball\u2019s Bluff<\/h4>\n
22 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1797: Andre-Jacques Garnerin jumps from a balloon above Paris to make the world\u2019s first recorded parachute jump<\/h4>\n
23 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
42 BC: Brutus takes his own life<\/h4>\n
24 October<\/a><\/h2>\n
1929: The American economy comes crashing down<\/h4>\n
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