1793 – U.S. President George Washington laid the actual cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
96 – Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated
324 – Chrysopolis Emperor Constantine beats Emperor Licinius
1437 – Peasant uprising in Transsylvania
1454 – In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years’ War.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his 4th & last voyage
1635 – Emperor Ferdinand II declares war on France
1679 – New Hampshire becomes a county in Massachusetts Bay Colony
1759 – The French formally surrendered Quebec to the British.
1769 – It was reported, by the Boston Gazette, that the first piano had been built in North America. The instrument was named the spinet and was made by John Harris.
1789 – Alexander Hamilton negotiated and secured the first loan for the United States. The Temporary Loan of 1789 was repaid on June 8, 1790 at the sum of $191,608.81 The loan is made to pay salaries of the presidents & Congress
1793 – U.S. President George Washington laid the actual cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol.
1810 – Chile declared its independence from Spain.
1837 – Tiffany & Co. was founded in New York City.
1842 – 1st edition of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published
1850 – The Fugitive Slave Act was declared by the U.S. Congress. The act allowed slave owners to claim slaves that had escaped into other states.
1851 – The first issue of “The New York Times” was published.
1873 – Government bond agent Jay Cooke & Co collapses, causing panic on Wall St, the start of the panic of 1873 and the Long depression
1885 – Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.
1891 – Harriet Maxwell Converse became the first white woman to ever be named chief of an Indian tribe. The tribe was the Six Nations Tribe at Towanda Reservation in New York.
1910 – 25,000 demonstrate in Amsterdam for general male/female suffrage
1931 – To create a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria, China, a railway explosion is faked by the Japanese
1932 – Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide by jumping from the letter “H” in the Hollywood sign
1939 – William Joyce’s first Nazi propaganda broadcast
1945 – 1000 whites walk out of Gary, Indiana, schools to protest integration
1946 – Mound Metalcraft was founded in Mound, MN. On November 23, 1955, the company changed its name to Tonka Toys Incorporated.
1947 – The United States Air Force was established as a separate military branch by the National Security Act.
1958 – The Fresno Drop: Bank of America mails out 60,000 BankAmericards in Fresco, California, the first credit card (later renamed VISA)
1962 – Rwanda, Burundi, Jamaica & Trinidad admitted (105th-108th) to UN
1973 – West Germany adopts the Deutsche Mark
1975 – Heiress-turned-bank robber Patricia Campbell Hearst captured by FBI in San Francisco
1978 All four Kiss members release solo albums
1981 – A museum honoring former U.S. President Ford was dedicated in Grand Rapids, MI.
1984 – The 39th session of the U.N. General Assembly was opened with an appeal to the U.S. and Soviet Union to resume arms negotiations.
1988 – Coup in Haiti: General Prosper Avril takes control, Henri Namphy flees
1990 – Crude prices outpace increases in product prices and there is talk of cutting refinery runs
1991 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush said that he would send warplanes to escort U.N. helicopters that were searching for hidden Iraqi weapons if it became necessary.
1994 – Haiti’s military leaders agreed to depart on October 15th. This action averted a U.S.-led invasion to force them out of power.
1998 – The U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted to release to videotape of President Clinton’s grand jury testimony from August 17.
1998 – The FDA approved a once-a-day easier-to-swallow medication for AIDS patients.
1998 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is founded, Author Esther Dyson became the first chairperson of the now non-profit organization, which was initially under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 2009, the Department of Commerce gave up its control over ICANN, which is responsible for maintaining the Domain Name System (DNS) on the Internet.
2001 – First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
2006 – Right wing protesters riot the building of the Hungarian Television in Budapest, Hungary, one day after an audio tape was made public, in which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admitted he and his party lied during the 2006 general elections.
2007 – Pervez Musharraf announces that he will step down as army chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is re-elected president
2012 – World’s first mother-to-daughter uterus transplant undertaken at the University of Gothenburg
2014 – Scotland votes to stay a member of the United Kingdom in an independence referendum
2018 – China announces new $60 billion tariffs on US imports, a day after the US imposes $200 billion worth of new tariffs on Chinese goods
2019 – US White House bars California and other states from setting their own emission standards
2019 – Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry says Iran was to blame for drone attack on Saudi oil facilities
2021 – US authorities begin moving, to repatriate, more than 10,000 mostly Haitian migrants living under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
