October 25th
 

1400 ~ Death of Geoffrey Chaucer, Poet.

1825 ~ Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Composer.

1838 ~ Birthday of Georges Bizet, Composer.

1854 ~ Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. You can listen and follow along to Lord Tennyson as he reads his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.

1881 ~ Birthday of Pablo Picasso, Painter & Sculptor.

1924 ~ First appearance of "Little Orphan Annie”.

1936 ~ Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini created the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1971 ~ The UN General Assembly seated the People's Republic of China and expelled the Republic of China.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien became prime minister of Canada.

1993 ~ Death of Vincent Price, Actor.

October 26th
 

1685 ~ Birthday of Domenico Scarlatti, Composer.

1881 ~ The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 ~ Norway became independent from Sweden.

1918 ~ Erich von Ludendorff is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1947 ~ The Maharaja of Kashmir agreed to allow his kingdom to join India.

1965 ~ The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

1972 ~ Death of Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer.

1994 ~ Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.

1999 ~ Britain's House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2001 ~ The USA Patriot Act passed into law.

October 27th
 

1466 ~ Birthday of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher.

1662 ~ Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV.

1728 ~ Birthday of James Cook, British Captain and explorer.

1787 ~ The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published.

1811 ~ Birthday of Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer. If you’ve never heard Richard Burton read Under Milk Wood, you have a treat in store for you!

1959 ~ The Mouse That Roared premiered.

1991 ~ Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

2002 ~ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected President of Brazil.

2004 ~ The Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in Game 4.

October 28th
 

1485 ~ Le Morte D'Arthur was published.

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba.

1726 ~ Gulliver's Travels published.

1886 ~ The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

1903 ~ Birthday of Evelyn Waugh, Novelist.

1914 ~ Birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the first effective polio vaccine.

1955 ~ Birthday of Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.

1962 ~ Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev informed the U.S. that he had ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1965 ~ The 630-foot-tall steel Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was completed.

1980 ~ Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with Jimmy Carter in Cleveland ''are you better off than you were four years ago?''.

October 29th
 

1675 ~ Leibniz made the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral.

1785 ~ Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

1911 ~ Death of Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher and journalist.

1923 ~ The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1929 ~ New York Stock Exchange stock prices collapsed amid panic selling.

1957 ~ Death of Louis B. Mayer, film producer. The second “M” in “MGM”.

1964 ~ Tanganyika and Zanzibar became Tanzania.

1969 ~ The first computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET.

1975 ~ General Franco’s dictatorship of Spain came to an end.

2004 ~ Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks.

I find it amazing that they were able to keep up the pretense that the network was for defence and not porn, which we all know is the primary driver for any technology :)

October 30th
 

1831 ~ Nat Turner was arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in U.S. history.

1839 ~ Birthday of Alfred Sisley, one of the creators of French Impressionism.

1885 ~ Birthday of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1918 ~ The Ottoman Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, ending World War I in the Middle East.

1938 ~ Orson Welles’ broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” caused a panic.

1939 ~ Birthday of Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane.

1961 ~ The Soviet Union detonated the 58 megaton hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba.

1968 ~ The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins & Timothy Dalton was released.

1974 ~ Muhammad Ali beat George Foreman to regain the World Heavyweight Boxing championship.

1995 ~ Quebec separatists lost a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada (vote was 50.6% to 49.4%

October 31st
 

1517 ~ Protestant Reformation got under way: Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. For a unique insight to this happening, click here.

1795 ~ Birthday of John Keats, Poet.

1892 ~ Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

1926 ~ Death of Harry Houdini, Magician.

1931 ~ Birthday of Dan Rather, Broadcast Journalist

1954 ~ The Algerian National Liberation Front began a revolt against French rule.

1956 ~ Suez Crisis: The U.K. and France began bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.

1971 ~ An IRA bomb exploded in London’s Post Office tower.

1984 ~ Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh security guards (riots soon broke out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 innocent Sikhs were killed).

1987 ~ Death of Joseph Campbell, Author and expert on mythology.

November 1st
 

1512 ~ The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1604 ~ At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello was presented for the first time.

1755 ~ Lisbon, Portugal was destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people.

1892 ~ Birthday of Alexander Alekhine, World Chess Champion.

1923 ~ Birthday of Gordon R. Dickson, Science Fiction author.

1935 ~ Birthday of Gary Player, South African golfer.

1952 ~ The U.S. successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed Mike, at Eniwetok island in the Bikini atoll.

1963 ~ The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened.

1972 ~ Death of Ezra Pound, Poet.

1993 ~ The Maastricht Treaty took effect, formally establishing the European Union.

There are still many European nationalists who think of it as the Mass Tricked Treaty.

November 2nd
 

1739 ~ Birthday of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Composer.

1755 ~ Birthday of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

1815 ~ Birthday of George Boole, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1930 ~ Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia.

1936 ~ The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1950 ~ Death of George Bernard Shaw, Playwright.

1976 ~ Former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald R. Ford.

1964 ~ In a family coup, King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed, and replaced by his half-brother Faisal.

1983 ~ President Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

1988 ~ The Morris worm was launched from MIT.

November 3rd
 

1801 ~ Birthday of Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer.

1838 ~ The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded.

1903 ~ Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia.

1918 ~ Poland declared its independence from Russia.

1954 ~ Death of Henri Matisse, French artist.

1957 ~ Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika.

1964 ~ Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson defeated challenger Barry Goldwater with over 60 percent of the popular vote.

1986 ~ Iran-Contra Affair : The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1992 ~ U.S. presidential election: Challenger Bill Clinton defeated incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush & independent candidate Ross Perot.

1993 ~ Death of Leon Theremin, Russian inventor.

November 4th
 

1847 ~ Death of Felix Mendelssohn, German composer.

1869 ~ The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1900 ~ Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was published.

1922 ~ British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1924 ~ Death of Gabriel Fauré, French composer.

1948 ~ T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1956 ~ Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded, and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1979 ~ Students storm the US embassy in Tehran and took 90 hostages.

1993 ~ Jean Chrétien took office as PM of Canada.

1995 ~ The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

November 5th
 

1605 ~ Gunpowder Plot: A plot to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the building.

1872 ~ Suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time. She was fined $100 for the privilege.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. B. S. Haldane, Geneticist.

1911 ~ Birthday of Roy Rogers, American actor.

1914 ~ The UK annexed Cyprus.

1930 ~ Sinclair Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1977 ~ Death of Guy Lombardo, Conductor.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be "the great Satan".

1989 ~ Death of Vladimir Horowitz, Pianist.

1999 ~ Federal Judge Thomas Jackson declared Microsoft Corp. a monopoly, saying the software giant's aggressive actions were ''stifling innovation'' and hurting consumers.

November 6th
 

1528 ~ Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to see Texas.

1789 ~ Pope Pius VI appointed Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.

1854 ~ Birthday of John Philip Sousa, composer of the official march of the U.S., The Stars and Stripes Forever (requires RealPlayer)

1861 ~ Birthday of James Naismith, inventor of basketball.

1869 ~ Rutgers University defeated Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.

1893 ~ Death of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer.

1913 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1962 ~ The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

1999 ~ Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state.

2000 ~ Death of L. Sprague De Camp, Science Fiction writer.