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Events

4004 BC - On the preceding eve of this day (in the proleptic Julian calendar), the universe was created, according to the archbishop James Ussher in his Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.

42 BC - Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi - Brutus's army is decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. He 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, discarges 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

1641 - Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 - anniversary commemorated by Irish Protestants for over 200 years

1694 - American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phips, fail to seize Quebec.

1707 - The first Parliament of Great Britain 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 was 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 - 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 were summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.

1906 - Alberto Santos-Dumont flies the 14-bis in the first officially-recognised heavier-than-air flight at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.

1911 - First use of aircraft in war: an Italian pilot takes off from Libya to survey Turkish lines during the Turco-Italian War.

1915 - Woman's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march up Fifth Avenue to demand the right to vote.

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 transcontinental air service begins from New York City to Los Angeles.

1930 - The first miniature golf tournament finished in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1935 - Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosenkrantz are fatally shot in a bar in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.

1941 - World War II: Georgy Zhukov assumes command of Red Army efforts to stop the German advance into Russia.

1942 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein starts - At El Alamein in Egypt, British forces begin a major offensive against Axis forces.

1944 - World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf begins - The largest naval battle in history begins in Leyte Gulf, the Red Army enters Hungary

1946 - The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.

 
 

1956 - Thousands of Hungarians protest Soviet influence and occupation in their nation (Hungarian Revolution is put down on November 4).

1958 - Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip characters The Smurfs.

1965 - Vietnam War: Operation Silver Bayonet - The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launch a new operation, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleku Province in II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).

1973 - Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations about the scandal.

1973 - A U.N. sanctioned cease-fire officially ends the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria.

1983 - Lebanon Civil War: U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut hit by truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. servicemen. French barracks also hit the same morning, killing 58.

1987 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork on a 58-42 vote.

1989 - The Hungarian Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Sz?rös (replacing the Hungarian People's Republic).

1992 - Akihito becomes the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.

1993 - The Toronto Blue Jays win their second straight World Series.

1996 - The civil trial of former American football player O.J. Simpson opens in Santa Monica, California.

1998 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land-for-peace" agreement.

1998 - Abortion in the United States: In Amherst, New York, abortion doctor Barnett Slepian is killed in his home by a sniper.

1998 - Swatch Internet Time introduced

1999 - Apple Computer's Mac OS 9 is released and sold

2001 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks encouraged by American President Bill Clinton.

2001 - iPod released in USA.

2002 - Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen rebels seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theatergoers hostage.

2004 - Brazil's "Operation Cajuana" launches its first rocket into space, the VSB-30, just 14 months after its space program was devastated by a deadly launch pad accident.

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.

 

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