October 10th

Events

• 680 - Battle of Kerbela
• 732 - Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abd-ar-Rahman, is killed during the battle.
• 1845 - In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
• 1877 - Following the recovery of Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer's body from where he fell during the Battle of Little Big Horn the previous year, Custer is given a funeral with full military honors and is laid to rest at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
• 1911 - Wuchang Uprising which led to the founding of the Republic of China.
• 1913 - US President Woodrow Wilson triggered the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• 1939 - World War II: The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Germany.
• 1944 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp.
• 1957 - US President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
• 1964 - The 1964 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo, Japan
• 1966 - Simon and Garfunkel release the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
• 1970 - Fiji becomes independent.
• 1970 - In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• 1973 - Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
• 1978 - US President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law that authorizes the minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
• 1985 - United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
• 1986 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
• 1997 - An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Neuvo Berlin, Uraguay, killing 74
• 2001 - US President George W. Bush presents a list of 22 most wanted terrorists.

Births

• 1684 - Antoine Watteau, French painter († 1721)
• 1780 - John Abercrombie, Scottish physician and philosopher
• 1861 - Fridtjof Nansen, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Arctic explorer († 1930)
• 1898 - Lilly Daché, milliner († 1989)
• 1900 - Helen Hayes, actress († 1993)
• 1901 - Alberto Giacometti, Italian sculptor († 1966)
• 1917 - Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist († 1982)
• 1919 - Jean Vander Pyl, cartoon voice-over actress
• 1924 - Ed Wood, American filmmaker († 1978)
• 1924 - James Clavell, author († 1994)
• 1926 - Richard Jaeckel, actor († 1997)
• 1930 - Harold Pinter, British playwright
• 1933 - Jay Sebring, Hollywood hair stylist
• 1937 - Bobby Charlton, English football player
• 1942 - Peter Coyote, actor
• 1946 - John Prine, singer
• 1946 - Ben Vereen, actor, dancer
• 1953 - Midge Ure, musician
• 1955 - David Lee Roth, singer
• 1956 - Martina Navratilova, tennis champion
• 1958 - Tanya Tucker, country music singer
• 1961 - Jodi Benson, cartoon voice-over actress and singer
• 1963 - Daniel Pearl, journalist
• 1963 - Rebecca Pidgeon, actress
• 1966 - Tony Adams, English football player
• 1969 - Brett Favre, American football player
• 1973 - Mario Lopez, actor
• 1974 - Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR racer
• 1976 - Bob Burnquist, skateboarder

Deaths

• 680 - Husayn bin Ali, grandson of Muhammad
• 1459 - Gianfrancesco Poggio Bracciolini, Italian humanist, classicist
• 1827 - Ugo Foscolo, Italian writer
• 1914 - Charles I of Romania
• 1927 - Gustave Whitehead, inventor
• 1940 - Berton Churchill, pioneer Hollywood actor
• 1964 - Eddie Cantor, singer, vaudeville performer
• 1971 - John Cawte Beaglehole, New Zealand historian
• 1978 - Ralph Metcalfe, track and field athlete
• 1979 - Christopher Evans, British psychologist and computer scientist
• 1983 - Ralph Richardson, actor
• 1985 - Yul Brynner, actor
• 1985 - Orson Welles, American director, actor
• 1998 - Clark Clifford, United States Secretary of Defense
• 2003 - Eugene Istomin, pianist

Holidays

• Republic of China (on Taiwan) - Double Tenth Day (National Day)

October 9 - October 11 - September 10 - November 10 - more historical anniversaries