October 7......

October 7 is the 280th day of the year (281st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 85 days remaining

EVENTS

● 3761 BC - The epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar.

● 336 - Pope Mark ends his reign as Catholic Pope by dying.

● 1492 - Christopher Columbus misses Florida when he changes course.

● 1506 - Pope Julius II and France occupy Bologna.

● 1513 - Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.

● 1520 - First public burning of books in Netherlands, in Louvain.

● 1542 - Explorer Cabrillo discovered Catalina Island off California coast.

● 1571 - The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet.

● 1582 - Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

● 1637 - Prince Frederick Henry of Orange occupies Breda.

● 1690 - English attack Quebec under Louis de Buade.

● 1702 - English/Dutch troops under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough occupy Roermond.

● 1714 - Beer tax riots in Alkmaar, Netherlands.

● 1737 - 40 foot waves sink 20,000 small craft and kill 300,000 (Bengal, India).

● 1763 - George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.

● 1765 - Stamp Act Congress convenes in NY.

● 1769 - English explorer, Captain Cook, discovers New Zealand.

● 1776 - Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.

● 1777 - American Revolutionary War: Americans beat the British in the Battle of Second Saratoga and the Battle of Bemis Heights.

● 1780 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.

● 1806 - Carbon paper patented in London by inventor Ralph Wedgewood.

● 1816 - The first double-decked steamboat, the "Washington," arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

● 1826 - Granite Railway (first chartered railway in the U.S.) begins operations.

● 1828 - The city of Patras, Greece is liberated by the French expeditionary force in Peloponnese under General Maison.

● 1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.

● 1864 - Battle of Darbytown Road (American Civil War): the Confederate forces' attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond is thwarted.

● 1864 - American Civil War: Capture of the C.S.S. "Florida" — Union Warship captures the U.S.S. "Wachusett" — Confederate raider ship while in port in Bahia, Brazil.

● 1865 - The Morant Bay Rebellion starts in Jamaica.

● 1868 - Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies in Ithaca, N.Y.; initial student enrollment is 412, the most at any American university to that date.

● 1870 - Leon Gambetta flees Paris in balloon.

● 1879 - Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.

● 1882 - Baseball: First World Series (game 2), Chicago (NL) beats Cincinnati (AA) 2-0.

● 1886 - Spain abolishes slavery in Cuba.

● 1900 - The term "orienteering" is first used for an event.

● 1904 - Baseball: New York Highlander Jack Chesbro wins record 41st game of season (41-12).

● 1907 - France's Henry Farman flies 30 m in a biplane.

● 1908 - Crete revolts against the Ottoman Empire and aligns with Greece.

● 1908 - Serbia and Montenegro sign anti-Austria-Hungarian pact.

● 1912 - The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.

● 1916 - Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided victory in American college football.

● 1919 - KLM of the Netherlands was founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

● 1919 - First London-Amsterdam airline service (Britain Aerial Transport and KLM).

● 1922 - Oud-burgem of Rotterdam Zimmerman becomes High Comm's of Austria.

● 1922 - First radio link, WNJ (Newark, New Jersey) and WGY (Schenectady) link for World Series.

● 1924 - Greek government of Dikalekopoulis forms.

● 1928 - Ras Tafari Makonnen crowned negus of Abyssinia by Empress Zauditu.

● 1928 - Paavo Nurmi runs world record 10 miles (50:15.0).

● 1929 - Ramsay MacDonald is the first British premier to address the U.S. Congress.

● 1931 - First infrared photograph, Rochester, New York.

● 1938 - Germany demands all Jewish passports stamped with the letter J.

● 1940 - Germany invades Romania.

● 1941 - German army occupies Viarma, U.S.S.R.

● 1941 - John Curtin becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Australia

● 1942 - the McCollum memo conspires to bring the U.S. to war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.

● 1942 - U.S. and British government announce establishment of United Nations.

● 1942 - Maxwell Anderson's "Eve of St. Mark," premieres in New York City.

● 1942 - Salvo Katjoesja-rocket destroys Nazi battalion in Stalingrad.

● 1943 - Japan executes 100 American civilian prisoners on Wake Island.

● 1944 - Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.

● 1944 - Uprising at Auschwitz, Jews burn down crematoriums.

● 1944 - Fieldmarshal Erwin Rommel ordered to return to Berlin.

● 1944 - Allies bombs sea dikes at Vlissingen.

● 1949 - German Democratic Republic (East Germany) formed.

● 1949 - One of the earliest television shows, "Ford Theater" debuts

● 1950 - United States forces cross the 38th parallel.

● 1951 - Malayan Emergency: Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) ambushes and kills British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney.

● 1951 - David Ben-Gurion forms Israeli government.

● 1952 - "American Bandstand" debuts on a local Philadelphia station.

● 1954 - Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by New York's Metropolitan Opera.

● 1958 - President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.

● 1958 - U.S. manned space-flight project renamed Project Mercury.

● 1959 - Far side of the Moon seen for first time, compliments of U.S.S.R.'s Luna 3.

● 1959 - Southend Pier fire traps hundreds; Three hundred people are rescued after being cut off by a blaze on the world's longest pleasure pier on England's south-east coast.

● 1960 - Second Kennedy and Nixon debate Cold War foreign policy in the second of four scheduled debates.

● 1962 - U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, U.S.S.R.

● 1963 - John F. Kennedy signs ratification for Partial Test Ban Treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.

● 1963 - Hurricane Flora hits Haiti and Dominican Republic, kills 7,190.

● 1968 - The Motion Picture Association of America adopted a film-rating system.

● 1970 - Richard Nixon announces a new five-point peace proposal to end the Vietnam War. (It’s just bullshit to give US troops time to withdraw.)

● 1977 - The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.

● 1977 - Invasion of Swedish identical twins; Ninety sets of Swedish identical twins travel to Felixstowe for a brief shopping trip

● 1981 - Egypt's parliament named Vice President Hosni Mubarak to succeed the assassinated Anwar Sadat. (Strange how in a “democratic” country that this was not automatic.)

● 1982 - Cats opens on Broadway and runs for nearly 18 years beginning its record run of 7,485 performances before closing on September 10, 2000.

● 1984 - NFL running back Walter Payton breaks Jim Brown's rushing record.

● 1985 - Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship “Achille Lauro” in the Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard and threaten to blow it up. They will eventually kill an American hostage by pushing him overboard in his wheelchair.

● 1985 - The Mameyes disaster occurs in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

● 1989 - Hungary's Communist Party renounced Marxism in favor of democratic socialism during a party congress in Budapest.

● 1996 - The Fox News Channel, an American cable news network, is launched. With this launch cable news has tilted to the right ever since.

● 1997 - YUM! Brands, Inc. is founded (then as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc.) when Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell spin-off from PepsiCo.

● 1998 - Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside Laramie, WY; he died five days later.

● 1999 - American Home Products Corp. agreed to pay up to $4.83 billion to settle claims that the fen-phen diet drug combination caused dangerous heart valve problems.

● 2000 - Vojislav Kostunica took the oath of office as Yugoslavia's first popularly elected president.

● 2001 - The United States and Britain launched air strikes against Taliban positions and Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan; bin Laden praised God for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a videotaped statement aired on the Arabic satellite station Al-Jazeera.

● 2001 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd homer,

● 2001 - Rickey Henderson of the San Diego Padres became the 25th player with 3,000 hits.

● 2002 - Maher Arar is deported by the US government to Syria, where he is tortured and held without charge for a year before being returned home to Canada.

● 2002 - Space Shuttle Atlantis flies mission STS-112, its last mission before the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

● 2002 - The Washington-area sniper struck again, shooting and critically wounding a 13-year-old boy in Bowie, MD.

● 2003 - California governor Gray Davis is recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

● 2004 - King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates supposedly because of poor health.

● 2004 - British hostage feared dead in Iraq; Fears are growing for the British hostage, Kenneth Bigley, abducted three weeks ago in Iraq.

BIRTHS

● 1471 - King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway (d. 1533)

● 1573 - William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633-45) (d. 1645)

● 1576 - John Marston, English writer (d. 1634)

● 1697 - Canaletto, Italian artist (d. 1768)

● 1713 - Granville Elliott, British military officer (d. 1759)

● 1728 - Caesar Rodney, American lawyer (d. 1784)

● 1744 - Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (d. 1819)

● 1748 - King Charles XIII of Sweden (d. 1818)

● 1765 - The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.

● 1769 - Solomon Sibley, American politician (d. 1846)

● 1777 - The second Battle of Saratoga began during the American Revolution.

● 1786 - Louis-Joseph Papineau, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1871)

● 1835 - Felix Draeseke, German composer (d. 1913)

● 1841 - King Nicholas I of Montenegro (d. 1921)

● 1849 - James Witcomb Riley, American poet (d. 1916)

● 1853 - James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (d. 1916)

● 1873 - George Cram Cook, American writer (d. 1924)

● 1881 - Mikhail Drozdovsky, Russian general (d. 1918)

● 1885 - Niels Bohr, Danish born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate, first to postulate the nucleus of the atom (d.1962)

● 1888 - Henry Agard Wallace, Vice President of the United States (1941-45); Progressive Party candidate for president (1948) (d. 1965)

● 1892 - Dwain Esper, Director (d. 1982)

● 1894 - Del Lord, American director (d. 1970)

● 1897 - Elijah Muhammad, American leader of the Black Muslim (the Nation of Islam) movement (1934-75) (d. 1975)

● 1900 - Heinrich Himmler, German National Socialist (NAZI) politician, administrator and military commander; Leader of the SS (d. 1945)

● 1905 - Andy Devine, American actor (d. 1977)

● 1910 - Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist (d. 1986)

● 1911 - Joe Jo Jones, American musician (d. 1985)

● 1911 - Vaughn Monroe, American singer (d. 1973)

● 1911 - Shura Cherkassky, Ukrainian classical pianist (d. 1995)

● 1912 - Fernando Belaúnde Terry, President of Peru (d. 2002)

● 1913 - Simon Carmiggelt, Dutch journalist and writer (d. 1987)

● 1914 - Alfred Drake, American actor and singer (d. 1992)

● 1914 - Sarah Churchill, British actress and dancer (d. 1982)

● 1917 - June Allyson, American actress (d. 2006)

● 1919 - Sir Zelman Cowen, 19th Governor-General of Australia

● 1921 - Raymond Goethals, Belgian football coach (d. 2004)

● 1922 - Grady Hatton, baseball player

● 1923 - Jean-Paul Riopelle, Québécois painter and sculptor, member of Les Automatistes (d. 2002)

● 1926 - Diana Lynn, American actress (d. 1971)

● 1927 - R. D. Laing, Scottish psychologist

● 1927 - Al Martino, American singer and actor

● 1929 - Robert Westall, British author (d. 1993)

● 1931 - Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)

● 1931 - Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

● 1934 - Amiri Baraka, American playwright and poet

● 1935 - Thomas Keneally, Australian author

● 1936 - Charles Dutoit, Swiss conductor

● 1937 - Maria Szyszkowska, Polish politician

● 1939 - John Hopcroft, American computer scientist

● 1939 - Harold Kroto, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1939 - Bill Snyder, American football coach

● 1943 - José Cardenal, baseball player

● 1943 - Oliver North, U.S. Marine, politician and Former National Security Council aide (lead illegal Iran-Contra activities)

● 1944 - Judee Sill, American musician and songwriter (d. 1979)

● 1944 - Donald Tsang, the current Chief executive of Hong Kong

● 1945 - Kevin Godley, British musician (10cc)

● 1946 - Bernard Lavilliers, French singer

● 1949 - Dave Hope, American bass player (Kansas)

● 1949 - Kieran Kane, Country singer

● 1950 - Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzanian politician

● 1951 - John Cougar Mellencamp, American singer

● 1952 - Vladimir Putin, 2nd President of Russia

● 1952 - Graham Yallop, Australian cricketer

● 1952 - Jacques Richard, National Hockey League player (d. 2002)

● 1952 - Mary Badham, American actress (''To Kill a Mockingbird'')

● 1953 - Tico Torres, American percussionist (Bon Jovi)

● 1953 - Christopher Norris, Actor

● 1954 - Kenneth Atchley, American composer

● 1955 - Yo-Yo Ma, French-born cellist

● 1957 - Michael W. Smith, American Gospel singer

● 1957 - Jayne Torvill, British figure skater

● 1959 - Dylan Baker, American character actor

● 1959 - Simon Cowell, English recording executive and TV personality (''American Idol'')

● 1959 - Charlie Marinkovich, Rock musician (Iron Butterfly)

● 1959 - Lourdes Flores, peruvian politician.

● 1959 - Jean-Marc Fournier, French Canadian politician

● 1960 - Kyosuke Himuro, Japanese singer

● 1960 - Viktor Lazlo, French singer

● 1962 - Dave Bronconnier, Mayor of Calgary

● 1962 - Dale Watson, Country singer

● 1966 - Toni Braxton, American R&B singer

● 1968 - Thom Yorke, English singer (Radiohead)

● 1969 - Malia Hosaka, Hawaiian professional wrestler

● 1969 - Leeroy Thornhill Musician-dancer

● 1970 - Serena Altschul, American reporter

● 1970 - Nicole Ari Parker, Actress

● 1971 - Daniel Boucher, Quebecois musician

● 1973 - Sami Hyypia, Finnish football player

● 1973 - Dida, Brazilian football player

● 1974 - Charlotte Nilsson, Swedish singer

● 1975 - Terry Gerin, American professional wrestler

● 1975 - Damian Kulash, American musician (OK Go)

● 1976 - Charles Woodson, American Football player

● 1976 - Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress

● 1976 - Gilberto Silva, Brazilian footballer

● 1976 - Taylor Hicks, American Musician ("American Idol")

● 1977 - Meighan Desmond, New Zealand actress

● 1978 - Alesha Dixon, Pop singer, member of Mis-Teeq

● 1978 - Zaheer Khan, Indian cricketer

● 1979 - Simona Amânar, Romanian gymnast

● 1979 - Aaron Ashmore, Canadian actor

● 1979 - Shawn Ashmore, Canadian actor

● 1982 - Robby Ginepri, American tennis player

● 1991 - Chauncey Matthews, American Juniors singer

DEATHS

● 336 - Pope Mark

● 1368 - Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III of England (b. 1338)

● 1553 - Cristóbal de Morales, Spanish composer (bc. 1500)

● 1555 - Louis of Praet, Habsburg diplomat (b. 1488)

● 1577 - George Gascoigne, English poet

● 1620 - Stanisław Żółkiewski, Polish military leader (b. 1547)

● 1637 - Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1587)

● 1651 - Jacques Sirmond, French Jesuit scholar (b. 1559)

● 1653 - Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest (b. 1581)

● 1708 - Guru Gobind Singh, tenth and last Sikh Guru (b. 1666)

● 1772 - John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (b. 1720)

● 1787 - Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church (b. 1711)

● 1792 - George Mason, American patriot (b. 1725)

● 1793 - Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician (b. 1718)

● 1796 - Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (b. 1710)

● 1849 - Edgar Allan Poe, American poet, author and critic (b. 1809)

● 1894 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, American writer (b. 1809)

● 1903 - Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (b. 1832)

● 1906 - Honoré Beaugrand, journalist and politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1848)

● 1911 - John Hughlings Jackson, English neurologist (b. 1835)

● 1919 - Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)

● 1925 - Christy Mathewson, baseball player (b. 1880)

● 1926 - Emil Kraepelin, German psychologist (b. 1856)

● 1943 - Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (b. 1899)

● 1943 - Radclyffe Hall, British author (b. 1880)

● 1956 - Clarence Birdseye, American inventor (b. 1886)

● 1959 - Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)

● 1967 - Norman Angell, British politician and Nobel Laureate (b. 1872)

● 1969 - Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (b. 1888)

● 1981 - Albert Cohen, Greek-born novelist (b. 1895)

● 1991 - Leo Durocher, baseball player and manager (b. 1905)

● 1992 - Tevfik Esenç, last known speaker of Ubykh (b. 1904)

● 1993 - Cyril Cusack, Irish actor (b. 1910)

● 1994 - Niels Kaj Jerne, English-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)

● 1998 - Arnold Jacobs, Tuba player a.k.a. Song and Wind (b. 1915)

● 2001 - Christopher Adams, British-born pro wrestler and judoka (b. 1955)

● 2001 - Herbert Block, American cartoonist (b. 1909)

● 2003 - Wally George, American conservative TV commentator (b. 1931)

● 2003 - Israel Asper, Canadian tax lawyer (b. 1932)

● 2004 - Ken Bigley, British hostage in Iraq abducted three weeks previously (b. 1942)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic Saints
● Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
● formerly Saint Justina
● formerly Saint Osyth

● Feast day of Pope Mark.

● Eastern Orthodox Holidays and observances
● All fixed commemorations below are observed on October 20 by Old Calendarist Orthodox
● Saints:
● Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus in Syria (290, 303)
● Venerable Sergius of Nurma in Vologda, abbot (1412)
● Martyrs Julian, presbyter, and Caesarius, deacon, at Terracina (1st century)
● Martyr Polychronius, presbyter (4th century)
● Virgin-martyr Pelagia of Tarsus (290)
● Saint Sergius the Obedient of the Kiev Caves Monastery (13th century)
● Martyrs Eusebius and Felix at Terracina
● Russian New martyr Valentine Sventitsky, priest (1931)
● Saint Leontius the Governor
● 99 Fathers of Crete
● Other Commerations:
● Uncovering of the relics of Saint Martinian of Byelozersk, abbot (1514)
● Repose of Bishop Jonah of Manchuria (1925)

● East Germany - Republic Day

● French Republican Calendar - Belle de nuit (Beautiful of Night, a flower) Day, sixteenth day in the Month of Vendémiaire

● Composer Day in Brazil


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

The BBC Take on the day

On this day in the New York Times