42 B.C.: Marcus Junius Brutus committed suicide after his defeat at the Battle of Philippi. He was a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar.
1864: During the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated the Confederate forces in Missouri that were under Gen. Stirling Price.
1869: John (William) Heisman was born. He is recognized as one of the greatest innovators of the game of football.
1910: Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to make a public solo airplane flight.
1915: The first U.S. championship horseshoe tourney was held in Kellerton, IA.
1915: Approximately 25,000 women demanded the right to vote with a march in New York City, NY.
1929: In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged starting the stock-market crash that began the Great Depression.
1930: J.K. Scott won the first miniature golf tournament. The event was held in Chattanooga, TN.
1942: During World War II, the British began a major offensive against Axis forces at El Alamein, Egypt.
1944: During World War II, the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
1946: The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time.
1956: Hungarian citizens began an uprising against Soviet occupation. On November 4, 1956 Soviet forces enter Hungar and eventually suppress the uprising.
1956: NBC broadcasted the first videotape recording. The tape of Jonathan Winters was seen coast to coast in the U.S.
1958: Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He was forced to refuse the honor due to negative Soviet reaction. Pasternak won the award for writing "Dr. Zhivago".
1962: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. naval "quarantine" of Cuba was approved by the Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).
1962: The U.S. Navy reconnaissance squadron VFP-62 began overflights of Cuba under the code name "Blue Moon."
1971: The U.N. General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan and seat Communist China.
1973: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn over the subpoenaed tapes concerning the Watergate affair.
1978: China and Japan formally ended four decades of hostility when they exchanged treaty ratifications.
1980: The resignation of Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin was announced.
1983: At Beirut International Airport, a suicide bomber destroyed a U.S. Marine compound and killed 241 U.S. Marines and sailors. 58 French paratroopers were killed in a near-simultaneous attack.
1984: "NBC Nightly News" aired footage of the severe drought in Ethiopia.
1985: U.S. President Reagan arrived in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
1989: In Boston, MA, Charles Stuart claimed he and his pregnant wife, Carol, had been shot in their car by a black robber. Carol Stuart and her prematurely delivered baby died. Charles Stuart later died, an apparent suicide, after he was implicated in the murder of his wife and child.
1989: Hungary became an independent republic, after 33 years of Soviet rule.
1992: Japanese Emperor Akihito became the first Japanese emperor to stand on Chinese soil.
1992: A former French health official was sentenced to four years in prison for allowing 1,200 hemophiliacs to receive AIDS-tainted blood.
1993: Joe Carter (Toronto Blue Jays) became only the second player to end the World Series with a homerun.
1995: Russian President Boris Yeltsin and U.S. President Bill Clinton agree to a joint peacekeeping effort in the war-torn Bosnia.
1996: The civil trial of O.J. Simpson opened in Santa Monica, CA. Simpson was later found liable in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
1998: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a breakthrough in a land-for-peace West Bank accord.
1998: Japan nationalized its first bank since World War II.
1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed legal abortions, was killed at his home in suburban Buffalo, NY, by sniper fire through his kitchen window. James Kopp was charged with second-degree murder.
2000: Universal Studios Consumer Products Group (USCPG) and Amblin Entertainment announced an unprecedented and exclusive three-year worldwide merchandising program with Toys "R" Us, Inc. The deal was for the rights to exclusive "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" merchandise starting in fall 2001. The film was scheduled for re-release in the spring of 2002.
