· 335 – Athanasius is banished to Trier, on charge that he prevented a grain fleet from sailing to Constantinople.
· 680 – The Sixth Ecumenical Council commences in Constantinople.
· 1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France.
· 1619 – Elizabeth of Scotland and England is crowned Queen of Bohemia.
· 1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published.
· 1775 – John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore's Offer of Emancipation, which offers freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters in order to fight with Murray and the British.
· 1786 – The oldest musical organization in the United States is founded as the Stoughton Musical Society.
· 1811 – Tecumseh's War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.
· 1837 – In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot dead by a mob while attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.
· 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.
· 1874 – A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.
· 1885 – The completion of Canada's first transcontinental railway was symbolized by the Last Spike ceremony at Craigellachie, British Columbia.
· 1893 – Women's Suffrage: Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so.
· 1900 – Battle of Leliefontein, a battle during which the Royal Canadian Dragoons win three Victoria Crosses.
· 1907 – Delta Sigma Pi is founded at New York University.
· 1907 – Jesús García saves the entire town of Nacozari de Garcia, Sonora by driving a burning train full of dynamite six kilometers () away before it can explode.
· 1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in San Vicente, Bolivia.
· 1910 – The first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse.
· 1912 – The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opens in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg, with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.
· 1914 – The first issue of The New Republic magazine is published.
· 1914 – The German colony of Kiaochow Bay and its centre at Tsingtao are captured by Japanese forces.
· 1916 – Jeannette Rankin is the first woman elected to the United States Congress.
· 1917 – The Gregorian calendar date of the October Revolution, which gets its name from the Julian calendar date of 25 October. On this date in 1917, the Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace.
· 1917 – World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ends: British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
· 1918 – The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year.
· 1918 – Kurt Eisner overthrows the Wittelsbach dynasty in the Kingdom of Bavaria.
· 1919 – The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in twenty-three different U.S. cities.
· 1920 – Patriarch Tikhon issues a decree that leads to the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
· 1929 – In New York City, the Museum of Modern Art opens to the public.
· 1931 – The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed on the anniversary of the October Revolution.
· 1933 – Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City.
· 1940 – In Tacoma, Washington, the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge's completion.
· 1941 – World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.
· 1944 – A passenger train derails in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico from excessive speed when descending a hill. 16 people are killed and 50 are injured.
· 1944 – Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German World War I veteran, is hanged by his Japanese captors along with 34 of his ring.
· 1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America.
· 1949 – The first oil was taken in Oil Rocks (Neft Daşları), oldest offshore oil platform.
· 1956 – Suez Crisis: The United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt.
· 1957 – Cold War: The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
· 1963 – Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, eleven miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days.
· 1967 – Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city.
· 1967 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
· 1973 – The U.S. Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval.
· 1975 – In Bangladesh, a joint force of people and soldiers takes part in an uprising led by Col. Abu Taher that ousts and kills Brig. Khaled Mosharraf, freeing the then house-arrested army chief and future president Maj-Gen. Ziaur Rahman. The day is occasionally observed as the National Revolution and Solidarity Day.
· 1983 – 1983 United States Senate bombing: a bomb explodes inside the United States Capitol. No people are harmed, but an estimated $250,000 in damage is caused.
· 1987 – In Tunisia, president Habib Bourguiba is overthrown and replaced by Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
· 1987 – Singapore's first Mass Rapid Transit line was opened, starting with train services between Yio Chu Kang and Toa Payoh stations.
· 1989 – Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States.
· 1989 – David Dinkins becomes the first African American to be elected mayor of New York City.
· 1989 – East German Prime Minister Willi Stoph, along with his entire cabinet, is forced to resign after huge anti-government protests.
· 1990 – Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland.
· 1991 – Magic Johnson announces that he is infected with HIV and retires from the NBA.
· 1994 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.
· 1996 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
· 2000 – Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first former First Lady to win public office in the United States, although she was actually still the First Lady.
· 2000 – Controversial US presidential election that is later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.
· 2000 – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration discovers one of the country's largest LSD labs inside a converted military missile silo in Wamego, Kansas.
· 2001 – SABENA, the national airline of Belgium, goes bankrupt.
· 2002 – Iran bans advertising of United States products.
· 2004 – War in Iraq: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day "state of emergency" as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
· 2007 – Jokela school shooting in Tuusula, Finland, resulting in the death of nine people.
· 2012 – An earthquake off the Pacific coast of Guatemala kills at least 52 people.